Ethical Guidelines
A participant must decide to participate in an experiment of their own free will.
Voluntary Participation
A condition that the experimenter systemically manipulates, changes, or varies in order to determine its effect on another variable
Independent Variable
The larger group of research interest from which a sample is drawn.
Population
A smaller group of participants selected from, and representative of, the characteristics of the larger population of research interest.
Sample
The extent to which an assessment tool produces consistent results.
Reliability
Clarifying each participant’s understanding of the nature of the study after deception has been used
Debriefing
Any variable other than the IV that can cause a change in the DV
Extraneous Variable
A sample in which every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
A group of participants within an experiment that should be similar in characteristics to the experimental group, but haven’t received the independent variable.
Control Group
Whether or not the measure is stable over time or between people
External Reliability
Researchers must ensure that those taking part in research will not be caused distress.
Protection from Harm
It is a clear and concise statement of what the researcher is trying to find out
Aim
It doesn't involve the manipulation of variables, and is often used in research where it is unethical or not possible to manipulate variables.
Non-experimental Research
Breaking a population into groups based on shared characteristics and a random sample is then selected from each stratum
Stratified Sampling
Whether the effects observed in a study are due to the manipulation of the independent variable and not some other factor.
Internal Validity
Replace or Reduce or Refine
The ways in which each participant varies from the other, and how this could affect the results e.g. mood, intelligence
Participant Variable
The sampling technique most likely to result in a sample that is representative of the target population, meaning results can be generalised.
Strength of Random Sampling
Limitation of Case Studies
Results cannot be generalised to the entire population
Hard to replicate
The extent to which results or findings obtained from a sample are applicable to a broader population
Generalisaibility
An ethical consideration that Walter Freeman violated
Informed Consent OR Withdrawal Rights OR Protection from Harm OR Confidentiality
Predicts that the independent variable will have an effect on the dependent variable, but the direction of the effect is not specified
Non-directional Hypothesis
Strength of Non-experimental Research
Is often cheaper and easier to run than experimental research
Allows the researcher to investigate naturally occurring variables that maybe unethical or impractical to test experimentally
Strength of Case Studies
Information derived provides a considerable in-depth study allowing a full description of the person’s behaviour.
One thing needed for generalisability
The sample needs to be representative of the population
Extraneous and potential confounding variables must be controlled
Measures must be reliable and valid