General Psychology Unit 3
Research methods
• A scientific method is a systematic approach to planning and conducting research; it starts with
developing a testable hypothesis and progresses through data collection and data analysis to
drawing conclusions
• A non-scientific approach predicts and describes human behaviour using non-scientific methods
• A population is the group of people to whom the findings from a research study apply
• A sample in a study or experiment is a group that is a subset of the population being studied for
research purposes
• Psychological research involves posing a question and a hypothesis, planning a procedure,
carrying out an experiment, and analysing and presenting data
Variables
• The independent variable is the condition that an experimenter systematically manipulates,
changes, or varies to gauge its effects on another variable
• The dependent variable is the condition in an experiment that is affected by the independent
variable and is used to measure the independent variable’s effect
• Controlled variables may affect the dependent variable so are controlled by the experimenter
• Uncontrolled variables may influence the outcome, but the researcher has not controlled them
Participant rights
• Confidentiality is the right to privacy in terms of access, storage and disposal of information
collected about them relating to research; information obtained cannot be shared with anyone
else unless there is prior consent
• Voluntary participation is when participants willingly decides to be involved in an experiment with
no pressure or coercion used, including threats of negative consequences
• Withdrawal rights state that participants have the right to withdraw at any time or have their results
withdrawn without consequence
• Informed consent needs to be obtained before starting an experiment
• Written permission from each participant after being informed of all necessary information
including rights and potential risks
• Must be informed about
o Nature and purpose of intended procedures
o Clarifying foreseeable risks, adverse effects and possible disadvantages of procedures
o How information will be collected and recorded
o How, where and for how long information will be stored and who will have access
o Advising participants of the right to withdraw
o Explaining confidentiality and any limits to confidentiality
o Providing any other relevant information
Deception in research
• When can a researcher employ deception?
o When there is no other alternative
o Participants must be deceived as little as possible
o Any deception must not cause distress
o Participants are debriefed about the nature and reasons for deception
o Counselling or appropriate support offered
Control extraneous variables
• Any variable other than the IV that that causes a change in the results
• Has an unwanted effect and, if not controlled, can interfere with the link between the IV and DV
• Uncontrolled variables can be causes of error in experiments due to:
, General Psychology Unit 3
o Artificiality being the unnatural environment of the study.
o Demand characteristics which are the participants knowledge of the impacts on behaviour
• Sources of error include:
o Standardisation in which all conditions are the same for each participant
o Single or double-blind procedures
o Experimental design in way that avoids impact of individual differences
Placebos
• Use of a fake drug or treatment so that participants don’t know whether they are being exposed to
the experimental condition
• The placebo effect occurs when participants alters their behaviour due to their expectation about
the treatment to be received
Non-experimental designs
• Non-experimental methods measure associations between variables
• They do not establish a causal relationship
• Used when experimental method would be impractical or unethical to conduct
• Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event, or community
• Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g.
observations, tests and interviews)
• Explore something that has already happened and provide an opportunity to study atypical cases
or to explore events that would be unethical or impractical to reproduce
• Longitudinal studies track the participants over many years
• Advantages include allowing researchers to gather rich data, having high levels of ecological
validity, can suggest hypotheses for further research
• Disadvantages include difficulty to generalise findings from one instance to the general
population, time consuming, difficulty to replicate, possibility of researcher bias
• Surveys contain data gathered by researcher using a series of pre-determined questions
• Questions may be open or closed or a combination, and rating scales are often used
• Advantages include being able to gather rich data, easy to gain data from a large sample, being
able to combine qualitative and quantitative data, useful for gauging attitudes
• Disadvantages include self-report methods where participants may lie (often due to social
desirability), misunderstand the question, or be influenced by a situational variable
• Can be time consuming to collect and analyse data
• Correlational studies establish the relationship between behavioural variables and identifies
whether there is an association between variables
• Neither variable is manipulated and no causal relationship is established
• Advantages include the ability to demonstrate the presence or absence of a relationship between
two factors, and establishes strength of a relationship between two variables
• Disadvantages include the fact that no cause and effect can be established as it is not certain that
one variable caused another to happen
• Positive correlation exists when two variables move in the same direction, and negative
correlation is a relationship between two variables in which one increases as the other decreases
• Correlation is expressed in terms of both strength and direction
• Strong correlation exists when two variables are measured, and results show a strong linear
relationship from > r = 0.7 or -0.7
• Weak correlation exists when the data is more scattered from the directional line, showing weak
association/relationship between behavioural variables, from < r = 0.4 or -0.4
• No correlation exists when there is no linear relationship between the variables
• Perfect correlation forms a clear line from < r = 1 or – 1
Research methods
