chapter 1 - research methods Flashcards
independent variable
deliberately manipulated or varied in some way by the experimented
dependent variable
the property that is measured in the research, expected to be changed by the IV
operational definitions
when the variable is stated inn terms that show how it is measured
eg. age - operationalised as age in total months
hypothesis
a clear statement predicting how changes in the IV will affect the value of the DV
extraneous variable
a variable other than the IV that could cause changes to the DV
confounding variable
a variable other than the IV that has a systematic affect on the value on the DV
population
the group we wish to draw conclusions from
sample
participants in the experiment chosen from population to represent population
random sampling
every member of a population has equal chance of being selected
eg. tattslotto draw
stratified sampling
chosing a sample ensuring that a confounding variable is distributed evenly through each participant
random allocation
all participants have equal chance of being in E group or C group
test-retest reliability
wether or not the same result will occur if the same test was given to the same person again
repeated measures design
each participant is part of both the E group and C group
matched participants design
enables researches to identify and eliminate confound variables from experiment.
participants are put into groups according to rank (score)
independent groups design
allocates participants to the E group or C group at random
