Research Methods

What causes the effect.

What it depends on.

A condition that involves treatment.

A condition that does not involve treatment.

Measure that is not under investigation in an experiment but can effect outcome on the influence of results.

Things that effect other variables between each other.

Any variable that is held constant in a research study.

Scores compared between different participants

Used to increase the likelihood that the broad range of potential will be equally distributed between groups.

A researcher may match groups on variables such as age gender to control the effect on this variable.

Aims to establish a cause and effect between and independent and dependent variable.

Scores compared within the same participants

Participants responses are effected by the order of conditions to which they were exposed.

Dividing the participants into two groups and have each group perform a slightly different task, so that any imbalance within the task will be cancelled out.

A mix of both types of designs used, with both subjects and within subject comparisons.

Repeatability- Measured carried out under the same conditions but can someone get the same results again.

Reproducibility- Measured under changed conditions including a different method of measurement.

How well the investigation and its measurements provide meaningful and generalizable information.

Normally distributed, Positively and Negatively skewed

Average set of scores calculated by adding all the scores of the data set and then dividing the total number of scores in the set.

Middle score of the data, by arranging scores from highest to lowest.

Most frequently occurring score

Measure of variability that the average distance that a set of data points are from the mean.

High variability

Low variability

To calculate a percentage you divide the number of the subset by the total number then multiply the result by 100.

The percentage change is the difference between the two. E.g.- 70%-30%=40%.

Value or range of values that would be found if a quantity could be measured perfectly

Accuracy of a measurement is how close it is to the true value of quantity being measured. Can describe values as more or less accurate.

• Precision refers to how close a set of measurement values are to each other.
• E.g.- A questionnaire or brain imaging technique.

How appropriate the investigation design, sampling and participant allocation is and whether there are extraneous or confounding variables effecting the results.

Whether the results of the research can be applied to similar individuals in a different setting.

• Random-
• Systematic-
• Personal-

Data that's further from the rest

Impacts the quality of data, larger sample sizes make it more likely to find a relationship, if one exists. More likely to to be representative of the population.

Order effect, each participant has to engage in the testing twice.

• Autonomy- Feeling able to control your life 
• Justice- Thoughts and feelings people feel about the value of people and their outcomes 
• Beneficence- Act of kindness of doing good for others as well as moral obligation
• Nonmaleficence- Requires researchers to avoid harm to children 
• Fidelity- The extent to which treatments are delivered as intended

• Confidentiality- When you talk to someone professional they shouldn't tell anyone what you have said 
• Informed consent- Given someone permission to do something
• Deception- A researcher giving false information about something, misleading the key aspect of research
• Debriefing- Providing emotional and psychological support immediately after a traumatic event 
• Right to withdraw- Ability of a researcher to drop out of their research at any time without a punishment

All variable factors are stayed the same in a experimental group that is changed

Examine event exposure, disease prevention and risk factors in a population

Correlation is the statistical change between the two and causation is the changes in one variable bringing out the changes in the other, cause and effect between the two.

Positive- The variables move in the same direction

Negative- The variables move in opposite directions

An in depth investigation

Classification- Sorting subjects or events into groups or categories

Identification- Describing something in enough detail so it could be recognized in a given context

Observing and interacting with a selected environment beyond the classroom, used when researchers want to capture humans thoughts and feelings in a natural setting.

Creating a mathematical or physical model of the system of concepts, events or processes.

• The design of a process to meet a human need.
• E.g.- Apps to help you on the daily (Habit tracker)

Survey research on a particular topic