Research Methods- Psychology AS AQA

Inter-interviewer reliability

Extent to which 2 interviewers produced same outcome from interview

Experimental realism

Extent to which participants become involved in an experiment and become less influenced by cues about how to behave

Inter-observer reliability

Extent to which there is agreement between 2 or more observers involved in observations of a behaviour

Event sampling

Observational technique which a count is kept of number of times certain event occurs

Covert observations

Observing people without their knowledge

Independent variable

Variable you control e.g study on whether music helps revise. This is the condition they're in (controlled by the experimenter)

Quasi-experiments

'Almost' experiments but lack one or more features of a true experiment--> full experimenter control over IV and random allocation of participants to conditions

Demand characteristics

A cue that makes participants aware of what researcher expects to find, or how they're meant to behave. Can change outcome of study because participant will conform.

Random allocation

Allocating participants to experimental groups or conditions using random techniques

Ethical guidelines

Concrete, quasi-legal documents that help guide conduct within psychology by establishing principles for standard practice and competence

Investigator effect

Anything investigator does which has an effect on participants performance in a study other than intended.

Experimental condition

Condition containing the experimental treatment

Field experiment

Controlled experiment outside a laboratory.

Observer bias

Danger that observers might 'see' what they expect to see

External validity

Degree to which research finding can be generalised: to other settings (ecological validity); to other groups of people (population validity); over time (historical validity)

Qualitative data

Descriptions, words, meanings, pictures and texts.

Measure of central tendency

Descriptive statistic that provided information about a 'typical' response for a data set.

Measure of dispersion

Descriptive statistic that provides information about how spread-out if scores is

Correlational analysis

Determining extent of a relationship between two variables

Repeated measures

Each participant takes part in every condition under test

Interviewer bias

Effect of interviewers expectations, communicated unconsciously, on respondents behaviour

Investigator/experimenter bias

Effect that an investigator/experimenter has on participants and thus on results of research study

Laboratory experiment

Experiment carried out in controlled setting

Counterbalancing

Experimental technique used to overcome order effects. Ensures each condition is tested first or second in equal amounts.

Stratified sample

Group of participants selected according to their frequency in population in order to obtain representative sample

Experimental group

Group of participants which receives the experimental treatment

Control group

Group of participants who receive no treatment.

Target population

Group of people researcher is interested in

Ethics committee

Group of people within research institution that must approve study before it begins

Order effect

In repeated measures design, extraneous variable arising from order in which conditions are presented e.g practice effect of fatigue effect

Control condition

In repeated measures experiment, condition that provides a baseline measure of behaviour without the experimental treatment, so that effect of experimental treatment may be assessed

Confederate

Individual in study who isn't real participant- could act as independent variable

Structured interview

Interview in which questions decided in advance

Unstructured interview

Interview where there are general aims and maybe some questions but interviewees answers guide the questions

Correlation coefficient

Number between -1 and +1 that tells us how closely the co variables in a Correlational analysis are related

Quantitative data

Numbers and measures of something.

Cross cultural study

Kind of natural experiment in which IV is different cultural practices and DV is a behaviour.

Attrition

Loss of participants from a study over time- likely to leave a biased sample or a smaller which is too small

Effect size

Measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables

Presumptive consent

Method of dealing with lack informed consent or deception, by asking group of people who are similar to participants whether they would agree to take part, if they consent it is presented real people would also agree

Double blind

Neither experimenter or participant are aware of research aims so have no expectations

Longitudinal study

Observation of same items over long period of time

Cohort effects

One group of participants may have unique characteristics because of time specific experiences during development of it's members

Cross sectional study

One group of participants of a young age are compared with another older group, with view to finding out the influence of age on behaviour in question

Extraneous variables

Outside effect which experimenter can't control e.g individual differences

Matched pairs

Pairs of participants matched on terms if key variables suck as age and IQ. One member of each pair placed in experimental group and other in the control group

Independent groups

Participants allocated to two or more groups representing different experimental conditions.

Informed consent

Participants have right to be given comprehensive information concerning nature and purpose of research and their role in it so they can decided whether want to take part

Confidentiality

Participants right to have personal information protected

Right to withdraw

Participants should have right to withdraw from taking part in study where they're feeling uncomfortable, also have right to refuse permission for researcher to use any data they produced

Protection from harm

Participants shouldn't experience negative physical or psychological effects

Privacy

Persons right to control flow if information about themselves

Non-directional hypothesis

Predicts that there will be a difference between two conditions or groups, without stating direction of difference

Control

Refers to extent to which any variable is held constant or regulated by a researcher

Mundane realism

Refers to how a study mirrors real world. Task environment is realistic to experiences encountered in real world.

Natural experiment

Research method in which experimenter can't manipulate independent variable directly, but where varies naturally and effect can be observed on a dependent variable

Meta analysis

Researcher looks at findings from number of different studies in order to reach a general conclusion

Opportunity sample

Sample of participants produced by selecting people who are most easily available at time of study

Random sample

Sample of participants produced by using random technique- everyone has equal chance of wing selected

Systematic sample

Selecting every fifth or tenth person

Experimental design

Set of procedures used to control influence of factors such as participant variables in an experiment

Standard deviation

Shows the amount if variation in a data set. Assesses the spread of data around the mean

Pilot study

Small scale study run of study to test any aspects of design

Directional hypothesis

States direction of predicted differences between two conditions or two groups of participants

Imposed Etic

Technique or theory is developed in one culture and them used to study another different culture with different norms, values, experiences etc

Hawthorne effect

Tendency for participants to alter behaviour as a result of knowing they're being observed

Social desirability bias

Tendency for respondents to answer questions in a way that will present them in a better light

Single blind

Type of research design in which participant isn't aware of research aims.

Intervening variable

Variable that comes between 2 other variables

Volunteer bias

Volunteer participants usually more highly motivated than random- sampling bias

Dependent variable

What you see change e.g. This is how much they've learned after given test after either listening to music or not- what they score

Deception

Where participant isn't told true aims of a study and thus can't give truly informed consent

Internal validity

Whether the study has tested what it meant to test; degree to which observed effect was due to experimental manipulation rather than extraneous variables