Research methods

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Flashcards on Research methods, created by Lucy-Wood on 23/02/2015.
Lucy-Wood
Flashcards by Lucy-Wood, updated more than 1 year ago
Lucy-Wood
Created by Lucy-Wood over 9 years ago
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Question Answer
what are the features of a lab experiment An Independent Variable is manipulated to see the effect it has on a Dependant Variable
Strengths of a Lab experiment - High internal validity because confounding variables can be controlled - its easy to replicate a Lab experiment
weaknesses of a lab experiment Low ecological validity because the setting is artificial and may not replicate a real life situation
what is a natural experiment The Independant variable is NOT manipulated; the 2 conditions naturally exist
weaknesses of a natural experiment -ethical issues (participants don't usually know their taking part so they cant give consent) - more difficult to replicate because the likelihood of the same situation arising again is very low. -low internal validity because its hard to control extraneous variables
what is a field experiment An independent variable is manipulated, but the Dependant variable is measured in a real world setting rather than a lab (e.g. an experiment that took place at a school)
strengths of a field experiment - higher ecological validity because the setting is real life - lower chance of demand charecteristics because participants don't normally know that they're taking part.
weakness of a field experiment likelihood of participant variables because participants are not randomly allocated to conditions so there is no control
what are demand characteristics cues/clues in the environment which alert participants of what is needed of them in the experiment.
external validity Ecological validity Population validity Temporal validity
Internal validity (lab experiments) Genuinley measuring what you intend to measure - no extraneous or confounding variables
ecological validity The extent of which we can generalise the findings of an experiment to the real world (real world value)
population validity generalising the findings of an experiment to other people
temporal validity generalise the findings of an experiment to other times e.g. past / future
Matched pairs experimental design each participant experiences each condition once, however participants are grouped into pairs according to certain charecterisitics
advantage of matched pairs design - less chance of demand charecterstics because participants only experience one condition and so are less likely to guess the aims. - No order effects because each participant will only experience one condition. - takes a short amount of time - good control of participant variables
disadvantage of matched pairs design time consuming to match participant variables and theres a high chance that the match will not be perfect
Repeated measures design each participant experiences both conditions one after the other
advantage of repeated measures design half as many participants are needed because one participant can gather 2 pieces of data
disadvantage of repeated measures design - order effects are likely so results in condition 2 may be better because participants have already performed it - demand characteristics because participants experience both conditions and so could guess the aim of the experiment
Independent groups design each participant experiences each condition only once so there will be 2 separate groups of participants completing one condition each. participants will be randomly allocated to each condition
advantage of independent groups design - No order effects because each participant will only experience one condition - less chance of demand characteristics - takes a short amount of time
disadvantage of independent groups design lower control of participant variables because there are different participants in each conditions: individual differences may affect the outcome.
what is a directional hypothesis a more precise hypothesis because it is based around a clear outcome of a theory
what is a non directional hypothesis a less precise hypothesis based on an unclear outcome to a theory (it could go either way)
research hypothesis the hypothesis written for a study
null hypothesis a statement of no difference or no relationship e.g - There is no difference in the concentration levels of participants in the loud and soft noise conditions
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