Aims, hypotheses, variables, sampling, experimental methods and design (RM I)

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  • Created by: asusre
  • Created on: 18-04-21 15:18
What is an aim?
An aim is a general statement that describes the purpose of an investigation
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What does an aim look like?
Aims look like this:
“To investigate the effect of/relationship between ..."
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What is a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a clear, precise testable statement that states the relationship between the variables to be investigated which is stated at the outset of any study.
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How do you write a hypothesis?
Hypotheses use the future tense: “there will be”, and use operationalised variables.
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What is a directional hypothesis?
A directional hypothesis predicts the direction of the difference or relationship.
e.g., "there will be more..."
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What is a non-directional hypothesis?
A non-directional hypothesis does not predict the direction of the difference or relationship.
e.g., “there will be a relationship between...”
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What is a null hypothesis?
A null hypothesis predicts that there will be no difference or relationship between variables so any results are due to chance.
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Why do researchers choose a directional or non-directional hypothesis?
Researchers use a directional hypothesis when a theory or the findings of previous research studies suggest a particular outcome, but when there is no theory or previous research, or findings from earlier studies are contradictory, researchers instead dec
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What is an independent variable?
The independent variable is an aspect which changes or is manipulated by the experimenter.
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What is a dependent variable?
The dependent variable is an aspect which is affected by the independent variable and measured by the researcher.
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What is operationalisation?
Operationalisation is the process of defining a variable by specifying a set of operations that can be measured/manipulated. Operationalised variables makes the hypothesis testable.
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What is the experimental method?
The experimental method involves the manipulation of variables to determine cause and effect relationships between those variables.
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What are the types of experiments?
There are four types of experiments:
lab experiments, field experiments, quasi-experiments and natural experiments
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What is a lab experiment?
A lab experiment takes place in a controlled environment within which the researcher manipulates the IV and measures the DV whilst maintaining strict control of extraneous variables.
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What are the strengths of lab experiments?
Experimenters have a high level of control over confounding and extraneous variables so cause-and-effect relationships between the IV and DV can be established. This means they are high in internal validity, and are highly replicable.
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What are the limitations of lab experiments?
Lab experiments have low external validity and lack generalisability as they use artificial environments. Participants know they are being tested so behaviour is unnatural (demand characteristics). They are low in mundane realism as tasks in lab experimen
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What is a field experiment?
Field experiments take place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV.
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What are the strengths of field experiments?
Field experiments have high external validity and high mundane realism becuase they take place in natural settings, so participants display more natural behaviour. Also, participants may be unaware they are being studied.
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What are the limitations of field experiments?
Field experiments are more difficult to replicate, and it is harder to establish cause-and-effect relationships because the researcher has less control over confounding and extraneous variables. If participants are unaware they are being studied, privacy
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What is a natural experiment?
A natural experiment takes place in a natural or lab setting where there is a natural change in the IV which the researcher does not control. The researcher records the effect on a DV they have decided on.
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What are the strengths of natural experiments?
Natural experiments provide opportunities to study situations where it would be ethically unacceptable to control the IV. They have high external validity if they are in a natural setting.
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What are the limitations of natural experiments?
Natural experiments are difficult to replicate. Researchers are unable to randomly allocate participants to conditions, so confounding variables may be an issue, which makes it harder to establish cause and effect relationships.
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What is a quasi-experiment?
A quasi-experiment is strictly speaking not an experiment, because it studies an IV which is just a natural difference between people e.g., age, gender. The researcher does not control the IV or randomly allocate participants to conditions, and can measur
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What are the strengths of quasi-experiments?
Quasi-experiments are easy to replicate.
If set in lab conditions, then it shares the strengths of lab experiments.
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What are the limitations of quasi-experiments?
The IV cannot be manipulated which makes it difficult to establish cause and effect relationships.
Random allocation is not possible, so confounding variables may be an issue.
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What is independent groups design?
Independent groups design involves allocating different participants to take part in each experimental condition.
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What are the strengths of independent groups design?
Independent groups design is not subject to order effects, and there are fewer demand characteristics as participants are less likely to guess the aim of the study.
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What are the limitations of independent groups design?
Independent groups design is subject to participant variables, which could act as a confounding variables and reduce the validity of the findings. It also requires more time/money than repeated measures design.
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