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AQA RESEARCH METHODS FINALS|
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Self-report techniques - Answer -Any method in which a person is asked to state or
explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviors and experiences related to a given topic.
Questionnaire - Answer -A set of written questions (sometimes called items) used to
access a persons' thoughts/experiences
Strengths of questionnaires - Answer -+ Cost effective
- Can gather large amounts of data quickly
- Can be completed without the researcher being present
Weaknesses of questionnaires - Answer -- Can produce response bias
- P.ps may misunderstand the question or read it incorrectly
- Demand Characteristics / Social Desirability may occur
Open Questions - Answer -Questions with no fixed Answer /response and
respondents can Answer in any way they wish.
Advantages & Disadvantages of an Open Question - Answer -+ Get more
information
- Produces qualitative data - depth and detail
- People can miss them out as they can't be bothered to Answer them
Closed Question - Answer -Questions with a fixed Answer / the choice of
response is determined by the question setter.
Advantages & Disadvantages of a Closed Question - Answer -+ People have to
same perception of the Q&A
+ Quick and easy to Answer
- Quantitative data is easier to analyse
- Not detailed or in depth Answer s
- Don't find out the meaning behind the Answer
Interview - Answer -A live encounter (face to face or on the phone) where one
person asks a set of questions to assess an interviewees thoughts/experiences. They can be structured, semi structured or unstructured.
Structured Interview - Answer -Made up of pre-determined questions and are asked
in a fixed order. Basically like a questionnaire but conducted face to face.
Unstructured Interview - Answer -Works like a conversation. There are no set
questions. There is a general aim that a certain topic will be discussed and interaction tends to be free flowing.
Semi-structured Interview - Answer -There is a list of questions that have been
worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow up questions when they feel it is appropriate.
Strengths & Weaknesses of Structured Interview - Answer -+ Straight forward to
replicate
- Reduces differences between interviews
- Easier to analyse
+ Get Answer s you're looking for
- Get less information as P.ps can't deviate from the point
- Don't find out people's worldwide views
Strengths & Weaknesses of Unstructured Interview - Answer -+ Can get more
detailed Answer s as people can elaborate
- More flexible as you can gain insight
- Not easy to replicate
- Not easy to analyse as you get irrelevant information
- Experimenter effects can occur
Leading Questions - Answer -Encourages P.ps to give a particular Answer e.g
don't you think...?
Ambiguity - Answer -Questions which can be interpreted in various ways. They can
mean different things to different people.
Loaded Questions - Answer -They are questions which contain emotive language
which is likely to produce an emotional reaction in the respondent.
Informed Consent - Answer -Participants should be told what they are letting
themselves in for. Only then they are in a position to give informed consent. If under 16 consent must be obtained from their parents.
Deception - Answer -Information is withheld from participants: they misled about the
purpose of the study and what will happen during it.
Right to Withdraw - Answer -Participants should be told this at the start of the
research. No attempt should be made to encourage them to remain.
Protection from harm - Answer -Participants should not be put through anything
they wouldn't normally be expected to.
Competence - Answer -Psychologists must not attempt to carry out research unless
they are qualified to do so.
Debrief - Answer -Researchers should discuss the aims of the research with the
p.ps making sure they know how they've contributed to meeting the aims
Variable - Answer -Any "thing" that can vary or change with in an investigation.
They are generally in experiments to determine if changes in one result in changes to another.
Independent Variable - IV - Answer -An aspect of the experimental situation that is
manipulated by the researcher or changes naturally so the effect on the DV can be measured.
Dependent Variable - DV - Answer -The variable that is measured by the
researcher. Any result/change on the DV should be caused by the change in the IV.
Operationalising Variables - Answer -The process of devising a way of measuring a
variable. It is a clear statement of what the variable is.
Lab Experiment - Answer -An experiment that takes place in a controlled
environment where the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV while maintaining strict control of extraneous variables.
The Criteria for a Lab Experiment - Answer -1) The IV is manipulated by the
researcher to produce a change in the DV
- All other variables that might influence the results i.e. extraneous variables are held constant or eliminated
- Participants are randomly allocated to a condition.
