Research Methods Keywords

Question 1

Longitudinal Research

Answer 1

research that takes place over a long period of time

Question 2

Independent Variable

Answer 2

Some event that is directly manipulated by an experimenter in order to test its effect on another variable

Question 3

Confederate

Answer 3

An individual in a study who is not a real participant and has been instructed how to behave by the investigator

Question 4

Extraneous Variable

Answer 4

Nuisance variables that may affect the dependent variable and make it more difficult to detect a significant effect

Question 5

Field Experiment

Answer 5

a controlled experiment conducted outside a laboratory i.e. in real world situations

Question 6

Ecological Validity

Answer 6

the degree to which research findings can be generalised to other settings

Question 7

Qualitative

Answer 7

measured in words

Question 8

Experimenter Bias

Answer 8

when an experimenter interprets the results in a way that supports what they are trying to find, even if it doesn’t

Question 9

Alternative Hypothesis

Answer 9

a hypothesis that states there is a statistically significant relationship between two variables

Question 10

Operationalising Variables

Answer 10

Ensuring that variables are in a form that can be easily tested eg. educational attainment as ‘GCSE grade in maths’

Question 11

Confounding Variable

Answer 11

A variable that varies systematically with the IV and changes the dependent variable

Question 12

Single blind study / double blind study

Answer 12

single-blind: the participants don’t know the aim of the study

double-blind: both the experimenter and participants don’t know the aim of the study

Question 13

Quasi Experiment

Answer 13

an experiment in which the independent variable is not manipulated by the experimenter; it is a condition that already exists e.g. gender

Question 14

Nomothetic

Answer 14

about establishing laws and generalisations

Question 15

Quantitative

Answer 15

measured in numbers

Question 16

2-tailed hypothesis

Answer 16

predicts an open outcome; the findings may go in either direction

Question 17

Social desirability bias

Answer 17

when participants aim to present themselves in a better light by acting differently

Question 18

Dependent Variable

Answer 18

the variable that is measured and affected by the IV

Question 19

1-tailed hypothesis

Answer 19

Predicts the direction in which the findings will go

Question 20

Laboratory experiment

Answer 20

an experiment carried out in a controlled setting, involving the manipulation and measurement of variables

Question 21

Null hypothesis

Answer 21

a hypothesis that says there is no statistical significance between two variables, but there is a relationship

Question 22

Internal / external validity

Answer 22

Internal: the degree to which the results were due to experimental manipulation and not extraneous/confounding variables

External: the degree to which research findings can be generalised

Question 23

Idiographic

Answer 23

Studying what makes each of us unique; focuses on the individual

Question 24

Demand characteristics

Answer 24

a cue that makes participants unconsciously aware of the aims of a study or helps them to work out what the researcher aims to find

Question 25

Experimenter effects

Answer 25

anything that an experimenter does that has an effect on a participant’s performance in the study other than what was intended