Ch 2 Flashcards
Comparison Group
allows us to compare what would happen with and without a variable/ thing we’re interested in
Confounds
alternative explanations for an outcome
How does a research setting reduce possibility of confounds?
- can test one outcome at a time
increases internal validity
Confederate
appears to be a willing participant of a study but is an actor working with the experimenters
Probabilistic
- findings aren’t expected to explain all cases all the time (there are exceptions)
- findings only meant to explain certain proportion of possible cases
What are the different types of biases?
- being swayed by a good story
- availability heuristic
- biased blind spot
- confirmation bias
- present/present
availability heuristic
things that easily come to mind guide our thinking, especially if its vivid, recent, or memorable
example of availability heuristic
shark attacks are less likely than bathtub deaths
example of being swayed by a good story
“bottling up” emotions- biographers thing freud was inspired by metaphor of steam engine
present/present bias
we notice what is present and fail to look for absences
example of present/present bias
bloodletting: focusing on those who DID get bloodletting and DID recover,
not those who DIDN’T recover, or those who weren’t bloodlet that DID or DIDN’T recover
Confirmation Bias
focusing on evidence that supports what we already believe
example of confirmation bias
IQ scores: those told IQ was high spent more time on articles supporting IQ tests,
while those w/ low scores looked at articles that criticize them
Bias Blindspot
the belief we are less likely than others to fall prey to bias
example of bias blindspot
airport travelers: most said the average American is more biased than them
Why isn’t all research equally reliable?
- could be poorly conducted
- research cited may not appropriately support argument
What do empirical journal articles report
report the method and results of a research study, usually for the first time
Review journal articles
Provide summary of all published studies done in one research area
Meta-analysis
Quantitative technique to combine results of many studies statistically
magnitude
effect size
a meta-analysis summarizes the EFFECT SIZE of a relationship
Edited Books
collection of chapters on a topic, each written by a different contributor
PsycINFO
- online scientific source compilation maintained by American Psych Association
- searches only sources in psych and related fields
Google Scholar
online source compilation of empirical articles of all disciplines
What are the parts (in order) of a journal article?
- Abstract
- Introduction
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- References
Abstract
a summary of the article that briefly describes:
- hypothesis
- method
- major results
Introduction
1) explains the topic of study
2) research background
3) research goals
what information can you find in the “research background” section of the introduction
- what is the theory being tested
- past studies’ results
- why important
what information can you find in the “research goals” section of the introduction
- research questions
- hypothesis
Method
how researchers conducted the study
Subsections of Method
- participants
- materials
- procedure
Results
- contains statistics used to analyze data
- and the quantitative or qualitative (as relevant) results of the study
Discussion
1) summarizes study
- did it support the hypothesis?
2) discusses
- importance
- alternative explanations
what order should you read an article in
- abstract
- end of intro (for goals + hypothesis)
- rest of intro
- discussion, 1st paragraph (for results + relation to hypothesis)
- method and results ( for more info on evidence)
what should you ask of empirical journal articles and review articles?
- what is the argument?
- what is the evidence?
how should you approach review articles? What is the evidence?
- read the headings
- usually whole theory is presented
- the evidence is the research the author reviews
what are the issues with wikipedia?
- not comprehensive
- can have errors
- references can be idiosyncratic
- don’t know who contributed
what are some non-academic sources?
- retail bookshelves
- wikis
- popular press
what is a bad sign in terms of references?
few notes/ citations
