Task 1: Define key words

Key Word Definition

Situational variables
Situational factors that may affect the behaviour of the participant
Participant variables
When a participant differs from each other.
Standardised procedure When all factors of the experiment are kept same for all the participants.

Single-blind technique When a participant is not aware of the aims of the study, so they don’t conform to
the expectations of the study
Double-blind technique
When the participant, as well as, the researcher isn’t aware of the study, which
reduces investigator variable.
Counterbalancing
When people from group A perform both conditions, as well as group B
Randomisation
When participants are allocated to a different group and distributed evenly.
Random Allocation
When participants are randomly allocated to groups in order to prevent participant
variable.

Task 2: Applying what we know

Identify the potential situational and participant variables that may influence the findings of the following
investigation and explain how they can be controlled:

Researchers posted a notice on Facebook to recruit volunteer participants for an investigation. The investigation
wanted to see whether or not people select partners who are similar to themselves. Once they were recruited
they were invited to a university laboratory and asked to select their ideal partner from a series of photographs
and descriptions. The researchers wanted to see if males or females were more likely to select people who were
similar to themselves as ideal partners. The participants came to the lab on different days and were tested by a
variety of male and female researchers.

Situational variables: The University Lab.

How to control these: Standardized procedure, for we could conduct the experiment in a natural setting or make
the laboratory look like a natural setting so the participant dose not feel like they are being obs

Participant variables: They were tested by a variety of male and female researchers.

How to control these: Randomisation where a participant is randomly allocated to groups, but evenly distributed to
the variety of male and female researchers.