Q-1. What is an experiment? Research undertaken to establish a cause and effect link between two variables. Q-2

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1 Q-1 What is an experiment? Research undertaken to establish a cause and effect link between two variables. Q-2 What is a laboratory experiment? Give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages. It is an experiment which takes place in a laboratory under strict control. Strict control therefore more objectivity. Standardisation therefore easy to replicate. Artificial conditions may produce artificial behaviour therefore lack of ecological validity Demand characteristic and experimenter bias Ethics: problems of deception,. possible Q-3 What is a field experiment? Give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages. The researcher manipulates the IV but does so in the participants natural environment. Greater ecological validity than lab experiments If the participants are unaware of being tested less demand characteristic. Less control so more possibility of influence of confounding variables and more difficult to replicate. Ethics: consent, deception, invasion of privacy. Q-4 What is a natural experiment? (also called a quasi experiment) The independent is changed by natural occurrence the researcher observes the effect on the DV. Great ecological validity No demand characteristic, or bias due to sampling. Very difficult to replicate Hard to infer cause and effect due to little control over extraneous variables. Ethics: consent, deception, invasion of privacy. Q-5 What is an independent variable? The independent variable is the variable manipulated by the experimenter.

2 Q-6 What is the dependent variable? The variable that is measured. Q-7 What is an extraneous variable? Variable that is usually controlled other than the one (or ones) being studied. Q-8 What is a confounding variable? Uncontrolled variable affecting or interfering with the experiment. Q-9 How can the relationship between the experimenter and the participants affect the results of an experiment? Researcher effects: Researcher can affect the behaviour of the participants, thus affecting the results of the study. The researcher might unwittingly communicate his expectations to the participants. Or it can be in the interpretation of data, a researcher may read into things more of what he or she would like to find. Demand characteristics: Participants might read things into the situation and start changing their behaviour they respond to the perceived demands of the study. Or they might guess the aim of the experiment and alter their behaviour. Q-10 What means to operationalise a hypothesis? Many of the concepts used in hypothesis are abstract, operationalising an hypothesis is saying what you are going to observe, for example if you are speaking about measuring aggression you might count the number of punches given by participants.

3 Q-11 What is an experimental hypothesis? It predicts what change (s) will take place in the dependent variable when the independent variable is manipulated. Q-12 What is the difference between a one-tail (directional) hypothesis and a two-tail hypothesis (non-directional)? A two-tail hypothesis predicts that there will be a change in the DV when the IV is manipulated. A one-tail hypothesis predicts in which direction the change will take place. Q-13 What is a null hypothesis? The null hypothesis states that there will be no changes due to the manipulation of the IV. Q-14 What is an independent group design? Give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of this design. Testing separate groups of people, each group is tested in a different condition. Avoids order effects. If a person is involved in several tests they man become bored or tired. Less demand characteristic as they do only one condition. More people are needed than with the repeated measures design. Differences between participants in the groups may affect results, for example; variations in age, sex or social background. These differences are known as participant variables. Q-15 What is a repeated measures design? Give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of this design. Testing the same group of people in different conditions, the same people are used repeatedly. Avoids the problem of participant variables. Fewer people are needed. Order effects are more likely to occur. Demand characteristic more likely as participants might guess the aim as they take part in all the conditions.

4 Q-16 What is a matched pairs design? Give 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of this design. Testing separate groups of people - each member of one group is same age, sex, or social background as a member of the other group. Reduces participant variables. Avoids order effects. Very time-consuming trying to find closely matched pairs. Impossible to match people exactly. Requires more participants. Q-17 What means counterbalancing? Counterbalancing: Alternating the order in which participants perform in different conditions of an experiment. For example, group 1 does A then B, group 2 does B then A this is to eliminate order effects. Q-18 What means randomisation? Randomisation: Material for each condition in an experiment is presented in a random order; this is also to prevent order effects. Q-19 What is a correlation design? Correlation is a statistical technique used to quantify the strength of relationship between two variables. Calculating the strength of a relationship between variables. Useful as a pointer for further, more detailed research. Cannot assume cause and effect, strong correlation between variables may be misleading. Lack of correlation may not mean there is no relationship, it could be non-linear. Q-20 What is the difference between a positive correlation and a negative correlation between two variables? If both variables increase together, it is a positive correlation. If one variable increases as the other variable decreases it is a negative correlation

5 Q 21 What is a perfect correlation?.1 or 1 is a perfect correlation. The closest to zero the correlation coefficient is the weaker the correlation. Q-22 What is random sampling? sampling method. Everyone in the entire target population has an equal chance of being selected. Advantage: best chance of an unbiased representative sample of the target population. Disadvantage: Difficult to do when the target population is large. Q-23 What is opportunity sampling? sampling method. Uses people from target population available at the time. quick and convenient Disadvantage: unrepresentative of the target population. Q- 25 What is volunteer sampling? sampling method. Participants volunteer to take part in an experiment or answer a questionnaire convenient, no bias from the experimenter in the choice of participants. often unrepresentative, biased on the part of the participants- volunteers might be different from non-volunteers. Q-26 What is a non-participant observation? research method. An observation that is conducted by someone that is not part of the group being observed. Advantage: can be ethical but is there consent?. Disadvantage: the presence of the observer can alter the group s behaviour. Impossible to replicate.

