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2) Psychology > 3) Scientific Methods > Flashcards

3) Scientific Methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the scientific methods used for?

A
  • Assess claims

- Make decisions

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2
Q

What is a hypothesis?

A

An exact prediction about outcomes

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3
Q

What are operation definitions?

A
  • An exact definition for the purpose of the study
  • Words that do not necessarily have a meaning
  • May vary from study to study
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4
Q

What is a naturalistic observation?

A

A descriptive research method in which researchers observe and record behavior in its natural setting, without attempting to influence or control it

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5
Q

What is the issue with naturalistic observations?

A

Reliability “cross-validation”

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6
Q

What is a case study?

A

Study of ONE subject (person) in depth

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7
Q

Are case studies published often? Can data be generalized?

A
  • Not published much, unless its incredible or unusual

- Data cannot be generalized

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8
Q

What kind of studies do psychologists use?

A

Case studies

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9
Q

What are surveys?

A

Data collection tool used to gather information about individuals

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10
Q

What is the key to surveys?

A

Sampling; selecting a portion of the population

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11
Q

What does sampling need to be?

A
  • Random

- Every single person in a population needs to have an equal chance of being selected for the research sample

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12
Q

Can you use open-ended questions in surveys?

A
  • Only if you have a small sample

- If not, you’ll end up with too many different answers

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13
Q

What is a likert scale?

A
  • Statements are used

- Strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree

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14
Q

Why is anonymity important in research?

A

People will tell you what you want to hear

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15
Q

What is a longitudinal study?

A

Observational research method in which data is gathered for the same subjects repeatedly over a period of time

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16
Q

What are the upsides and downsides of longitudinal studies?

A
  • Reliable
  • Takes an enormous amount of time; difficult to obtain research grants
  • Subject attrition
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17
Q

What are longitudinal studies best used for? Why?

A
  • Infants and young children

- Since they are growing quickly, studies can be done quickly

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18
Q

What are cross-sectional studies?

A

Observationalstudythat analyses data collected from a population, or a representative subset, at a specific point in time

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19
Q

What is the upside of a cross-sectional study?

A

You can accomplish a 10-year longitudinal study in two hours

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20
Q

What is the basic assumption of a cross-sectional study?

A

The 8 year old accurately reflects what the 6 year old would reflect in two years

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21
Q

What is a correlation?

A
  • Compares the relationship between two sets of data

- Does NOT indicate cause-effect; simply states that they are related

22
Q

What is the correlation coefficient? What are the ranges?

A
  • 1.00 to 1.00

1. 00 is a perfect correlation; generates a linear graph

23
Q

Is a negative correlation low?

A
  • Not necessarily

- r.= -0.93 is high; its just that one value increases as the other value decreases

24
Q

Give an example of a negative correlation.

A

The more you exercise, the more the body weight goes down

25
Q

What is the use of correlation?

A

If there is an established correlation, if you know one score, you can predict the other

26
Q

What is an experiment?

A

Tries to establish cause-effect

27
Q

What is the independent variable?

A
  • Variable (effect) BEING studied

- Something that one group of people do that another group of people don’t

28
Q

Does the dependent variable affect the independent variable, or the opposite?

A

The independent variable affects the dependent variable

29
Q

Is before and after research valid?

A

NO, since you need a control group

30
Q

What is blind research?

A

Information about the test is masked (kept) from the participant, to reduce or eliminate bias, until after a trial outcome is known

31
Q

What is double-blind research?

A

If both tester and subject are blinded, the trial is called adouble-blind experiment

32
Q

What are main effects?

A

The effect of one of your independent variables on the dependent variable, ignoring the effects of all other independent variables

33
Q

What are interaction effects?

A

When the effect of one independent variable on the dependent variable changes depending on the level of another independent variable

34
Q

What is reliability?

A
  • Consistency of the test data

- Refers not only to the people, but to the test itself

35
Q

How do you measure reliability in terms of numbers?

A
  • Test Retest measure
  • Correlation coefficient but rather than comparing one thing to another, we’re comparing Trial 1 and Trial 2 of the same experiment
  • If the test is 100% reliable, r.=1.00
36
Q

What is validity?

A

Refers to a test’s ability to measure what its supposed to measure

37
Q

Why are statistics important?

A
  • Objectively describe behaviour
  • Help us make decisions
  • Establish norms
  • Standardized tests
38
Q

What is the median?

A

Value separating the higher half of a data sample from the lower half (middle value)

39
Q

Why would you want the median over the average?

A

To reduce any anomalies or outliers

40
Q

What is the mode?

A

Value that appears most often in a set of data

41
Q

The mode is most often non-_______

A

parametric

42
Q

What does non-parametric mean? Give examples.

A
  • Gathering data without numbers

- Which fast food restaurant is your favourite?

43
Q

What is the mean/average?

A

Sum of the scores divided by the number of cases

44
Q

What is the problem with the mean?

A
  • Does not tell us the raw range of scores that make up the mean
  • Two groups can have the same mean, but very different raw data
45
Q

How do you solve the problem with the mean?

A

Standard deviation

46
Q

What is the standard deviation?

A
  • Number calculated from the raw scores that tells us about the spread of the scores that make up the mean
  • The larger the standard deviation the greater the spread
47
Q

What does the standard deviation tell us?

A

Tells us how far the mean is “OK” and how far from the mean is “abnormal”

48
Q

What percent corresponds between the mean and 1SD deviation?

A

34.1%

49
Q

What percent corresponds between the 1SD and 2SD deviation?

A

13.6%

50
Q

What percent corresponds between 2SD and 3SD deviation?

A

2.1%

2) Psychology (8 decks)

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