Ch. 1 - Research in Behavioural Sciences Flashcards
Who has been credited as the first individual to address basic questions about human nature and their behaviour?
Aristotle
What are the two primary types of research?
Basic and applied.
What is basic research?
Conducted to understand psychological processes without regard for whether or not the knowledge is immediately applicable. Goal of increasing knowledge.
What is applied research?
Research with the goal of finding solutions to certain problems.
How are the two types of research connected?
Applied research requires basic research. Applied research also provides new ideas and new questions.
What ar the three goals of researchers?
The description, prediction, or explanation of behaviour.
Which of the three goals is considered the most important?
Explanation.
Why is a background in research valuable? (4)
Allows you to comprehend research relevant to your profession, makes one a more intelligent and effective “research consumer,” aids in the development of critical thinking, and helps one become an authority on topics.
What are the three criteria required for an investigation to be considered scientific?
Systematic empiricism, public verification, and solvable problems.
What is empiricism?
The practice of relying on observation to draw conclusions about the world.
What distinguishes scientific observation from regular observation?
Scientific observation is systematic.
What is the purpose of public verification?
To ensure that findings can be observed, replicated, and verified. It makes science self-correcting.
What is pseudoscience?
Claims of evidence that masquerade as science but in fact violate the basic criteria of scientific investigation.
What are the two jobs of the scientist?
Detecting and explaining phenomena.
What are 6 characteristics of a good theory?
Proposes causal relationships, coherent, parsimonious, generates a testable hypothesis, stimulates new research, and solves an existing theoretical question.
What is the difference between a model and a theory?
A theory explains (how and why), a model describes (how).
What are post-hoc explanations?
Explanations that are made after the fact.
How are theories tested?
Indirectly by testing one or more hypotheses derived from that theory.
What is deduction?
A process of reasoning from a general proposition (the theory) to specific implications of that proposition (the hypothesis).
What is the format of a hypothesis?
“If A then B”
What is induction?
Abstracting a hypothesis from a collection of facts.
What is often regarded as the central hallmark of science?
Empirical falsification.
What does support for a theory depend on?
The number of times supported as well as the stringency of the tests it has survived.
What is methodological pluralism?
Using many different methods and designs in testing theories.
What is the strategy of strong inference?
Pitting theories head-to-head to confirm one while disconfirming another.
What are the two types of definitions?
Conceptual and operational.
What is a conceptual definition?
Much like a dictionary definition; seldom used for research purposes.
What is an operational definition?
Defines a concept by specifying precisely how the concept is measured, or induced in a particular study.
Proof is…
Logically impossible.
Disproof is…
Logically valid but practically impossible.
How is disproof practically impossible to determine?
Multiple practical difficulties in the real world can lead a true theory to be disconfirmed.
What ar enull findings?
Results showing that certain variables are not related to behaviour.
What is the file-drawer problem?
A nickname for the failure to publish studies that obtain null findings.
What are the four filters in the scientific filter? What do they filter out?
All ideas, filters out nonsense; initial research projects, filters out dead ends and fringe topics; research programs filters out methodological biases and errors; published research, filters out non-replication, uninteresting, and non-useful information.
What are the four categories of behavioural research?
Descriptive, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental.
What is descriptive research?
Describers the behaviour, thoughts, or feelings of a particular group of individuals.
What is correlational research?
Investigates the relationships among various psychological variables; looks for correlations but cannot prove causation.
What is experimental research?
When independent variables are manipulated to see whether changes in behaviour occur as a consequence. Can determine cause.
What is quasi-experimental research?
When research is done with less control over variables. Done to study the effects of some naturally occurring variables.