Advantages of a Lab Experiment - Answer -+ Can establish cause and effect
- Few if any extraneous variables +Easy to replicate +High internal validity
Disadvantages of a Lab Experiment - Answer -- Lacks ecological / external validity
- Demand characteristics can occur
- Behaviour in a lab is often different
- Experimenter effects can occur
Field Experiment - Answer -An experiment that takes place in a natural setting
where the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV.
Advantages of a Field Experiment - Answer -+ More ecologically/externally valid
- Fewer demand characteristics +Replication can occur to some extent
- Fewer experimenter effects
Disadvantages of a Field Experiment - Answer -- Chance of extraneous variables
- More time consuming
- Ethical issues (informed consent)
- Need a skilled researcher
Natural Experiment - Answer -An experiment where the change in the IV is not
caused by the researcher as it would have happened if the researcher wasn't there. The researcher records the effect on the DV.
Advantages of a Natural Experiment - Answer -+ No demand characteristics
- No researcher effects
- Fewer ethical issues
- Allows P.ps who wouldn't normally be tested to take part.
Disadvantages of a Natural Experiment - Answer -- Lack of control (extraneous
variables)
- Short term behaviour may be displayed
- No random allocation can create confounding variables
- Harder to replicate
Independent Groups Design - Answer -Each participant either does the control
condition OR the experimental condition.
Advantages of Independent Groups Design - Answer -+ Reduces demand
characteristics
- Quick to administer
- Could be used for all tests
- Prevents order effects
Disadvantages of Independent Groups Design - Answer -- Individual differences
can occur
- Lots of P.ps are required
- More time consuming
Repeated Measures Design - Answer -Each participant does the control condition
AND the experimental condition.
Advantages of Repeated Measures Design - Answer -+ Quick to administer
- No individual differences +Fewer P.ps are required
Disadvantages of Repeated Measures Design - Answer -- High possibility of
demand characteristics
- Order effects can occur
- Can't be used for all tests
Matched Pairs Design - Answer -Participants are matched on key characteristics.
One participant does control condition and the other does the experimental condition.
Advantages of Matched Pairs Design - Answer -+ Less possibility of demand
characteristics
- Prevents order effects
- No individual differences
Disadvantages of Matched Pairs Design - Answer -- Time consuming
- Lots of P.ps are required
- Hard to match P.ps on all variables
- Can't be used for all tests
- Not very economical
Counterbalancing - Answer -An attempt to control order effects in a repeated
measures design e.g. ABBA where when group does the experimental condition first where as the other does the control condition.
Order Effects - Answer -A confounding variable arising from the order which
participants take place in the different conditions e.g. boredom.
Naturalistic Observation - Answer -Take place in a setting where behaviour would
usually occur.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Naturalistic Observations - Answer -+ High
external validity
- Easy to apply in everyday life
- Hard to replicate
- Extraneous variables can occur
Controlled Observation - Answer -Some control over variables takes place to
observe how people may interact/behave. They take place inside and outside of a lab.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Controlled Observations - Answer -+ Easy to
replicate
- Less Extraneous Variables
- Findings can't be applied to all real life settings
Participant Observation - Answer -The researcher is involved in/with the
experiment. The researcher joins the group either overtly of covertly.
Advantages & Disadvantages Participant Observations - Answer -+ Experience the
same situation which gives insight which increases validity
- Can get too attached to people and lose objectivity
Non-Participant Observation - Answer -The researcher is not involved in what is
going on. The researcher is external to what is going on/the people being observed.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Non-Participant Observations - Answer -+ Allows
researcher to maintain an objective psychological distance from P.ps
- Researcher has less insight
Bias - sampling - Answer -When certain groups are over or under represented with
in the sample selected. It limits the extent to which generalisations can be made to the target population.
Generalisation - Answer -The extent to which findings and conclusions from a
particular experiment can be broadly applied to the population. This is possible if the sample of people is representative of the population.
Inter-Rater Reliability - Answer -Correlating the judgements of two or more ratings
of behaviour when using a rating scale.
Peer Review - Answer -The assessment of work by others who are specialists in the
same field to ensure that any research set for publication is high quality.
How is psychological research published? - Answer -Initially in journals which will
then be translated into textbook information or be discussed at conferences,.
Aims of Peer Review - Answer -1) To allocate funding properly and appropriately. It
stops researchers spending lots of money on investigations which may encounter problems. Also it helps to develop the areas of psychology that need to be developed,
- To validate the quality of research. It establishes more accurate to inter-observer reliability. Additionally it makes sure that you are measuring what you set out to measure.
