Psychology Research Methods Keywords

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Internal validity

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Whether the study has tested what it set out to test; the degree to which the observed effect was due to the experimental manipulation rather than other factors such as extraneous variables.

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External validity

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The degree to which a research finding can be generalised; to other settings (ecological validity); to other groups of people (population validity); over time (historical validity).

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Control

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Refers to the extent to which any variable is held constant or regulated by a researcher.

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Mundane realism

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Refers to how a study mirrors the real world. The simulated task environment is realistic to the degree to which experiences encountered in the environment will occur in the real world.

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Ethics committee (also called Institutional Review Board, IRB)

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A group of people within a research institution that must approve a study before it begins.

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Ethical guidelines

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Concrete, quasi-legal documents that help to guide conduct within psychology by establishing principles for standard practice and competence.

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Presumptive content

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A method of dealing with lack of informed consent or deception, by asking a group of people who are similar to the participants whether they would agree to take part in a study. If this group of people consents to the procedures in the proposed study, it is presumed that the real participants would have also agreed.

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Directional hypothesis

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States the direction of the predicted difference between two conditions or two groups of participants.

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Non-directional hypothesis

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Predicts simply that there will be a difference between two conditions or two groups of participants, without stating the direction of the difference.

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Pilot study

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A small-scale trial run of a study to test any aspects of the design, with a view to making improvements.

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Confederate

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An individual in a study who is not a real participant and has been instructed how to behave by the investigator/experimenter. May act as the independent variable.

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Counterbalancing

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An experimental technique used to overcome order effects. Counterbalancing ensures that each condition is tested first or second in equal amounts.

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Experimental design

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A set of procedures used to control the influence of factors such as participant variables in an experiment.

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Independent groups

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Participants are allocated to two (or more) groups representing different experimental conditions. Allocation is usually done using random techniques.

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Matched pairs

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Pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables such as age and IQ. One member of each pair is placed in the experimental group and the other member in the control group.

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Order effect

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In a repeated measures design, an extraneous variable arising from the order in which conditions are presented, e.g a practice effect or fatigue effect.

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Random allocation

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Allocating participants to experimental groups or conditions using random techniques.

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Repeated measures

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Each participant takes part in every condition under test.

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Single blind

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A type of research design in which the participant is not aware of the research aims of which condition of the experiment they are receiving.

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Demand characteristics

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A cue that makes the participants aware of what the researcher expects to find, or how participants are expected to behave. Demand characteristics can change the outcome of a study because participants will often change their behaviour to conform to the expectations.

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Median

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The middle value

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Double blind

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Neither the participant nor the experimenter are aware of the important details and thus have no expectations. In a single blind study only the participant is unaware.

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Experimental realism

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The extent to which participants become involved in an experiment and become less influenced by cues about how to behave.

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Hawthorne effect

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The tendency for participants to alter their behaviour merely as a result of knowing that they are being observed.

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Investigator/experimenter bias

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The effect that an investigator/experimenter's expectations have on the participants and thus on the results of a research study.

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Investigator effect

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Anything that the investigator/experimenter does which has an effect on a participant's performance in a study, other than what was intended. This includes direct effects (as a consequence of the investigator/experimenter interacting with the participant) and indirect effects (as a consequence of the investigator designing the study).

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Social desirability bias

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A tendency for respondents to answer questions in a way that will present them in a better light.

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Mean

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The arithmetic average of a group of scores. Takes the values of a the data into account.

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Measure of central tendency

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A descriptive statistic that provides information about a 'typical' response for a data set.

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Measure of dispersion

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A descriptive statistic that provides information about how spread-out a set of scores is.