research methods

Question 1

what is a target population?

Answer 1

proportion of the population which we wish to study

Question 2

what is oppurtunity sampling?

Answer 2

it consists of taking the sample from people who are available at the time of the study and fit the target population

Question 3

example of oppurtunity sampling

Answer 3

going into the sixth form square to pick people who fit in the target population

Question 4

what is random sampling?

Answer 4

every member of the target population has an equal chance of being chosen

Question 5

example of random sampling

Answer 5

gathering a group of people who fit into the target population and putting their names in a random number generator to decide

Question 6

what is stratified sampling?

Answer 6

involves classifying the population into categories and then choosing a sample which consiss of participants from ach category with the same proportions

Question 7

what is volunteer sampling?

Answer 7

consists of participants becoming part of a study becuase they volunteer when asked or in response to an advert

Question 8

what is systematic sampling?

Answer 8

• every nth term member of the target population is selected
• a sampling frame is used, which is a list of people in the target population organised into e.g alphabetical order

Question 9

what is a positive of random sampling?

Answer 9

free from researcher bias, researcher has no influence over who is selected

Question 10

what are 3 disadvantages of random sampling?

Answer 10

• difficult and time consuming, a list of target population may be difficut to obtain
• may still end up with a sample that is unrepresentative
• participants ma refuse to take part

Question 11

what are 2 advantages of systematic sampling?

Answer 11

• avoids researcher bias
• usually fairly representative

Question 12

what are two negatives of systematic sampling?

Answer 12

• time consuming and impratical
• participants may not want to take part

Question 13

what are two positives of stratified sampling?

Answer 13

• avoids researcher bias (once target population has been split into strata, they are randomly selected)
• it produces a representative sample becuase it is designed to accuratly reflect the composition of the public
• complete representation is not possible due to differences

Question 14

what are two positives of oppurtunity sampling?

Answer 14

• it is convieniet
• less costly and saves time

Question 15

whats 1 disadvantage of oppurtunity sampling?

Answer 15

• researcher has control over selection (researcher bias)

Question 16

what is an advantage of volunteer sampling?

Answer 16

• collecting a volunteer sample is easy

Question 17

what is a disadvantages of volunteer sampling?

Answer 17

• volunteer bias

Question 18

what is informed consent?

Answer 18

articipants agree to take part and are aware of what is happening

Question 19

what are the 4 ways of dealing with informed consent?

Answer 19

• presumptive consent
• prior genral consent
• retrospective consent
• get advice from other psychologists

Question 20

what is presumptive consent?

Answer 20

rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people is asked if the study is acceptable. If they say yes consent is ‘presumed’

Question 21

what is prior general consent?

Answer 21

participants say yes to multiple studies - including one which will improve deception. By consenting, they are effectivly consenting to being decieved

Question 22

what is retrospective consent?

Answer 22

asked for consent during debreif. They mma have not been aware of their participation or could have been decieved

Question 23

what does deception include?

Answer 23

• not obtainig informed consent
• witholding information
• not tellibg paticipants what is actually appening within the study
• not telling participants expected results and info about the confederate

Question 24

what is a debrief?

Answer 24

important if deception takes place or if participants have not given informed consent

Question 25

what does debriefing include?

Answer 25

- explaining the study - explain participants results - ask participants if they want to sort their results - check participants have no questions

Question 26

what is an aim?

Answer 26

a general expression of what the researcher intends to investigate

Question 27

what is a hypothesis?

Answer 27

a precise and operationalised statement about the assumed relationship between variables

Question 28

what is a directional hypothesis?

Answer 28

states the direction of the predicted difference between two conditions or two groups of participants

Question 29

what is a non-directional hypothesis?

Answer 29

predicts simpl that there is a difference between two conditions or two groups of participants without stating the direction of difference

Question 30

what is an independant variable?

Answer 30

the variable that is changed (manipulated)

Question 31

what is a dependant variable?

Answer 31

a measurable outcome of an action of the inependant variable in an experiment (thing you measure)

Question 32

what does it mean to operationalise?

Answer 32

ensuring that variables are in a form that can be easily measured

Question 33

what is an experimental method?

Answer 33

a researcher causes the independant variable to vary and records the effect of the IV on the dependant variable. The DV must be operationalised

Question 34

what is an extraneous variable?

Answer 34

anything that is not the independant variable that has the potential to affect the results

Question 35

what are demand characteristics?

Answer 35

refers to any cue from the researcher or research situation that may reveal the auim of the study

Question 36

what is the investigator effect?

Answer 36

any effect of the investigators behaviour on the outcome of the research ( the DV)

Question 37

what is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 37

takes place in the participants natural setting e.g observing a sports team at a training session

Question 38

what are the strengths of naturalistic observation?

Answer 38

- takes place in the natural environment so there is high external validity - they gather in depth data and detail (qualitative and quantitative)

Question 39

what are the weaknesses of naturalistic observation?

Answer 39

- there might be subjectivity because the observer has to choose what to observe and record - there are many uncontrolled extraneous variables

Question 40

what is a controlled observation?

Answer 40

watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment

Question 41

what are the strengths of controlled observation?

Answer 41

- more control over extraneous variables - more accurate observations - easier to replicate - usually avoid ethical issues of consent

Question 42

what are the weaknesses of controlled observation?

Answer 42

- low ecological validity - can show demand characteristics - may affect participants behaviour

Question 43

what is non-participant observations?

Answer 43

- the researcher remains outside the group who he/she is watching and recording

Question 44

what are the strengths of non-participant observation?

Answer 44

- not as bias as they are outside of the group - more ethical if carried out overtly - no ethical issues if people are aware

Question 45

what are the weaknesses of non-p