Research methods pt 2 SUMMARISED

Question 1

Pilot Study

Answer 1

• Small scale
• Prior to full study
• Has a smaller amount of participants

Question 2

Aims of the pilot study

Answer 2

• Check the research works
• No extraneous variables
• Rectify problems before the full scale study
  Instructions and questions clarified
  Materials refined and improved
  Timings can be changed

Question 3

population

Answer 3

• Large group
• Share specific characteristics that the researcher wants to study
• Not the general population
• ‘target pop’

Question 4

Sample

Answer 4

Smaller group of people taken from a larger population the researcher is interested in studying

Question 5

Bias

Answer 5

• Under or Over representing groups in a sample

- Too many younger people, too few males

Question 6

Generalisation

Answer 6

To what extend the findings from the sample can be applied to the population.

Question 7

Opportunity sampling

Answer 7

• Anyone who is available and willing to take part
• Approaching people in the street
• Most common technique

Question 8

Advantage of opportunity sampling: Quick, convenient and economical

Answer 8

E: Doesn’t require the level of planning + prep as other methods
E: Stress levels while shopping can be achieved by just approaching people in the shopping centre
L: less delays and less money spent

Question 9

Disadvantage of opportunity sampling: Can be biased and unrepresentative

Answer 9

E: Those that are available don’t represent the population
E: Middle of the day it will only include those that don’t work or reduced hours. Can avoid people they don’t like the look of (researcher bias)
L: Biased and cannot be generalised to everyone, lowering ecological validity.

Question 10

Volunteer sampling

Answer 10

• Put themselves forward

- advert in newspapers or uni notice board

Question 11

Advantage of volunteer sampling: Quick, convenient and economical

Answer 11

E: Doesn’t require level of planning + prep
E: Advertise and participant put themselves forward
L: Less delays and less money spent

Question 12

Disadvantage of volunteer sampling: can be biased and unrepresentative

Answer 12

E: Tend to be a certain type of person
E: More confident and motivated than most
L: biased (volunteer bias) findings cannot be generalised to everyone. lowers ecological validity

Question 13

Systematic sampling

Answer 13

• every nth member of the target population
• List of names
• Organised (alphabetical)
• Choosing every 5th name

Question 14

Advantage of systematic sampling: Avoids researcher bias

Answer 14

E: No influence over the sample
E: every 5th name stops them choosing who they want to
L: less biased, more objective and less open to abuse

Question 15

Disadvantage of volunteer sampling: not guaranteed to be representative

Answer 15

E: by chance the same type of person could be selected
E: every nth name could be male even with the same amount of females in the list. Not everyone has an equal chance (e.g names at the start)
L: findings cannot be generalised to everyone. lowers ecological validity

Question 16

Random sampling

Answer 16

• Everyone has an = chance
• List of everyone in target pop
• assigned a number and are generated through a lottery method.

Question 17

Advantage of random sampling: avoids researcher bias

Answer 17

E: No influence over participants
E: picking names out of a hat stops researcher from choosing people they think will help support their hypothesis
L: +ve less biased, more objective and less open to abuse or researcher influence

Question 18

Disadvantage of random sampling: Not guaranteed to be representative

Answer 18

E: by chance the same type of person could be selected
E: every name drawn out could be male
L: -ve cannot be generalised to everyone in the population. lowering ecological validity

Question 19

Stratified sampling

Answer 19

• researcher identifies sub groups within the population.
• works out the proportions needed for the sample to eb representative.
• 15% of population are 18-25 so 15% of the sample are 18-25 year olds

Question 20

Advantage of stratified sampling: highly representative

Answer 20

E: Avoids researcher bias and ensures all sub groups are proportionally represented
E: picking names from a hat avoids researcher bias but focusing on sub groups ensures it isn’t left entirely to chance
L: +ve more likely to be representative

Question 21

Disadvantage of stratified sampling: Time consuming and inconvenient

Answer 21

E: Great deal of planning needed (identify groups and frequencies
E: not necessary with opportunity and volunteer
L: -ve more delays in research and more money spent

Question 22

Aim

Answer 22

General statement about what the researcher intends to study.
- Purpose of study

Question 23

Hypothesis

Answer 23

Precise and testable statement that states the relationship between the variables

Question 24

Directional hypothesis

Answer 24

States there will be an effect and states which way it will go.

Question 25

Non-directional hypothesis

Answer 25

There will be an effect but not which way it will go.

Question 26

How do psychologists justify a directional hypothesis?

