Research Methods Introduction

Question 1

What is the mean?

Answer 1

Adding all of the values then dividing by how many there are

Question 2

What is the median?

Answer 2

The middle value when the list is ordered

Question 3

What is an independent variable?

Answer 3

The aspect being manipulated in the study

Question 4

What is the mode?

Answer 4

The most frequently occurring value

Question 5

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 5

The aspect being measured in the study

Question 6

What is self-selecting sampling?

Answer 6

When the person volunteers to take part in the study

Question 7

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 7

When people who are available at the time are used in the study

Question 8

What are advantages of a self-selecting sample?

Answer 8

• It is completely consensual so people do not feel forced to take part
• Ethical

Question 9

What are disadvantages of a self-selecting sample?

Answer 9

• A smaller selection of participants
• May not be representative of the population as a whole

Question 10

What are advantages of an opportunity sample?

Answer 10

• Larger sample
• Quick + easy

Question 11

What are disadvantages of an opportunity sample?

Answer 11

• Harder to generalise
• Biased
• People not as eager to participate

Question 12

What is a control variable?

Answer 12

The aspect that stays the same

Question 13

What are high levels of controls?

Answer 13

Where as much of the study as possible is kept the same for all the participants

Question 14

What is an advantage of conducting a study as a lab experiment?

Answer 14

• Cause and effect established (IV, DV)
• Can be replicable (reliable)

Question 15

What is a disadvantage of conducting a study as a lab experiment?

Answer 15

• Lack ecological validity
• Demand characteristics

Question 16

What is quantitative data?

Answer 16

When the data is in number format

Question 17

What is qualitative data?

Answer 17

When the data is in a written format

Question 18

What are advantages of quantitative data?

Answer 18

• Easy to represent
• Easy to analyse

Question 19

What are disadvantages of quantitative data?

Answer 19

• Lacks details
• Unexpected behaviours might not be counted

Question 20

What are advantages of qualitative data?

Answer 20

• More detailed
• Gives context to quantitative data
• Unexpected behaviours can be captured

Question 21

What are disadvantages of qualitative data?

Answer 21

• Difficult to represent
• Difficult to analyse