Experiments
The group of participants in a study
Sample
The type of observation where the researcher takes part in activities with the participants in their usual environment and the participants do know they are being observed
A naturalistic, overt participant observation.
What is it called when I want to do an interview of 8 IB Psych students at once rather than individually?
Focus Group
What does it mean to use multiple methods to investigate the one phenomena - a strength of case studies
Triangulation
When a participant acts in a specific way to avoid looking bad, dishonest or unpatriotic in front of the researcher.
Social Desirability Effect.
The problem that arises when the controls are so good that the researcher can no longer predict behaviour in a natural environment.
Low ecological validity.
Describe, using 3 key words of observation, Festinger's classic Dooms Day cult study
Participant, covert, naturalistic
What is the difference between a semi-structured interview and a narrative interview?
A narrative interview asks only one guiding question – and then only seeks clarifications. Participants just tell their story.
Semi-structured interviews have an agenda with themes which is followed.
Case studies are difficult to _____ to a wider population
Generalise
The problem with correlations that we cannot know if x causes y, if y causes x, or if there is no true cause and effect relationship.
Bidirectional ambiguity.
Why it is important to replicate research.
To establish the reliability of the study.
What is one limitation of a covert observation?
It may violate ethics; if it is a participant observation, it means that notes have to be taken in private, which means that notes rely on the memory of the researcher.
When we are trying to generalise our findings beyond the participants in our sample to a wider group - what is the term to describe this wider group
Target population
When finishing the case study, researchers must think about how they have grown to like or dislike their participants and how this may influence the results
Researcher bias
When a study takes away human agency, and says that humans have no free will, they are merely responding to their biological drives
Determinism
When an experiment is done so that neither the people who are doing the experiment nor the people who are the subjects of the experiment know which of the groups being studied is the control group and which is the test group.
Double blind control.
What is one strength of a covert observation
no demand characteristics or hawthorne effect
What is at least one limitations of a focus group?
Difficult to maintain confidentiality; conformity effects; not good for sensitive or private questions; there may be status or gender influences. Sometimes difficult to facilitate. Someone may dominate.
Name two limitations of the case study method.
Researcher bias; longitudinal which means they require a lot of time – may mean attrition of participants or researchers; difficult to generalize to other populations; not replicable.
What research method is best to investigate naturally occuring variables
Correlation study / quasi / natural experiment
What is the main benefit of an experiemnt?
The establishment of a cause and effect relationship
Name at least 3 order effects
DCs, Bordom, Fatigue, maturation
Define these 4 terms:
IV
DV
Extraneous Variables
Confounding Variables
Who do we tend to do case studies on? And why don't we do them on other people?
Intrinsically interesting individuals
This is a criticism of a study that shows too much cultural bias toward the culture of the researcher.
Ethnocentrism. This is often a criticism of etic research.