Psychology GCSE: Research Methods

Independent groups, repeated measures, matched pairs

:) No order effects

:( Participant variables may affect the results

:) No participant variables as the participants in both conditions are the same
:( Order effects could be shown as participants have to do both conditions

:) No order effects

:( Not always successful matching; participant variables may still be present

Half the participants complete condition 1 and then condition 2; other half complete condition 2 then condition 1

Removes/reduces order effects

Using chance to produce an order for a procedure e.g. the order of a list of words pulled out a bag

• controls EVs so the cause and effect can be easily identified

• objective because the procedures are set up so that researcher biases aren’t present

• can be very artificial so can lack in ecological validity

- participants may know they’re in an experiment so show demand characteristics / social desirability

Random: pulling names from a hat etc
Opportunity: choosing people who are members of the target population and are available and willing to take part
Systematic: selecting every nth person from the target population
Stratified: subgroups identified, proportion of the target population that the group represents is selected

:) No researcher bias

:( Not always representative

:) Quick and easy

:( May have researcher bias, not likely to be representative

:) No researcher bias

:( May not be representative

:) Very representative

:( Very time-consuming

:) Quick method to collect a large amount of data

:( No way of checking if the answers are true so the results could be misleading

:) Allow people to explain their answers so the researcher knows why each answer has been given
:( Hard to find correlations between individual responses as each answer is different

:) Easy to score so lots of data can be analysed quickly
:( Respondents don’t have the opportunity to explain their answers so the researcher doesn’t know why they chose that particular response

:) Produce large amounts of data and provide information about thoughts and feelings that cannot be found from observations
:( Researcher can’t always be sure the interviewee is telling the truth so the data may not be accurate

:) Data can be collated and analysed easily
:( Lack detail and can be frustrating for the interviewer and interviewee as they can’t ask more questions or explain answers further

:) Data is detailed and can have ecological validity

:( May be difficult to collate and analyse

:) High in ecological validity and record whole behaviours rather than single actions
:( Researchers don’t know why a certain behaviour was shown etc or an observer might make a mistake / miss some behaviour when recording
:( Ethical issues

• two observers have a copy of the same record sheet and watch the same behaviour at the same time for the same period of time and then the two sheets are compared

• when these records match or are very similar they have established inter-observer reliability

• if the two cards are different, they are discarded

:) Provide detailed information about individuals and records behaviour over time so the changes in behaviour can be seen
:( Can be very subjective as the method relies on the individual remembering events which may not be accurate and the psychologist’s interpretations of these events could be biased therefore making the case study unreliable

:) allows a researcher to see if two variable are connected in some way so that they can carry out an experiment etc; can be used if an experiment would be impossible or unethical to carry out
:( doesn’t indicate which of the two variable caused the relationship to occur as it is sometimes the case that other variables are the cause of the pattern; also needs to be a large amount of data for it to be informative