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PSYC 102 > 1- Research Methods > Flashcards

1- Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Authority

A
  • the weakest form of knowledge because it is based on trust, not on individually collecting information
  • it can be useful
  • but is often exploited
    - humans are designed to work together, which leads to small cues which can influence their validity/authority
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2
Q

the bullshit issue with authority and how it differs from lies

A

a LIAR cares about truth…
but a BS-er doesn’t care about truth, they just want to convince
many authority figures don’t care about truth

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3
Q

intuition

A

effortless recognition of pattern
- commonly a starting point in science
- draws form life (anecdotal) experience
- sometimes correct
- often wrong

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4
Q

problems with intuition?

A

illusory correlation
- we are always looking for patterns!

correlation =/= causation
- third variable problem!!

susceptible to bias

overconfidence
- the dunning-kruger effect

fuck probability we struggle with probability

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5
Q

the dunning-kruger effect

A
  • confidence is highest when you know NOTHING about the subject!!
  • so there is no link between confidence and correctness!
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6
Q

gambler’s fallacy

A

believe that there relationship with probability when there IS none

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7
Q

types of bias (problems with intuition)

A
  • confirmation bias
  • hindsight bias (creeping determinism)
  • post-hoc explanations (logical fallacy of assuming that one thing caused another merely because the first thing preceded the other)
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8
Q

Observation

A
  • critical to good science: empiricism
  • works best with objective measures
  • still not enough to acquire the best information about the world…
  • example: Naturalism – collecting doesn’t give you information; observation is not enough
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9
Q

problems with observation

A
  • bias/limited explanatory power
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10
Q

scientific skepticism

A
  • question authority and intuition
  • question your senses
  • question knowledge, beliefs
  • systematic doubt and continual testing
    but be careful of extreme skepticism/extreme postmodernity
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11
Q

the scientific method

A
  • observation
  • idea
  • consult past research
  • hypothesis
  • design study
  • ethical approval
  • collect data
    -analyze data
  • modify and repeat (if hypothesis wrong)
  • consider implications of results, build theories
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12
Q

aspects of good science

A
  • materialism
    • everything can be measured objectively because everything is physical in nature
    • why? because how would materialist and non-materialist stuff even interact
  • universalism
    • systematic objective observations in a format that we all agree on
  • communality
    • methods and results freely accessible and available to everyone
    • allows for you and other people to reproduce
  • Disinterestedness
    • don’t care about the outcome of the experiment, if it fails it fails
    • avoid confirmation bias
  • Organized skepticism
    • weighing it on the science, not authority
    • peer review!!

UM OCD

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13
Q

theory

A

explanations that organize and explain a variety of facts/descriptions/observations

  • falsifiable
  • generate new knowledge
  • parsimonious
    • simple and elegant
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14
Q

pseudoscience

A
  • often relies on authority
  • emphasis on scientific-sounding jargon
  • not falsifiable
  • poor/no methodology
  • poor/no anecdotal evidence
  • not peer reviewed
  • ignores/conflicts with known/existing evidence
  • vague claims
  • often reinforces status quo or a worldview
  • does not facilitate further resarch
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15
Q

goals of psychological research

A
  • describe behaviour
  • predict behaviour
  • determine causes of behaviour
  • influence/control behaviour
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16
Q

types of research

A
  • basic research
    • description
    • prediction
    • causes and mechanisms
  • applied research
    • attempts to find practical solutions to existing problems
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17
Q

conceptual variable

A

any construct/idea/concept/variable that we can conceptualize but not completely measure

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18
Q

operational variable

A

proxy/indirect measure of conceptual variable

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19
Q

four general categories of variables

A
  • independent variable
  • dependent variable
  • situational variables
  • participant variables
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20
Q

situational variable

A

all aspects of experimental situation
- room
- time of day
- temperature of room
- environment!!
try to keep the same for all individuals

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21
Q

participant variables

A

what the participant brings in with them
- collect enough participants to reduce the noise

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22
Q

curvilinear

A

describing an association between variables that does not consistently follow an increasing or decreasing pattern but rather changes direction after a certain point