Answer 26

Past research

Question 27

Operationalisation

Answer 27

Clearly defining variables to make them testable and measurable.

Question 28

Experimental design

Answer 28

How participants are allocated to the different conditions

Question 29

what are the 3 experimental designs?

Answer 29

Repeated measures
Independent groups
matched pairs

Question 30

Repeated measures

Answer 30

• All participants take part in all conditions

- One group completes condition A and the same group completes condition B

Question 31

Example of repeated measures

Answer 31

Effect of noise on memory.
Group 1 tested in noisy conditions (A) in the morning
Group 1 tested in silent conditions (B) in the afternoon

Question 32

Advantage of repeated measures: no participant variables

Answer 32

E: no individual differences between participants in each condition
E: participants in A will not differ from those in B as they are the same participants
L: +ve increases interna validity

Question 33

Advantage of repeated measures: requires half the number of participants as the other designs

Answer 33

E: Less participants are needed than independent and matched pairs to achieve the same amount of data
E: 10 participants in each condition, you only need 10 compared to 20
L: +ve not as many participants, cheaper and less time consuming

Question 34

Disadvantage of repeated measures design: suffers from order effects

Answer 34

E: the order completing conditions may affect performance.
E: may do better in the second test because they have already had practice (practice effect) OR worse as they are bored (boredom effect)
L: -ve lowers internal validity

Question 35

Disadvantage of repeated measures design: high demand characteristics

Answer 35

E: higher chance of guessing the aim and alter behaviour
E: memory task in silent then in noisy conditions, participants can work out what you want them to achieve and change their behaviour
L: Reduces internal validity

Question 36

Independent groups design

Answer 36

• separate groups
• Effects of noise on memory
  group 1 completes condition a (noisy)
  group 2 completes condition b (silent)

Question 37

Advantages of using independent groups design: does not suffer from order effects

Answer 37

E: participants only complete one condition so it doesn’t effect their performance
E: Participants will not do better (practice effect) or worse (boredom effect) in the second task because they only complete one condition.
L: +ve increases the internal validity

Question 38

Advantages of using independent groups: Low demand characteristics

Answer 38

E: Less chance to guess the aim
E: participants only take part in one condition, not aware of the research expectations so less likely to change to fit in with the expectations
L: +ve increases the internal validity

Question 39

Disadvantage of using independent groups: low degree of control over participants

Answer 39

E: May be individual variables between the participants that have not been controlled and could unfairly influence the results.
E: participants in condition A may be more intelligent than those in condition B
L: -ve decreases internal validity and may confound the results

Question 40

Disadvantage of using independent groups design: requires twice as many participants as repeated measures design

Answer 40

E: more participants are needed to achieve the required amount of participants
E: 10 participants in each condition, 20 participants are needed in total. compared to only 10 being needed in repeated measures
L: -ve recruit double participants which is more time consuming

Question 41

Matched pairs design

Answer 41

Different participants are used in each condition. However, the participants are matched into pairs based on important characteristics.

Question 42

Advantages of using matched pairs design: Does not suffer from order effects

Answer 42

E: the order that participants complete the conditions does not affect performance because they only complete one condition
E: will not do better (practice effect) or worse (boredom effect) in the second task as they only complete one.
L: +ve increases internal validity

Question 43

Advantages of using matched pairs design: Low demand characteristics

Answer 43

E: less chance of guessing the aim of the study
E: participants only complete one condition, so not aware of the researchers expectations so less likely to change their behaviour
L: +ve raises the studies internal validity

Question 44

Disadvantage of using the matched pairs design: less control of participant variables than repeated measures design.

Answer 44

E: There is still a chance of individual differences between participants in each condition than a repeated measures that could unfairly influence the results
E: Participants in condition A may be, on average, more intelligent than those in condition B
L: decreases internal validity and may confound the results

Question 45

Disadvantages of using matched pairs design: Requires twice as many participants as a repeated measures design.

Answer 45

E: more participants are needed with this design to achieve the same amount of data.
E: to achieve 10 participants in each condition, 20 participants are needed in total compared to only 10 being needed for a repeated measures design.
L: -ve have to recruit more participants which is more expensive and more time-consuming.

Question 46

Random allocation

Answer 46

• control researcher bias
• assign everyone a number and put them in a hat
• every other number goes into condition A.

Question 47

Counterbalancing

Answer 47

• Half participants will start in condition a then go into condition B
• the other half will start in condition B and then go into A
• Balancing out the order effects, so they are distributed evenly across both condition.