Psychology Key Words Research Methods

Pregunta	Respuesta
Aim	General statement of why the study is being carried out.
Null Hypothesis	An assumption that there is no relationship between the variables eg. no relationship between age and intelligence
Directional hypothesis (One-Tailed)	States the kind of relationship between two conditions. E.g. People who do homework without the TV on produce better results than those who do homework with the TV on.
Non-Directional hypothesis (Two-Tailed)	Simply predicts that there will be a difference or relationship between two conditions. E.g. There is a difference between work produced in noisy or silent conditions.
Independent Groups Design	Participants are allocated to two or more groups representing different experimental conditions.
Matched Pairs Design	Participants are matched in terms of key variables such as age and IQ.
Repeated Measures Design	Each participant takes part in every condition under test.
Random Sampling	Every member of the target population being tested has an equal chance of being selected. .
Opportunity Sampling	Sample of participants produced by selecting people who are most easily available at the time of the study.
Volunteer Sampling	Sample of participants produced by a sampling technique that relies solely on volunteers to make up the sample.
Behaviour Categories	Dividing a target behaviour into a subset of behaviours.
Qualitative Data	Data that express a complete account of what people think or feel.
Quantitative Data	Numerical data that represent how much, how long or how many.
Open Questions	Questions that allow respondents to provide their own answers rather than select one of those provided; tend to produce qualitative data.
Closed Questions	Questions that have a range of answers from which respondents select one; tend to produce quantitative data and are easier to analyse.
Operationalisation	Specifying a set of variables that can be measured or manipulated.
Independent Variable	Variable made to change by the experimenter.
Dependent Variable	Effects of the IV on another variable are observed or measured.
Extraneous Variable	Anything other than the IV that could have an effect on the DV and should thus be controlled.
Confounding Variable	Variable other than the IV that affected the DV and thus confounded the findings of the study.
Pilot Study	Small-scale trial of a study run to test any aspects of the design, with a view to making improvements.
Reliability	Measure of consistency both within a set of scores or items and also over time such that it is possible to obtain the same results on subsequent occasions when the measure is used.
Internal Validity	Degree to which an observed effect is due to the experimental manipulation rather than other factors such as extraneous variables.
External Validity	Degree to which an experimental effect can be generalised to other settings (ecological validity), other people (population validity) and over time (historical validity).
Ecological validity	Ability to generalise a research effect in a real life setting.
Demand Characteristics	Features of an experiment that makes participants aware of what the researcher expects to find or how participants are expected to behave.
Investigator Effects	Anything that the investigator/experimenter does which has an effect on a participant's performance in a study than what was intended.
Positive Correlation	A relationship between two co-variables such that as the value of one co-variable increases, the value of the other co-variable increases.
Negative Correlation	As one variable increases, the other decreases.
Correlation Co-Efficient	A number between -1 and +1 that tells us how closely the co-variables in a correlational analysis are related.
Mundane Realism	Study mirrors the real world.
Experimental Realism	Extent to which participants take an experiment seriously.
Single Blind	Type of research design in which the participant is not aware of the research aims.
Double Blind	Research design in which neither the participant nor the experimenter is aware of the condition that an individual participant is receiving.
Random Allocation	Random allocating participants to different groups.
Lab Experiment	Experiment carried out in a controlled setting and enables the experimenter to draw conclusions about causal relationship between the IV and DV.
Field Experiment	Controlled experiment conducted in a natural setting. IV is still manipulated and therefore causal relationships can be demonstrated.
Natural Experiment	Research method in which the experimenter cannot manipulate the IV directly, but where it varies naturally and the effect can be observed on a DV.
Correlation	Determining the extent of a relationship between two variables.
Naturalistic Observation	Research method carried out in a naturalistic setting and investigator observes the behaviours.
Controlled Observation	Form of investigation in which behaviour is observed but under controlled conditions.
Questionnaire	Research method in which data is collected through the use of written questions.
Interview	Research method that involves a face-to-face interaction with another individual.
Surveys	Type of research method that could be in the form of a questionnaire but it is not anonymous.
Case study	Research method involving detailed study of a single individual, institution or event.

Siguiente

Psychology Key Words Research Methods

Descripción

Resumen del Recurso

Similar

	Creado por Alfie Moorhead hace casi 9 años