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TSR Wiki > Study Help > Subjects and Revision > Psychology > Psychology AQA A PYA3 Revision Notes > PYA3 Reasearch Methods

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Research Methods- love them or hate them, you need to know them!!!

Quantitive and Qualiative reasearch methods

Laboratory Lab experiments are used in an artifical situation, where the IV (independant variable) has been manipulated to achieve the DV (dependant variable)

+ Has good control of variables, eg extraneous - good internal validity - Artifical situation, lacks external/ecological validity - Cannot control all variables, eg demand characteristics + Can be easily replicated

Ethics: Informed consent (can lead to demand characteristics) right to withdraw.

Field Experiment Field experiments are when the investigator manipulates the IV to achieve the DV in a more natural setting, eg the street. DO NOT CONFUSE WITH NATURAL EXPERIMENTS

+Improved Ecological validity + Reduction of demand characteristics - less control of variables than lab - Difficult to replicat precisely - Little control over sample participants

Ethics: People don't know they're participants, therefore deception and right to withdraw are issues, also confidentiality

Natural Experiments The investigator makes use of naturally occuring changes in the IV, it is not being directly manipulated, simply observed.

+ reduces participant and experimentor effects + avoids the artifical situation of a lab - Lack of control - Not possible to replicate - Not possible to generalise as it could be a naturally occuring event

Ethics: Consent and right to withdraw, protection of participant harm- eg natural event

Correlational Analysis CA is a technique for analysing data, which measures the strength of a relationship beetween variables. Positive correlation is if both variables increase, Negative correlation is when one variable increases and the other decreases or no relationship at all.

+ provides a precise, quantitive measure of strength of relationships beetween variables + Used to investigate issues where it is not possible to manipulate the variables -Cannot establish cause and effect - Cannot measure non-linear relationships

Ethics: Consent and right to withdraw- people are not usually aware data is being collected and use of findings

Naturalistic Observations Behaviour is observed and recorded in a natural setting, no deliberate attempt of manipulating variables is made. No attempt of the investigator to influence behaviour observed. Used when setting cannot be created in a lab.

+Value for pre-lim reasearch + Validity- can be used to check + Natural behaviour, high eco validity -Lack of control -Observer effects- biased in selection and interpretation

Ethics: Privacy, Use of findings

Questionnaires A printed list of questions, eg open and closed.

+ Quick, efficent and cheap + Easily analysed data + Representitive sample, findings generalised +Easy to replicate - Ambiguous - Closed questions have limited answers - Social desirability Bias

Ethics: Privacy, use of findings, debriefing and support

Interviews Structured Interviews: Quantitive data, questions decided in advance- asked the same in same order

Unstructured: Informal and indepth conversation, little planned in advance, obtains rich qualitive data

Semi-Structured: Mixture of the two, opportunities for interviewee to expand on question

An Interview involes the interviewer asking respondant questions, may form the basis of a case study, survey or a follow up to other reasearch methods.

+Structured, focus maintained on topic, data analysis simple to generate, less training and cost required + Unstructured, Opens up new insights increasing validity, rich data

-Structured, cannot follow up interesting answers, open to social desirability bias - Unstructured, Interviewers bias can affect response, need training and skill. Can be hard to data analyse.

Ethics: Respect of privacy and psychological well being, confidentiality, debreifing and support

Research Design and Implementation

Alternative/Experimental Hypothesis: A prediction that something other than chance will produce certain results. Must be a testable statement, can be directional/non directional.

Directional Hypothesis: Predicts the direction of the differences..or the correlation of a correlational study

Non-Directional Hypothesis: Does not predict the direction of any differences

Null Hypothesis: A prediction that there will be no difference beetween the results from different conditions