ch2 Flashcards
What Makes Research Scientific?
Precision
- Scepticism
- Reliance on Empirical Evidence
- Willingness to Make “Risky Predictions”
- Openness
. Precision
The scientific method is used to explore observations and answer questions. Systematic process- follows an orderly pattern of action.
Theory System of principles that aim to explain certain phenomena and how they are related. Hypothesis States the relationship between variables. Operational Definitions How variables are practically defined.
THEORYS make hypothesis that makes experiments
Theory
System of principles that aim to explain
certain phenomena and how they are
related.
Hypothesis
States the relationship between
variables.
Operational Definitions
How variables are practically defined.
example anxiety- a description of what it is
- Scepticism
Ideas are not accepted based on faith or
authority.
All conclusions are treated with caution.
- Reliance on Empirical Evidence
A scientist relies on empirical evidence to
determine whether a hypothesis is true.
Empirical Evidence is based on direct
experience or observation.
- Willingness to make “Risky Predictions”
Confirmation Bias
Only pay attention to information which confirms our belief.
Principle of Falsifiability
Scientific theory must be specific enough that is possible to
disconfirm it.
must preditc what will and what will not hapen
- Openness
Scientists must be willing to tell others where they got their ideas, how they tested them and what the results were. Peer review, publishing, and replicating research gives science a built in system of checks and balances.
Descriptive studies
what do they allow us to do
what do they include
Descriptive studies allow researchers to describe and predict
behaviour. Descriptive studies include:
1. Case Studies
2. Observational Studies
3. Psychological Tests
4. Surveys
- Case Study
Detailed description of an individual
being studied or treated.
Based on careful observation or on
formal psychological testing.
example childhood, dreams, etc. anything that provides insight in behaviror
Commonly used by clinicians.
purpose: To understand the development of aggressive behaviour in a particular individual; to formulate research hypotheses about the origins of aggressiveness.
Example: Developmental history of serial
killer.
Disadvantages of Case Studies
Difficult to interpret - might miss things
Observer Bias- influences which facts are noticed
Participant Bias- inacurate memory
Unrepresentative sample- cant be generalized
- Observational Studies
what are the 2 types
Carefully and systematically observing
and recording behaviour.- dont intrude
The two types include: Naturalistic Observation (example jane goodall 35years of observing chimps, also like anthropologists- participant observation) , hidden camera/microphone- because dont want to influence the study- dont want them to notice, what people do in real life world)
Laboratory Observation (people watching taking notes in a lab/make fake situation, researchers only observe and record- they get more control, )
drawbacks on observational studies
- observer bias: when researchers expectation/biases
distorts/influence how they can record - take videos for others to observe
cannot make conclusision generalized
dont do cause and effect- they look at it , not explain it
reactivity
change behaviro when they know they are being filmed
- Psychological Tests
what do they include
Used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values. Include personality tests, achievement tests, and vocational aptitude tests.
give scores
Two types of Psychological Tests:
a) Objective tests Measure beliefs, feelings or behaviours of which a participant is aware of.- m/c , t/f, rating scales
b) Projective tests
Measure participant’s unconscious
feelings or motives or conflicts.
interpret weird looking pictures, uncouncious thoughts explained by answers
Test Construction
Standardized:
Uniform procedures for test
construction.
for example all participants get same instruction and same amount of time
develop Norms:
Established standards of
performance.- determine which scores are high, low or average
Psychological tests must be reliable.
must be able to get same results from one time and place to the next
can measure by test- retest to see if they are similar
but ppl tend to do better the second time . its better to give variations of the thest:
Alternat-form reliability- not identical- this way they are not familiar with the test, but still may do better because learned procedure
To be useful, psychological tests
must be valid
must measure what they want to measure
content validity: broadly represent the trait in question. for example only ask 1 questions rather than the other factors
criterion validity: do the test results prodict other measures of the trait. - go back and see if the results where accurate and could predict what could happen
- Surveys
Questionnaires or interviews that ask participants about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions. Generate a large amount of information about.
