AQA Psychology Research Methods Flashcards PDF

Flashcards for AQA Psychology - Research Methods ================================================ Key Definitions --------------- - Q: What is a case study? - A: A detailed study of a specific person, group, or event, yielding extensive qualitative data. - Q: Define content analysis....

Flashcards for AQA Psychology - Research Methods ================================================ Key Definitions --------------- - Q: What is a case study? - A: A detailed study of a specific person, group, or event, yielding extensive qualitative data. - Q: Define content analysis. - A: A research tool used to identify themes or patterns in qualitative data. - Q: What is ecological validity? - A: The extent to which results from a study can be applied to real-life settings. - Q: Explain demand characteristics. - A: Changes in participant behavior due to awareness of being studied. Experimental Designs -------------------- - Q: What is a repeated measures design? - A: The same participants take part in all conditions of an experiment. - Q: Define independent groups design. - A: Different participants are used in each condition of an experiment. - Q: What is a matched pairs design? - A: Participants in different groups are matched based on key characteristics. Observations ------------ - Q: What is a covert observation? - A: Participants are unaware they are being observed, reducing demand characteristics but raising ethical concerns. - Q: Define overt observation. - A: Participants are aware they are being observed, ensuring informed consent. - Q: What is naturalistic observation? - A: Observing participants in their natural environment, enhancing ecological validity. Variables and Hypotheses ------------------------ - Q: What is an independent variable? - A: The variable manipulated by the researcher to observe its effects. - Q: Define dependent variable. - A: The variable measured in an experiment to assess the impact of the independent variable. - Q: What is a confounding variable? - A: An extraneous variable that influences the results by being related to the independent variable. - Q: What is a directional hypothesis? - A: A hypothesis that predicts the direction of an effect (e.g., X will increase Y). Data Handling ------------- - Q: Define standard deviation. - A: A measure of how much scores deviate from the mean. - Q: What is the mean? - A: The average of a dataset, calculated by summing values and dividing by the number of values. - Q: Define qualitative data. - A: Non-numerical data, such as text or video. - Q: What is quantitative data? - A: Numerical data, such as height or weight.