Research Methods

Lab: IV manipulated in controlled setting 

• high control, cause and effect, relicable
• low realism, demand characteristics

Field: IV is manipulated in natural setting

• higher realism
• lower control, ethical issues

Natural: IV has been manipulated naturally, effect on DV recorded

• high ecological validity, unique research
• low control, opportunities may be rare

Quasi: IV based on existing difference, between people, effec on DV recorded

• high realsim
• little to no control

Independant Group Design: different ptps in each condition

• no order effects 
• ptp veriables not controlled, less economically valid

Repeated Measures Design: ptps tested in every condition

• no ptp variables, more economically valid
• order effects, demand characteristics

Matched Pairs Design: matches people who are similar through similar characteristic screening (monozygotic = share genetically same characterists)

• no order effects
• cannot be matched exactly, more time consuming

Extraneous: nuisance variables but randomly distributed

Confounding: Vary systematically within IV

Demand characteristics: ptps second guess at the aim so alter behaviour

Investigator effects: unconsious influence of researcher on situatio (ie gender, age race etc)

Standardisation: ensuring all ptps are subject to same experience 

Informed consent: advising ptps of what is invleved, may reveal research aims

• get permisission
• either presumptuive, prior, general, retrospective consent

Avoidance of Deception: telling the truth (rectified in debrief)

Protection from Harm: duty to protect ptpt from psychological and or physical risk/harm

Anonymity/ confidentaility: protecting personel data 

Random: all members of population have equal chance of selection

• no researcher bias
• time consuming, could end up with biased sample

Stratified: sample refelcts proprtions of people with different population strata

• no reasercher bias, representative
• cannot account for all sub groups

Opportunity: choosing whoever is availible

• convienient
• researcher bias, unrepresentative

Volunteer: ptps select them selves

• less time- consuming 
• attracts certain profile of people

Naturalistic: behaviour observed where it would normally occur, no control from reseracher 

• high realism 
• low control

Controlled:some control over environment, including manipulation of veriables to observe effects

• high realism (especially covert)
• low controll, some extranous variables may be controlled

Covert/ Overt: oberving ptps with or without knowlege 

• covert is ethically unsound, but good as low ptp effect 
• overt can effect ptp behaviour 

Participant/ non-ptp: to join group or remain outsider

• ptp obs. have increased realism, risk of 'going native'
• non-ptp has more objectivity, less insight

Structured: resercher controlls whats recorded

• may miss behavious 

Unstructured: reseacher records everything

• more info
• lots of qualitative data to analyse

Event Sampling: count events as they occure

• useful for infrequent behaviour
• may miss complexity

Time Sampling: count event at timed intervals

• less effort
• may not be representative of whole behaviour 

Questionairs: pre-set list of written open/closed questions

• can be easily distributed to many people, easy to analyse
• social deirablitlty bias, low response rate

Structured interview: pre-set questions in fixed order, verbalised

• same as questionair but fewer respondants

Unstructured interview: no set formula, just general topic, questions develop based on responses

• flexible, social-desirability bias can be reduced by rapport
• analysis more difficult

Semi-structured interviews: pre-set questions with flexibilty to ask follow ups 

• advantages of both structured and unstructured

Strengths:

• useful preliminary tool
• quick and economic to carry out
• using secondary data

Weaknesses:

• cannot demonstrate cause and effect
• third variable problem
• miususe and misinterpretation

Checks procedure and materials, making modifications if nessesary

Single blind: ptps arent aware of aim until debrief

Double Blind: neither ptp or researcher knows aim

Control group: used as a comparision