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23
Q

causality

A
  • covariation of cause and effect
  • temporal precedence (a has to happen before b!)
  • no more plausible alternative explanation
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24
Q

confounding variable

A
  • a variable that varies along with the independent variable
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25
Q

placebo

A

dose of the drug without the acutal drug
- explanation will shape experience

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26
Q

single-blind

A

participant doesn’t know whether they’re in the control group or the experimental group

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27
Q

double blind

A

neither the participant NOR the researcher knows which participants are in the control group or the experimental group

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28
Q

open label

A

everyone knows which condition they’re in
for ethical reasons

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29
Q

animal models for research

A
  • understand basic mechanisms, genetics
  • because there are no viable alternatives
  • because they have a high predictive value in regard to humans
  • have a number of protections in place
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30
Q

human research

A

ethical considerations must be made!!
- federally mandated committees review human research proposals
- informed consent

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31
Q

why r^2 instead of r

A

it gives SHARED variance in the sample
- how much variance in one is related to variance in another variable

32
Q

standard regression equation

A

y = mx + b
y = dependent variable
m = coefficient, rate, and slope of line
x = independent variable
b = where line crosses the y-axis
if you have this equation and you have x, you can predict y

33
Q

standard deviation

A

tells you how wide the normal curve is
- how much variance there is in your data

exceptions are 2 SD away from the mean!

34
Q

standard error

A

how far the sample mean is from the population mena

35
Q

statistical significance

A

p < 0.05

gives likelihood of correctness, not effect size

36
Q

effect size

A

cohen’s d
tells us magnitude of effect of I on DV
STRENGTH of the relationship

37
Q

P-hacking

A

if you do enough comparisons, you will find SOME significance
compare in many different conditions
- If you do 20 of them, there will likely be a false positive or a false negative
- Can deliberately manipulate
- Taking advantage of multiple comparison to make a fake relationship look like a real one

38
Q

construct validity

A

do your operational definitions accurately describe what you want it to define?
did you do a good job at operationalizing it?

39
Q

indicators of construct validity

A
  • face validity
  • content validity
  • concurrent and convergent validity
  • discriminant validity
  • predictive validity
40
Q

face validity

A

intuition, basically

the degree to which a procedure, especially a psychological test or assessment, appears effective in terms of its stated aims.

41
Q

content validity

A

did we capture all the different aspects and content of the conceptual variable
Content validity evaluates how well an instrument (like a test) covers all relevant parts of the construct it aims to measure.

42
Q

concurrent and convergent validity

A

does score on test line up with rest of the data with other existing measures?

43
Q

discriminant validity

A

Discriminant validity specifically measures whether constructs that theoretically should not be related to each other are, in fact, unrelated.
make sure that there is no 3rd variable issues!!

44
Q

predictive validity

A

do variables predict the subject’s future behaviours well?

45
Q

types of validity

A

internal validity
external validity

46
Q

internal validity

A

you designed a good experiment!
- no confounding variable
- can we trust the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable
a measure of how well a study is conducted (its structure) and how accurately its results reflect the studied group.

47
Q

external validity

A
  • good representation of what’s happening in the outside world?
  • generalize well?
  • need to consider if our participants are WEIRD?
48
Q

WEIRD participants

A

Western
Educationalized
Industrialized
Rich
Democratic

may not generalize to other cultures! need cross-cultural psychology

49
Q

accuracy (validity)

A

measures what you mean to measure

50
Q

reliability

A

does it do the same thing every time?

51
Q
  • Margaret flow Washburn
A

○ 1871-1939
○ First woman to earn a PhD in psychology
Research focused on animal behaviour and cognition

52
Q
  • Mary Whiton Calvin’s
A

○ 1863-1930
- first female prez of the apa
○ Preeminent first-generation american psychologist
○ opposed the behaviourist movement
○ conducted significant research into memory
Established one of the earliest experimental psychology labs in the US

53
Q
  • Francis Sumner
A

○ 1895-1954
○ First African american to receive a PhD in psych in 1920
○ Dissertation focused on issues related to psychoanalysis!
○ Interested in
§ Racial bias
§ Educational justice
○ One of the founders of Howard Unviersity’s department of psychology
“Father of Black Psychology”

