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examBoard: AQA
examType: GCSE
lessonTitle: Review and Practice - Procedures
Psychology is all about understanding human behaviour and mental processes. To do this properly, psychologists need to follow specific research procedures to make sure their findings are valid and reliable. This section will help you review the key procedures and practice applying them.
Key Definitions:
Experiments allow researchers to establish cause and effect by manipulating variables. There are three main types:
Observations involve watching and recording behaviour without intervention. They can be:
Good research design is crucial for collecting meaningful data. This involves careful planning of how variables will be measured and controlled.
Understanding different types of variables is essential for designing valid studies:
The factor that is manipulated or changed by the researcher. In an experiment testing whether listening to music improves memory, the independent variable would be whether participants listen to music or not.
The outcome that is measured to see if the independent variable had an effect. In our music example, this would be the memory test scores.
Unwanted factors that might affect results. These need to be controlled to ensure valid findings. Examples include noise, temperature, or participant characteristics.
How researchers select participants for their studies can significantly impact the validity of their findings. Different sampling methods have different strengths and weaknesses:
Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. This is considered the gold standard as it reduces bias.
Example: Using a computer to randomly select 100 students from a school register of 1,000 pupils.
Strength: Representative of the population.
Weakness: Can be time-consuming and difficult to achieve true randomness.
Selecting whoever is available and willing to participate at the time.
Example: Asking people in a shopping centre to complete a questionnaire.
Strength: Quick and easy to gather participants.
Weakness: May not be representative of the wider population.
Participants choose to take part in the research, often responding to advertisements.
Example: Posting a request for participants on social media.
Strength: Participants are usually motivated and willing.
Weakness: Self-selection bias - only certain types of people may volunteer.
The population is divided into specific groups (strata), then participants are randomly selected from each group.
Example: Ensuring your sample has the same percentage of males and females as the target population.
Strength: Ensures representation of key population characteristics.
Weakness: Requires knowledge of population characteristics beforehand.
All psychological research must follow ethical guidelines to protect participants from harm. The British Psychological Society (BPS) provides guidelines that researchers must follow:
Participants must understand what the research involves and agree to take part voluntarily. For children or vulnerable adults, consent might need to come from parents or guardians.
Personal information must be kept private and data should be anonymised. Participants should not be identifiable in published research.
Participants must be told they can leave the study at any time without penalty and can ask for their data to be removed.
Stanley Milgram's famous study on obedience (1963) is often discussed in terms of research ethics. Participants were told to give electric shocks to a 'learner' (actually an actor) when they made mistakes. The study revealed how easily people obey authority figures, but raised serious ethical concerns:
Today, this study would not be approved by ethics committees without significant modifications. It demonstrates why strict ethical guidelines are now in place.
When reviewing psychological research, it's important to critically evaluate the procedures used. Ask yourself these questions:
Let's apply what we've learned to a hypothetical research scenario:
A psychologist wants to investigate whether using social media before bedtime affects sleep quality in teenagers.
Research design considerations:
This design allows the researcher to establish whether there's a causal relationship between social media use and sleep quality while controlling for other factors that might affect sleep.
Effective research in psychology depends on careful planning and implementation of procedures. By understanding sampling methods, variable control, experimental design and ethical considerations, you can both conduct and evaluate psychological research effectively. Remember that every method has strengths and limitations and the choice of procedure should always be guided by the research question being investigated.
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