the experimental method

Question 1

What are aims?

Answer 1

• a statement of what the researcher intends to find out in a research study

Question 2

What are confounding variables?

Answer 2

• any variable which varies systematically with the independent variable that might potentially affect the dependent variable and thereby confound the results

Question 3

What is a debrief?

Answer 3

• to inform the participants of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the same state they were in at the start of the study.
• debriefing is not an ethical issue; it is a means of dealing with ethical issues.

Question 4

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 4

• the variable measured by the experimenter

Question 5

What are ethical issues?

Answer 5

• concern questions of right and wrong. they arise in research where there are conflicting sets of values between researchers and participants concerning the goals, procedures or outcomes of a research study.

Question 6

what is an hypothesis?

Answer 6

• a precise and testable statement about the assumed relationship between variables. operationalisation is a key part of making the statement testable

Question 7

what is an independent variable?

Answer 7

• some event that is directly manipulated by an experimenter in order to test its effect on another variable - the dependent variable (DV).

Question 8

What is operationalise?

Answer 8

• ensuring that variables are in a form that can be easily tested. a concept such as educational attainment needs to be specified more clearly if we are going to investigate it. for example it might be operationalised as GCSE rade in maths.

Question 9

What are standardised procedures?

Answer 9

• a set of procedures that are the same for all participants in order to be able to repeat the study. this includes standardised instructions- the instructions given to participants to tell them how to perform the task.

Question 10

what is valid consent?

Answer 10

• participants must be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order that they can make an informed decision about whether to participate.