Ch 2 The Research Enterprise in Psychology Flashcards
what are the 3 goals of the scientific enterprise?
1) measure and describe behaviour
2) understand and predict behaviour
3) apply knowledge to control behaviour
What are the 5 steps in a scientific investigation?
1) formulate a testable hypothesis
2) select the research method
3) collect the data
4) analyze the data and draw conclusions
5) report findings
What is an operational definition used for?
describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable
what are the 2 main benefits of using the scientific method?
clarity and intolerance of error
what is the difference between an independent and dependent variable?
indie- condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable
dependent- variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the indie variable
What is an extraneous variable?
any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the depended variable in a specific study
What is a cofounding of variables, and when does it occur?
when you cant tell which variable is having the effect on your dependent variable.
occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects
true or false, many experiments tend to be artificial
true
what is a control group?
similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment given too the experimental groups
What is reactivity?
when a subjects behaviour is altered by the presence of an observer
How can case studies be used to look for general principles of behaviour?
if you examine a series of studies involving similar problems, you can look for threads of consistency that may yield general conclusions
what are the strengths and weaknesses of descriptive/correlational research? (hint: experiments, naturalistic observ, case studies, and surveys)
Experiments: + control over variables, cause and effect relationships. - ethics, often artificial
Naturalistic: + not artificial - not able to create cause and effect relationships
Case studies: + compelling support to theory - often unrepresentative
Surveys: + can give data of hard to observe info - can be unreliable due to self report
True or false, clinical research depends heavily on case studies
true
what are the three measures of central tendency?
mean, median, and mode
what is a frequency polygon?
a line figure used to present data from a frequency distribution.
What is a frequency distribution?
an orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of each score or a group of scores
In a negatively skewed distribution, do most scores pile up at the high end of the scale or the low end of the scale?
high end
what is variability?
refers to how much the scores in a data set vary from each other and the mean
What is a standard deviation?
an index of the amount of variability in a set of data
What does a percentile score indicate?
the percentage of people who score at or below a particular score
When does a correlation exist?
when variables are related to eachother
What is a correlation coefficient?
a numerical index of the degree of relationship between 2 variables
what is the difference between a positive and a negative correlation?
a positive correlation is when 2 variables co-vary in the same direction.
a negative correlation is when 2 variable s co-vary in the opposite direction
what is the highest amount of correlation you can have on either end of the scale, and what is the smallest
0 is the smallest amount of correlation
and -1.00 or +1.00 are the highest amounts
