Intro Flashcards
(44 cards)
Population
the whole group of people of interest to the researchers
Sample
The participants being studied in the research pulled from the population
what makes a good sample
a sample that is representative of the populations which makes the results able to generalise. For the sample size to be big enough it must be 10% of pop
How big must the sample size be
10% of the pop
Characteristics of an experimental design
Random allocation, manipulation of IV, control of extraneous variables.
What does an experimental design give you
Cause and effect
Where can experiments be conducted
in a field or lab setting. Lab gives more control, field is more realistic
Three types of extraneous variables
Participant, situation and experimenter
Participant variable
pre-existing conditions (age, gender, sex)
Situation variable
Temp, wind, time of day, noise, brightness
Experimenter variable
clarity of instructions, behaviour towards participants, biases.
What is an extraneous variable
Any variable other than the IV and DV that may influence the results of the experiment
What is the difference between the experimental group and the control group
The only difference between the two should be the treatment
When is a quantitative observational design used
when it is not possible or ethical to use an experimental design
What does a quantitative observational do differently to an experimental
It does not show cause and effect as it does not manipulate the IV.
What does a quantitative observational show instead of a cause and effect
A correlation
Is there random allocation in quantitative observational?
No, there are pre-existing groups (married people, 17 years olds, people with blue eyes, etc).
Why doesn’t quantitative observational show cause and effect
Because we don’t manipulate the IV, therefore can not say that the change in DV was due to that and not other factors.
Qualitative design
Self-reporting data that does not seek to prove a specific hypothesis and could not prove it even if it did.
Focus groups
6-12 people
Group discussion
Lead by a researcher and discusses a topic of interest
A benefit of this is the snowballing effect
Delphi technique
A questionnaire is sent out to experts and cross-referenced to come to a consensus on the issue. Criticised for forcing an agreement.
How to we analyse qualitative data
Through content analysis
How do we analyse content
we short out answers into categories from which we can find the frequency of that answer
Why do we analyse content
to convert qualitative data into quantitative data.