AQA A Level Psychology Research Methods Exam Questions Answers scored A+

Methods are what psychologists use to conduct their research. There are two areas of methods, what are these? -ANSWER- Experimental Methods and Non-Experimental Methods Outline what experimental methods consist of -ANSWER- Lab, natural, field and quasi experiments Outline what non-experimental methods consist of -ANSWER- Correlational analysis, observations, case studies and self report (interviews and questionnaires) Outline a lab experiment and evaluate it -ANSWER- Conducted within a lab which has high control over the environment. :) - High level of control over variables meaning that extraneous variables are likely to be controlled and thus a cause and effect relationship can be established between IV and DV :) - High reliability of results due to the tight control over variables meaning that it can be repeated and findings can be checked for consistency :( - It lacks ecological validity as it takes place in a very fake setting, with possibly a fake task, therefore making it hard to generalise the results to other environments or settings :( - It can encourage demand characteristics as participants know they are being watched/recorded and thus they change their behaviour based on clues on what the aim is, to suit what the researcher wants to see, this affects the accuracy of the results Outline a field experiment and evaluate it -ANSWER- Takes place in a real environment such as a school, and there is then an IV that is manipulated to effect the DV. :) - Less prone to demand characteristics as people may not know they are taking part is an experiment and thus will display natural behaviour :) - High ecological validity as the setting is real life meaning the findings can then be generalised to other settings beyond the study :( - It lacks reliability in the findings as it is done in a setting where there is little control over confounding variables meaning it is difficult to replicate it and get consistency in results :( - Ethical issues can arise when conducting a field experiment as people are not aware they are taking part and thus there is no informed consent that they are giving to be able to study them, therefore there is risk that the participants will not want their results used and thus must be remov