3: OCR Psychology research methods

Click on all the weaknesses of field experiments

• They may suffer from demand characteristics

• They may lack ecological validity

• It's harder to control extraneous variables

• They may suffer from observer effects

Tick all the true statements about natural experiments.

• They can be conducted in a real life environment.

• They can be conducted in a lab/controlled environment.

• Participants can be randomly allocated to groups

• Participants can't be randomly allocated to groups

Answer explanation

A natural experiment is when the participants can't be randomly allocated to the IV conditions - e.g. over 50s and under 50s, as they can't change their age.

Tick the strength(s) of an independent measures experiment design.

• There might be practice effects

• There might be participant variables

• There aren't any practice effects

• There aren't any participant variables

Tick the strength(s) of a repeated measures experiment design

• There may be participant variables

• There may be practice effects

• There aren't any participant variables

• There aren't any practice effects

You are conducting an observation in a real life environment; the participants do not know you are watching them from a distance. Which types of observation is this?

• Naturalistic

• Covert

• Overt

• Participant

• Non-participant

Which type of interview involves a pre-prepared list of questions that is the same for every participant?

Pick all of the examples of an open question.

• The food in the canteen is great - true or false?

• How do you feel about the canteen food?

• On a scale of 1-7, how would you rate the food in the canteen?

• Tell me your views on the roast meals.

Pick the weakness(es) of the case study method.

• The researcher obtains an in-depth understanding of the subject.

• The findings may not be generalisable to all, as you're only studying one unique person.

• The data is always qualitative, so is harder to analyse.

• The researcher can get too involved and lose their objectivity.

Which method can be used to study the relationship between two variables that can't be ethically studied with experiments?

• case study

• correlation

• observation

• questionnaire

Answer explanation

E.g. - we can't experiment on the relationship between extreme sleep deprivation and mental health as we can't deliberately make someone sleep deprived. But we can study the mental health of people who are naturally sleep deprived.

Click on all of the weaknesses of lab experiments.

• They may suffer from demand characteristics

• They may lack ecological validity

• It's harder to control extraneous variables

• They may suffer from observer effects

Answer explanation

All experiments may suffer from demand characteristics and observer effects. Lab experiments are often artificial, so may not totally reflect real-life behaviour.