- To suggest amendments and improvements. It allows researchers to get more accurate results as it eliminates potential problems.
Evaluation of Peer Review - Answer -+ Helps to establish validity and accuracy of
research because more than one person will carry out the experiment therefore allowing the data to be correlated.
- The anonymity could lead to them being overcritical. Changing data which is right and doesn't need to be changed could give inaccurate results and may not be objective as they should be
- Publication Bias can occur where only positive results or attention grabbing results are published. By publishing data which doesn't support a hypothesis, it allows it to have more understanding and knowledge.
Case Study - Answer -A research method that involves a detailed study of a signal
individual, institution or event.
Sampling Techniques - Answer -The method used to select people from the
population.
Opportunity Sampling - Answer -A sample of participants produced by selecting
people who are most easily available at the time of the study.
Random Sampling - Answer -A sample of participants produced by using a random
technique so that every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
Volunteer Sampling - Answer -A sample of participants produced by a sampling
technique that relies solely on inviting people to take part.
Systematic Sampling - Answer -A method of obtaining a representative sample e.g.
by selecting every 5th or 7th person.
Stratified Sampling - Answer -A sampling technique where groups of participants
are selected in proportion to their frequency in the population in order to obtain a representative sample.
Correlation - Answer -A mathematical technique, where a researcher investigates
an association between two variables call co-variables.
Positive Correlation - Answer -As one variable increase the other variable
increases.
Negative Correlation - Answer -As one variable increase the other variable
decreases.
Co-Variables - Answer -The variables investigated within a correlation e.g. height a
weight.
Zero Correlation - Answer -When there is no relationship between the co-variables.
Measures of Central Tendency - Answer -The general term for any measure of the
average value in the set of data.
Why do we add 1 to the range? - Answer -It allows for the fact that raw scores are
often rounded up or down when they are recorded in research
Evaluation of The Range - Answer -+ Easy to calculate
- Only uses the 2 most extreme scores which may be unrepresentative of all the data
- May not give a fair representation of the general spread of scores
Standard Deviation - Answer -How far scores deviate from the mean
Evaluation of Standard Deviation - Answer -+ More precise than the range as it
includes all values with in the final calculation
- Can be easily distorted by an extreme value e.g. the mean
Types of graphs - Answer -Bar Chart
Scattergram Histogram Line graph
What to include on a graph - Answer -Title showing a relationship between the co-
variables Labelled X and Y axis Accurately plotted data
Bar Charts - Answer -Used when data is divided into categories (discrete data)
The bars are separated to show different categories
Scattergrams - Answer -They show associations between co-variables not
differences Either of the variables can be placed on the X/Y axis
Histograms - Answer -Used when data is continuous
The bars touch each other
Line Graphs - Answer -Represent continuous data
Each point is connected by a line Usually the IV is plotted on the X axis and the DV is plotted on the Y axis
Normal Distribution - Answer -There is a symmetrical spread of frequency data that
forms a bell shaped pattern
Characteristics of a normal distribution - Answer -Its bell shaped
Its symmetrical The mean, median, mode are all in the centre The 2 tails never touch the horizontal axis Positively Skewed Distribution
(Right Skewed) - Answer -The long tail is on the positive side of the peak and most
of the distribution is centred to the left. Negatively Skewed Distribution
(Left Skewed) - Answer -The long tail is on the negative side of the peak and most
of the distribution is concentrated on the right.
Skewed Distributions - Answer -When the spread of data is not symmetrical
meaning the data clusters to one end. The mode is located at the highest point, then the median and finally the mean.
Statistical Testing - Answer -We need to know if the results are significant i.e. are
the results strong enough to reject the null hypothesis and accept the research hypothesis. The difference may be due to chance or coincidence.
The sign test - Answer -Involves counting up the number of positive snd negative
signs. To use the sign test we need to: be looking for differences not associations have used a repeated measures design have data which is organised into categories (nominal)
Accepted level of probability - Answer -In psychology the accepted level is 0.05 /
Sometime researchers need more confidence so have a more stringent significance level of 0.01 / 1% e.g. when humans lives are involved.
Calculated Value - Answer -The number the researcher is left with after the
statistical test has been calculated. It is compared to the critical value to see whether the results are significant.
