Research methods

Question 1

what are the positives of a lab experiment?

Answer 1

• standardised procedure and therefore has high replicability
• a cause and effect relationship can often be found
• highly controlled

Question 2

what are the weaknesses of a lab experiment?

Answer 2

• artificial and therefore lack ecological validity
• findings cannot be generalised to real life
• demand characteristics or experimenter effects may effect results.

Question 3

what is a field experiment?

Answer 3

-experiments that are done in everyday environments of the pps

Question 4

what are strengths of field experiments?

Answer 4

• high ecological validity

- less likelihood of demand characteristics

Question 5

what are weaknesses of field experiments?

Answer 5

• there is less control of extraneous variables

- harder to replicate

Question 6

what is a natural experiment?

Answer 6

-conducted in real life situations

Question 7

what are the strengths of natural experiments?

Answer 7

• high ecological validity

- less likelihood of demand characteristics

Question 8

what are the weaknesses of natural experiments?

Answer 8

• more expensive and time consuming

- no control over extraneous variables

Question 9

what is a case study?

Answer 9

in depth analysis of a single person, group, event or community

Question 10

what are the strengths of case studies?

Answer 10

• provides rich qualitative data
• provides insight for further research
• permitting investigation into potentially impractical or unethical situations

Question 11

what are the limitations of case studies?

Answer 11

• time consuming
• difficult to replicate
• potential researcher bias
• cannot generalise the results

Question 12

what is a correlation?

Answer 12

a measure to what extent two variables are related

Question 13

what are the strengths of correlational studies?

Answer 13

• allow the researcher to investigate naturally occurring variables
• clear relationship can be discovered

Question 14

what are the limitations of correlational studies?

Answer 14

• cannot find cause and effect relationship

- we cannot take this information any further

Question 15

what is an interview?

Answer 15

asking specific questions to collect data

Question 16

what are the strengths of structured interviewing?

Answer 16

• easy to replicate

- fairly quick to carry out and therefore a lot of data can be collected

Question 17

what are the weaknesses of structured interviews?

Answer 17

• structured interviews are not flexible

- lack detail

Question 18

what are the sampling methods?

Answer 18

• random sampling
• stratified sampling
• opportunity sampling
• systematic sampling

Question 19

what is random sampling?

Answer 19

everyone in the target population has an equal chance of being selected

Question 20

what is an advantage of random sampling?

Answer 20

eliminates sampling bias

Question 21

what is a disadvantage of random sampling?

Answer 21

difficult to achieve.

Question 22

what is stratified sampling?

Answer 22

take a large group of people and ‘funnel’ them to get a representative of the whole population

Question 23

what is an advantage of stratified sampling?

Answer 23

highly representative and therefore can be generalised

Question 24

what is a disadvantage of stratified sampling?

Answer 24

very time consuming and difficult to carry out

Question 25

what is opportunity sampling?

Answer 25

using people from the target population that are available and willing to take part

Question 26

what is an advantage of opportunity sampling?

Answer 26

quick and easy

Question 27

what is a disadvantage of opportunity sampling?

Answer 27

may not be representative

Question 28

what is the alternative hypothesis?

Answer 28

alternative states that there is a relationship between the two variables being studies (one variable has an effect on the other)

Question 29

what is the null hypothesis?

Answer 29

- states there is no relationship | - results are sue to chance

Question 30

what is a non directional hypothesis?

Answer 30

-two tailed non directional hypothesis predicts that the independent variable will have an effect on the dependent

Question 31

what is a directional hypothesis?

Answer 31

a one tailed directional hypothesis predicts the nature of the effect of the IV on the DV

Question 32

what are the experimental designs?

Answer 32

- independent measures - repeated measures - matched pairs

Question 33

what is independent measures?

Answer 33

different pps are used in each condition for IV

Question 34

what is repeated measures?

Answer 34

same pps take part in each condition of the independent variable

Question 35

what is matched pairs?

Answer 35

each condition uses different pps but are matched for their important characteristics e.g. IQ