6 Q-27 What is a participant observation? research method. An observation that is conducted by someone who is part of the group being observed. high ecological validity if observer is undisclosed. Can give in-depth and detailed information. difficult to record data objectively, impossible to replicate, ethical problems of consent. Q-28 Naturalistic observations can be structured or unstructured. Explain the difference. Naturalistic observations involve the recording of naturally occurring behaviours in the participants natural environment. Structured observations: Uses tables of pre-determined categories of behaviour and systematic sampling. Two ways to structure observation: Time sampling: Observations may be made at regular time intervals and coded. Event sampling: Keep a tally chart of each time a type of behaviour occurs. Unstructured observations: record what happens. Q-29 What are the advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observations? High ecological validity, can be used as a preliminary study before a more detailed research. cannot establish a cause-effect relationship as no variable is manipulated. No control over conditions so replication is impossible. Ethical problems of consent and invasion of privacy. Q-30 Define what is a questionnaire. Give two advantages and two disadvantages of questionnaires as a research method. Q-31 What is an interview? Give two advantages and two disadvantages of interviews as a research method. Questionnaires are written methods of gaining data from participants. collect large amount of standardised data quickly and fairly cheaply. Easy to replicate. Easy to score. can lack of flexibility, participants answers might be influenced by social desirability, relies on self-report therefore not always truthful. Can be difficult to construct. All interviews involve direct questioning of participants by a researcher. They can be structured contain predetermined questions and possible answers distort/ignore data due to restricted answers easy to analyse and replicate. semi structured: have guidelines on the questions to ask, more flexible and sensitive, fairly reliable and replicable. but more difficult to analyse less reliable. unstructured: contains a topic area of discussion. Very detailed and valid data, not very reliable, replicable or generalisable.

7 Q-32 What is a case study? Give two advantages and two disadvantages of case studies as a research method. Detailed and in-depth study of an individual or group. very detailed data obtained, high ecological validity, often used for rare behaviour or ability i.e. Clive Wearing no cause and effect relationship can be derived, lack of generalisaibility because of the size of sample, expensive and time consuming. Difficult to replicate. Q-33 What is content analysis? Give two advantages and two disadvantages of content analysis as a research method. It is a quantitative method to analyse the communication between people. The media used can be the press, television. gathers data on a variety of topics from how health is presented to political rhetoric. The data has high ecological validity. difficult to remain objective in the interpretation of the data. Q-34 What is the mean? How do you calculate it? Advantages and disadvantages. It is a measure of central tendency. All values in a set of data are added together and divided by the number of values (N). Used with normal distribution and interval level data. Advantage: it is the most sensitive measure of central tendency, it takes all the data into account. Disadvantage: can be distorted by extreme values. Q-35 What is the median? How do you calculate it? Advantages and disadvantages. It is a measure of central tendency. All values are arranged in order; the middle value is the median. Used with interval or ordinal level data, Advantage: the median is not affected much by extreme values. It takes all the data into account. Disadvantage: not very sensitive measure, can be distorted by small samples. Q-36 What is the mode? How do you calculate it? Advantages and disadvantages. It is a measure of central tendency. The most frequent value or score in a set of data. Used with nominal data. not influenced by extreme scores. Useful to show the most popular value. Does not give any information about other values.

8 Q-37 What is the range? How do you calculate it? Advantage and disadvantage. It is simple measure of dispersion- shows the total spread of data. Difference between highest and lowest scores in a set of data: top value minus bottom value plus 1. Affected by atypical, extreme values. Advantage: quick and easy to calculate. Disadvantage: can be distorted by extreme values. Q-38 What is the standard deviation? Measure of dispersion- shows degree of clustering of values around the mean. Calculating standard deviation (S): Square root of sum of all squared deviations from the mean, divided by N (or sometimes N-1). Advantage: The most accurate measure of dispersion. Q-39 What are descriptive statistics? Methods of organising and summarising the data in order to describe the findings, they do not allow the generalisation of the findings of an experiment as they cannot determine whether research findings are due to chance. Q-40 What is quantitative data? Advantages and disadvantages Numerical data (numbers) can be analysed using statistical tests Easier to compare people or groups lacks in depth Q-41 What is qualitative data? Advantages and disadvantages Narrative data (in words) Rich in detail Allows for in-depth analysis Likely to be biased by the interpretation of the researcher More difficult to compare groups of people

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