• A scientific method is a systematic approach to planning and conducting research; it starts with
developing a testable hypothesis and progresses through data collection and data analysis to
drawing conclusions
• A non-scientific approach predicts and describes human behaviour using non-scientific methods
• A population is the group of people to whom the findings from a research study apply
• A sample in a study or experiment is a group that is a subset of the population being studied for
research purposes
• Psychological research involves posing a question and a hypothesis, planning a procedure,
carrying out an experiment, and analysing and presenting data
Variables
• The independent variable is the condition that an experimenter systematically manipulates,
changes, or varies to gauge its effects on another variable
• The dependent variable is the condition in an experiment that is affected by the independent
variable and is used to measure the independent variable’s effect
• Controlled variables may affect the dependent variable so are controlled by the experimenter
• Uncontrolled variables may influence the outcome, but the researcher has not controlled them
Participant rights
• Confidentiality is the right to privacy in terms of access, storage and disposal of information
collected about them relating to research; information obtained cannot be shared with anyone
else unless there is prior consent
• Voluntary participation is when participants willingly decides to be involved in an experiment with
no pressure or coercion used, including threats of negative consequences
• Withdrawal rights state that participants have the right to withdraw at any time or have their results
withdrawn without consequence
• Informed consent needs to be obtained before starting an experiment
• Written permission from each participant after being informed of all necessary information
including rights and potential risks
• Must be informed about
o Nature and purpose of intended procedures
o Clarifying foreseeable risks, adverse effects and possible disadvantages of procedures
o How information will be collected and recorded
o How, where and for how long information will be stored and who will have access
o Advising participants of the right to withdraw
o Explaining confidentiality and any limits to confidentiality
o Providing any other relevant information
Deception in research
• When can a researcher employ deception?
o When there is no other alternative
o Participants must be deceived as little as possible
o Any deception must not cause distress
o Participants are debriefed about the nature and reasons for deception
o Counselling or appropriate support offered
Control extraneous variables
• Any variable other than the IV that that causes a change in the results
• Has an unwanted effect and, if not controlled, can interfere with the link between the IV and DV
• Uncontrolled variables can be causes of error in experiments due to:
, General Psychology Unit 3
o Artificiality being the unnatural environment of the study.
o Demand characteristics which are the participants knowledge of the impacts on behaviour
• Sources of error include:
o Standardisation in which all conditions are the same for each participant
o Single or double-blind procedures
o Experimental design in way that avoids impact of individual differences
Placebos
• Use of a fake drug or treatment so that participants don’t know whether they are being exposed to
the experimental condition
• The placebo effect occurs when participants alters their behaviour due to their expectation about
the treatment to be received
Non-experimental designs
• Non-experimental methods measure associations between variables
• They do not establish a causal relationship
• Used when experimental method would be impractical or unethical to conduct
• Case studies are in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event, or community
• Typically, data are gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods (e.g.
observations, tests and interviews)
• Explore something that has already happened and provide an opportunity to study atypical cases
or to explore events that would be unethical or impractical to reproduce
• Longitudinal studies track the participants over many years
• Advantages include allowing researchers to gather rich data, having high levels of ecological
validity, can suggest hypotheses for further research
• Disadvantages include difficulty to generalise findings from one instance to the general
population, time consuming, difficulty to replicate, possibility of researcher bias
• Surveys contain data gathered by researcher using a series of pre-determined questions
• Questions may be open or closed or a combination, and rating scales are often used
• Advantages include being able to gather rich data, easy to gain data from a large sample, being
able to combine qualitative and quantitative data, useful for gauging attitudes
• Disadvantages include self-report methods where participants may lie (often due to social
desirability), misunderstand the question, or be influenced by a situational variable
• Can be time consuming to collect and analyse data
• Correlational studies establish the relationship between behavioural variables and identifies
whether there is an association between variables
• Neither variable is manipulated and no causal relationship is established
• Advantages include the ability to demonstrate the presence or absence of a relationship between
two factors, and establishes strength of a relationship between two variables
• Disadvantages include the fact that no cause and effect can be established as it is not certain that
one variable caused another to happen
• Positive correlation exists when two variables move in the same direction, and negative
correlation is a relationship between two variables in which one increases as the other decreases
• Correlation is expressed in terms of both strength and direction
• Strong correlation exists when two variables are measured, and results show a strong linear
relationship from > r = 0.7 or -0.7
• Weak correlation exists when the data is more scattered from the directional line, showing weak
association/relationship between behavioural variables, from < r = 0.4 or -0.4
• No correlation exists when there is no linear relationship between the variables
• Perfect correlation forms a clear line from < r = 1 or – 1
