Flashcards
Research methods
Cards in this deck (30)
- 1What is the independent variable?one variable that is made to be changed by the experimenter.
- 2What is the dependent variable?The variable that is measured or observed due to the effects of the independent variable.
- 3what is a directional hypothesis?states the kind of difference between two conditions or two groups of participants. E.G. higher or lower or better or worse.
- 4What is a non-directional hypothesis?Simply states that there is a difference between two conditions or two groups of participants.
- 5What is a confederate?A confederate is an individual that represents the IV, or sometimes just aids the experiment.
- 6What are the main ethical points?Informed consent
Debriefing
No harm to participants
Confidentiality
Deception
Right to withdraw - 7What is a pilot study?A pilot study is a small-scale trial run of research design, before doing the real thing. It is done in order to identify whether certain things work or not, and allow possible changes. E.G. Cameras working and angle in an observation.
- 8What are the experimental designs?Repeated measures
Independent groups
Matched pairs - 9What is repeated measures?The same participants take part in each condition of the independent variable. This means that each condition of the experiment includes the same group of participants.
- 10What is independent measures?One participants takes part in one condition. They only complete one condition.
- 11What is matched pairs?Each condition uses different but similar participants. An effort is made to match the participants in each condition in terms of any important characteristic which might affect performance E.G age, gender,IQ
- 12What are the weaknesses of repeated designs?practice effect- the participant may do better in condition one because they have had practice.
conforming to the experimenter- the participants may find out the aim of the study so do better.
To combat order effects the researcher counter balances the order of the conditions for the participants. Alternating the order in which participants perform in different conditions of an experiment. - 13What are the weaknesses of independent groups design?There is not control over participants variables (e.g. ability)
To prevent this you could randomn allocate participants to conditions which theoretically distributes participants variables equally.
You need twice as many participants therefore be prepared to spend lots of time and money. - 14What are the weaknesses of matched pairs?Matched pairs is very time consuming to match participants, to prevent this you could restrict matching variables to make it easier.
Cannot control participants variables because you can only match people on known variables. Therefore conduct a pilot study to consider key variables. - 15What are the benefits of repeated measures?Fewer people are needed as they take part in all conditions (i.e. saves time).
As the same participants are used in each condition, participant variables (i.e., individual differences) are reduced. - 16What are the benefits of independent design?Avoids order effects (such as practice or fatigue) as people participate in one condition only. If a person is involved in several conditions they may become bored, tired and fed up by the time they come to the second condition, or becoming wise to the requirements of the experiment.
- 17What are the benefits of matched pairs design?Reduces participant variables because the researcher has tried to pair up the participants so that each condition has people with similar abilities and
characteristics. Avoids order effects, and so counterbalancing is not necessary. - 18What are the methods for selecting participants?Opportunitiy sampling
volunteer sampling
Random sampling
Systematic sample, - 19What is opportunity sampling?Selecting people who are the most easily avaliable at the time of the study. E.G. asking people who walk past you in the street.
- 20What is volunteer sampling?produced by asking for volunteers, and the volunteers select themselves. E.G. advertise in the newspaper.
- 21What is Random sampling?Every member of the population has an equal chance of getting selected. E.G. placing all the names of participants in a hat and drawing out participants.
- 22What is systematic sampling?Selecting every nth person. E.G. every 5th person or 10th person.
- 23What is an aim?A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate, the purpose of the study.
- 24What is a hypothesis?A clear and precise testable statement that states the relationship between the variables to be tested.
- 25What is an extraneous variable?Any variable, other than the independent variable that may have an effect on the dependent variable if it is not controlled.
- 26What is a confounding variable?Any variable, other than the IV, that may have affected the DV so we cannot be sure of the true source of the changes to the DV. E.G. personality.
- 27What is the definition demand characteristics?Any cue from the researcher or from the research situation that may be interpreted by participants as revealing the purpose of the investigation. This may lead to a participant changing their behavior within the research situation.
- 28What is the definition of investigator effects?Any effect of the investigator's behavior (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome. This may include everything from the design of the study to the selection of, and interaction with, participants during the research process.
- 29What is counterbalancing?An attempt to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design; half of the participants experience the conditions in one order, and other half in the opposite order.
- 30What are the types of experiments?Laboratory experiments
Field experiments
Natural experiments
Quasi-experiments
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