Research Methods Part 2

Question 1

Give a strength in case studies

Answer 1

Researchers are open minded in case studies as there is no hypothesis. Means new behaviour insights could be revealed from new results
2: best way to study unusual behaviour

Question 2

Give a weakness to case studies

Answer 2

A special event or unique person must happen for case studies to take place (means its almost impossible to apply the new knowledge to anyone else
They have a low validity as they are subjective (a different researcher might have a different conclusion)

Question 3

What is this term: a group of people who represent the whole population in an experiment

Answer 3

Representative sample

Question 4

Why are samples made?

Answer 4

Testing the whole population would take too long so a sample can generalise it

Question 5

List the 5 main sampling techniques (bonus points for explanations)

Answer 5

Random sampling (randomly chosen sample) stratified sampling (creating the sample depending of the proportions the population has) systematic sampling (choosing every third person in a list) volunteer sampling (people volunteer themselves to be in the sample) opportunity sample (asking people on the spot to participate)

Question 6

What is the best sampling technique and why?

Answer 6

Stratified sampling because it represents the sample the best through maths instead of chance

Question 7

What is the BPS

Answer 7

The British Psychological Society are the main guidelines for any kind of research

Question 8

What are the 4 guidelines in the BPS

Answer 8

Respect
Competence (being properly qualified/ professional)
Responsibility
Integrity (being honest and accurate)

Question 9

How do people deal with informed consent?

Answer 9

People will be given a letter with all parts of the research on it which they must sign
When a study requires the participant to have a lack of info the researcher must give a strong reason why and be signed off to be allowed

Question 10

How do people work with deception/ protection from harm?

Answer 10

At the end of the study the participants will be told everything they didn’t know and asked if their data can be used from the study

Question 11

How do people deal with privacy and confidelity?

Answer 11

Participants will be told their data will be safe and they will always be referred to as participant 1 instead of their actual name