Ch 2: Research Methods - Vital Safeguards Against Error

Question 1

2 Modes of Thinking

Answer 1

1. intuitive
2. analytical

Question 2

Intuitive Thinking

Answer 2

• quick, reflexive
• almost automatic
• relies heuristics
• autopilot = ON

Question 3

Analytical Thinking

Answer 3

• slow
• reflective
• effortful
• autopilot = OFF

Question 4

4 Broad Research Designs

Answer 4

1. naturalistic observation
2. case studies
3. correlation designs
4. experimental designs

Question 5

Internal Validity (control)

Answer 5

• can we make a casual claim?
• did X cause Y?
• most account/control for alternative explanations

Question 6

External Validity (generalizability)

Answer 6

• is this how people behave in the real world?
• does the conclusion generalize outside the lab?

Question 7

Naturalistic Obs.

Answer 7

• watching behavior in the real-world
• ex: Jane Goodall experiments with the chimpanzees
• high external validity
• low internal validity b/c we can’t establish causation

Question 8

Case Study

Answer 8

• studying one person or a group over an extended period of time
• low external validity
• no internal validity

Question 9

Correlational Design

Answer 9

• measuring 2 or more things to see if they are related
• vary from r = -1 to +1
• perfect corr.: +1 or -1
• no relation: 0
• positive: (one goes up, the other goes up)
• negative: (one goes up, the other goes down)
• no internal validity
• sometimes has external validity

Question 10

Correlation vs Causation

Answer 10

just because 2 things are related does not mean that one causes the other

Question 11

Experimental Designs

Answer 11

• variable: anything that can be measured
• independent var.: whatever was manipulated
• dependent var.: the variable being measured
• high internal validity
• lower external validity than other designs

Question 12

Determining causation

Answer 12

you must manipulate one variable, and measure how it affects the other

Question 13

Random Assignment

Answer 13

• helps control for individual differences
• helps rule out confounds w/ participant assignment

Question 14

Placebo Effect

Answer 14

• improvement due to mere expectation of improvement
• may show similar effects to real drugs
• nocebo effect (you receive harm b/c you expect harm)
• solutions: blind studies

Question 15

Experimenter Expectancy Effect

Answer 15

• researcher expectations influence participant behavior
• solution: double-blind studies

Question 16

Demand Characteristics

Answer 16

• participants try to guess the hypothesis and alter their behavior
• prevents researchers from accurate/unbiased observation of participant behavior
• solutions: cover story, filler items

Question 17

Self-report Measures

Answer 17

• rely on participants self-assessments rather than experimenter observation
• sensitive to format and wording
• disadvantages: participants may lie or be biased
• advantages: easy/low cost, most accurate sometimes, can be easy to interpret

Question 18

Alternatives to self-report

Answer 18

• measure behavior
• indirect measures
• have others evaluate them

Question 19

Validity (define)

Answer 19

extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure

Question 20

Reliability

Answer 20

• how consistent the measurement is
• test-retest reliability: do people score similarly on the same test over time?

Question 21

Descriptive Stats

Answer 21

• communicative pattern of results
• numerical interpretations

Question 22

Inferential Stats (define)

Answer 22

draw conclusions from results

Question 23

Measures of central tendency

Answer 23

• mean
• median
• mode

Question 24

Mean

Answer 24

avg. of all scores

Question 25

Median

Answer 25

middle score in the data set - less sensitive to outliers than the mean

Question 26

Mode

Answer 26

most frequent score in the data set

Question 27

Bell-curve

Answer 27

- positive - normal - negative

Question 28

Variability

Answer 28

how loosely or tightly bunched the scores are 1. standard deviation 2. range

Question 29

Standard deviation

Answer 29

measures how far each data point is from the mean

Question 30

Range

Answer 30

difference between the highest and lowest score

Question 31

Inferential Statistics

Answer 31

- significance testing (p-values) indicate the probability your findings occurred by chance - the smaller the p-value, the more evidence against the null (so we're more confident that we can reject the null hyp.)

Question 32

Statistical significance

Answer 32

- p < 0.05 - if p < 0.05, reject the null (there is an effect) - does not indicate real-world importance of finding

Question 33

Practical significance

Answer 33

- p <0.05 does not say anything about the size of the effect - effect size may say something about the importance or predictive value of an effect

Question 34

Evaluating Research

Answer 34

- statistics can also be misleading 1. report unrepresentative measures 2. truncate graphs: y-axis does not start at 0 3. neglect base rates - peer review -push for transparency

Question 35

Evaluating Psych in the Media

Answer 35

- researchers incentives may not align with truth-telling

Question 36

Ethical Issues in Human Research

Answer 36

- institutional review boards (IRB): review proposals for research value and potential harm - informed consent - debriefing

Question 37

Examples of unethical experiments

Answer 37

- Tuskegee Study: study of syphilis by US gov't., but did not inform black men of its presence or an antibiotic - Milgram Study: made people think they were lethally shocking people (appeal to authority) - Stanford Prison Experiment