54
Q
  • Inès Beverly Prosser
A

○ 1895-1934
○ First African American woman to receive a PhD in psychology
○ Highlighted issues related to education in segregated vs integrated schools
○ Her work was very influential in the Brown v Board of Education
§ Ruled that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional

55
Q

Horatio pinero

A

○ Founded some of the first experimental psychology labs in South America
2 in buenos aires, argentina

56
Q
  • Gunamudian David Boaz and Narendra nath Sen Gupta
A

○ India
1st independent departments of psych at the U of Madras and the U of Calcutta, respectively

57
Q
  • Mary Whiton Calkins
A

○ First female prez of the APA
By 1946, nearly 1/4 of american psychologists were female!!

58
Q

deductive reasoning

A

ideas are testedi n the real world

59
Q

Inductive reasoning

A

real world observations lead to new ideas
○ May or may not be correct
Used to form theories -> hypotheses… tested with deductive reasoning

60
Q

theory

A

well developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena

61
Q
  • Hypothesis
A

testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct

62
Q

Clinical or Case Studies

A
  • Focus on one person or just a few individuals
    • Pros:
      ○ Big insight, rich information
    • Cons
      ○ Hard to generalize
      Ability to apply the findings of a particular research project to larger segments of society
63
Q

Naturalistic Observation

A
  • Observing behaviour in it’s natural setting
    • Observer has to be unobtrusive and inconspicuous!!
      ○ If people know that they’re being watched, they are less likely to behave naturally
      Not limited to research about humans
64
Q

pros and cons about Naturalistic observation

A
  • Pros
    ○ High validity/accuracy
    ○ Higher degree of ecological validity —> realism
    ○ Better able to generalize the findings
    • Cons
      ○ Hard to set up
      ○ Hard to control
      ○ Requires a lot of time, money, and luck
      ○ Observer bias
      § Observers might unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations
65
Q

how to protect against observer bias

A

□ Clear criteria established for the types of behaviours recorded and how they should be classified

□ Inter-rater reliability—measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers

66
Q

Surveys

A
  • Lists of questions
    • Can be completed in short time, easy to administer
      Makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people
    • Pros
      ○ Info from a large sample of people —> better generalizability
    • Cons
      ○ Less depth of information on each person than a case study
      Not always accurate responses
67
Q

Archival Research

A
  • Relies on looking at past records/data sets for interesting patterns or relationships

Pros
○ Researcher never directly interacts with research participants -> Less investment of time and money

Cons
○ No control over what info was originally collected
§ Research questions have to be tailored to fit this
○ No guarantee of consistency between the records
§ Difficult to compare and contrast different data sets

68
Q

Longitudinal

A
  • Data-gathering is administered respeatedly over an extended period of time
    • Pros
      ○ Less concern for differences among cohorts
      ○ Incredible time investment by researcher and research participants
      ○ Financial investment
      ○ Research participants must also be willing to continue their participation for an extended period of time
      § High attrition rates
      Reduction in number of research participants
69
Q

Cross-sectional research

A
  • Researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time
    • Pros
      ○ Shorter term investment compared to longitudinal
    • Cons
      Limited by differences that exist between the different generations
70
Q

illusory correlation

A

when people believe that relationships exist between two thigns when no such relationship exists

71
Q

operational definition

A

precise description of our variables
Important in allowing others to understand exactly how and what a researcher measure sin a particular experiement

72
Q

Quasi-experiemental

A

when you cannot directly control the independent variable
○ Cannot make cause-and-effect claims
Ethical constraints

73
Q

Statistical analysis

A

determines how likely any difference found is due to chance

74
Q

Internal consistency

A

degree to which different items on a survey that measure the same thing correlate with one another

75
Q

Test-retest reliability

A

degree to which the outcomes of a particular meausre remain consistent over multiple administrations

76
Q

ecological validity

A

degree to which research results generalize to real-world applications

77
Q

organizations for ethics

A

institutional review board (IRB)

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

PSYC 102 (14 decks)

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