Quantitative Research

Question 1

The Scientific Method

Answer 1

1. defining the research question
2. forming hypothesis
3. testing the hypothesis
4. drawing conclusions
5. reporting your results

Question 2

Defining the research question

Answer 2

finding a question that you want to answer

Question 3

forming a hypothesis

Answer 3

finding a tentative answer/explanation to your research question
making an educated guess about the explanation for your observations

Question 4

testing your hypothesis

Answer 4

the method to testing will depend on the type of answer that you want to get
you might use surveys
you might use an experiment

Question 5

drawing conclusions

Answer 5

once you know the results of your hypothesis testing, you’ll know if your hypothesis was supported or not

Question 6

reporting your results

Answer 6

researchers need to know how you found the answers to your question inn order to find out if your study was reliable
in order to further research the topic
to add more knowledge to the topic
and maybe to replicate the study in order to see if they would get the same results

Question 7

descriptive methods

Answer 7

naturalistic observation
laboratory observation
case studies
surveys

Question 8

naturalistic observation

Answer 8

the best way to understand the behaviour of a group of people may be to watch them in their normal environment

advantages:
allows researchers to get a realistic picture of how behaviour occurs because they are actually watching the behaviour

disadvantages:
observer bias
environment = too unique and not able to be replicated

Question 9

observer bias

Answer 9

expectations of what is going to happen causes them to manipulate what they see support their hypothesis

Question 10

laboratory observation

Answer 10

advantages:
sometimes observation is far more practical in a laboratory
more equipment
a great deal of control over the situation

disadvantage:
artificial setting may cause artificial behaviour

Question 11

case studies

Answer 11

one individual is studied in great detail
researchers try to learn everything they can about this individual

advantages:
tremendous amount of detail may be the only way to get certain information
good ways to study rare conditions

disadvantages:
same results cannot be applied to similar people
people are too complicated to be predictable
vulnerable to observer bias

Question 12

surveys

Answer 12

advantages:
ability to elicit private information
researchers can obtain a tremendous amount of data on a very large group of people

disadvantages:
people do not always give accurate answers
courtesy bias - people answer what they think is socially correct
people may misunderstand pr misinterpret questions

Question 13

correlation

Answer 13

the measurement of the relationship between 2 variables

correlation coefficient = strength of the relationship

Question 14

experimental studies

Answer 14

1. selection
2. variables
3. the groups
4. the importance of randomisation

Question 15

step 1: selection

Answer 15

researchers would decide on the type of people that they want to interview (children, women, students)
best selection = random selection

Question 16

step 2: the variables

Answer 16

researcher needs to decide what variable they want to manipulate inn order to measure the changes
the variable that will be manipulated will always be the independent variable
the dependent variable is the variable that’s change will be measured after the independent variable is manipulated

Question 17

step 3: the groups

Answer 17

controlling for confounding variables
best way to do this is to have a control group
the experimental group would be exposed to the independent variable whereas the control group won’t be

Question 18

step 4: the importance of randomisation

Answer 18

random assignment is the best way to ensure control over other interfering or extraneous variables
random assignment means that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each condition

Question 19

experimental hazards

Answer 19

placebo effect

experimenter effect

Question 20

placebo effect

Answer 20

the expectations and biases of the participants can influence their behaviour

Question 21

experimenter effect

Answer 21

the expectations of the experimenter can influence the behaviour of the participants

Question 22

single blind studies

Answer 22

participants would not know whether they have been exposed to the independent variable or the placebo and therefore have fewer expectations of an outcome

Question 23

double blind studies

Answer 23

neither the experimenter or the participants know whether the participants are getting a placebo or not and therefore there are no expectations for either side