AQA A Level Psychology Research
Methods Questions and Answers
Already Passed
Methods are what psychologists use to conduct their research. There are two areas of methods,
what are these? ✔✔Experimental Methods and No
...
AQA A Level Psychology Research
Methods Questions and Answers
Already Passed
Methods are what psychologists use to conduct their research. There are two areas of methods,
what are these? ✔✔Experimental Methods and Non-Experimental Methods
Outline what experimental methods consist of ✔✔Lab, natural, field and quasi experiments
Outline what non-experimental methods consist of ✔✔Correlational analysis, observations, case
studies and self report (interviews and questionnaires)
Outline a lab experiment and evaluate it ✔✔Conducted within a lab which has high control over
the environment.
:) - High level of control over variables meaning that extraneous variables are likely to be
controlled and thus a cause and effect relationship can be established between IV and DV
:) - High reliability of results due to the tight control over variables meaning that it can be
repeated and findings can be checked for consistency
:( - It lacks ecological validity as it takes place in a very fake setting, with possibly a fake task,
therefore making it hard to generalise the results to other environments or settings
:( - It can encourage demand characteristics as participants know they are being
watched/recorded and thus they change their behaviour based on clues on what the aim is, to suit
what the researcher wants to see, this affects the accuracy of the results
Outline a field experiment and evaluate it ✔✔Takes place in a real environment such as a school,
and there is then an IV that is manipulated to effect the DV.
:) - Less prone to demand characteristics as people may not know they are taking part is an
experiment and thus will display natural behaviour
:) - High ecological validity as the setting is real life meaning the findings can then be
generalised to other settings beyond the study
:( - It lacks reliability in the findings as it is done in a setting where there is little control over
confounding variables meaning it is difficult to replicate it and get consistency in results
:( - Ethical issues can arise when conducting a field experiment as people are not aware they are
taking part and thus there is no informed consent that they are giving to be able to study them,
therefore there is risk that the participants will not want their results used and thus must be
removed
Outline a natural experiment and evaluate it ✔✔In a real setting with a naturally occurring IV,
for example looking at the effect of stress after an earthquake hits a city.
:) - Participants show no demand characteristics at all as at the time of the IV occurring they did
not know about the study as this will show natural behaviour
:) - Very high ecological validity as it is set in a real environment and nothing is controlled, so
therefore you are able to generalise the findings beyond the setting of the study
:( - It lacks reliability as there is zero control over variables meaning that it is difficult to
replicate the experiment and get consistent results
:( - Due to the lack of control over extraneous variables it is very difficult to establish a cause
and effect relationship and thus this reduces the internal validity
Outline a quasi experiment and evaluate it ✔✔Quasi experiments have an IV that is based on an
existing difference between people such as age, no one has manipulated this variable and it exists
on its own, for example comparing achievement level of first-born children with that of laterborn children.
:) - They are often carried out in controlled c
[Show More]