Challenges of Surveys:
Representative Sample (group that accurately represent the larger sample)
Volunteer Bias (people who want to share their opinion might be different from those who dont)
Social Desirability Bias (may lie when they think others will judge them)
Media for Representative Sample
take small sample and it be representative- sex, age, culture
Representative Sample
makes computer system that randomly selects participants
Positive Correlation
correlation: how one thing relates to another
Increase in one variable is associated with an increase in another variable.
Decrease in one variable is associated with a decrease in another variable
both go the same direction , either up or down
Negative Correlation
Increase in one variable is associated with decreases in another variable.
Correlations may be represented by scatterplots
correlation coefficient r: -1 to +1: determine strenght by how close to 1
Experiment:
what do they include
Controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher
manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.
Includes:
1. Variables of interest
2. Experimental and Control conditions
3. Random assignment
experimental values
indipedant variable X violent video games- is the manipulated variable by the researcher
dependant variable Y: being aggresive: measured for change
“If the Experimenter does X, the Participants will do Y”
Experimenter Effects:
Unintended changes in participants’ behaviour due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter. Single-blind and Double-blind Studies are used to prevent experimenter effects.
Single-blind Study
participants are not told
Double-blind Study
both researcher and participant dont know who is assigned to what
Bobo Doll Experiment
children who observed adults models behaving aggressively would be more likely to imitate the adult and engage in similar aggressive behaviro than children who were not exposed to the aggressive model
dependant v: how many time the kids kicked the doll
- the kids who watched a parent kick a doll where they then had the opportunity to play with the doll- they were more agressive
Naturalistic
Observation
purpose and example
To describe the nature of
aggressive acts in early
childhood.
Observation tallying, and
description of hitting, kicking
etc., during free play periods in
preschool.
Correlational
Study
To examine the relation
between aggressiveness and
television viewing.
Example: Administration to university students of a paper and pencil test of aggressiveness and a questionnaire on number of hours spent watching TV weekly; computation of correlation coefficient.
Experiment
purpose and example
To find out whether high air
temperatures elicit aggressive
behaviour.
Arrangement for individuals to “shock” a “Learner” (actually a confederate of the experimenter) while seated in a room heated to either 200C or 300C.
Laboratory
Observation
To find out whether aggressiveness in pairs of same- sex and different-sex children differs in frequency or intensity.
Observation through a one-way window of same-sex and different-sex pairs of preschoolers, pairs must negotiate who gets to play with an attractive toy that has been promised to each child.
Test
To Compare the personality
traits of aggressive and nonaggressive
persons.
Administration of personality
tests to violent and non-violent
prisoners.
Survey
To find out how domestic
violence is in the general
population.
Questionnaire asking anonymous respondents (in sample representative of the population) about the occurrence of slapping, hitting etc., in their homes.
Advantages Disadvantages
of case studies
ad Good source of hypotheses. Provides in-depth information of individuals. Unusual cases can shed light on situations or problems that are unethical or impractical to study in other ways.
dis Vital information may be missing, making the case hard to interpret. The person’s memory may be selective or inaccurate. The individual may not be representative or typical
Naturalistic
Observation
ad/dis
Allows description of behaviour as it occurs in the natural environment. Often useful in the first stages of the research program.
Allows researcher little or no control of the situation. Observations may be biased. Does not allow firm conclusion about cause and effect.
Laboratory
Observation
Advantages Disadvantages
ad: Allows more control than
naturalistic observation.
Allows use of sophisticated
equipment.
dis: Allows researcher only limited control of the situation. Observations may be biased. Does not allow firm conclusions about cause and effect. Behaviour may differ from behaviour in th
Test Advantages Disadvantages
Yields information on
personality traits, emotional
states, aptitudes and abilities.
Difficult to construct tests that
are reliable and valid.
Survey ad/dis
ad/dis Provides large amount of information on large numbers of people. If sample is non-representative or biased, it may be impossible to generalize from the results. Responses may be inaccurate or untrue.
Correlational
Study
ad/dis
Shows whether two or more
variables are related.
Allows general predictions
Does not permit identification
of cause and effect.
Experiment
Allows researchers to control the situation. Permits researcher to identify cause and effect, and to distinguish placebo effect from treatment effects.
Situation is artificial and may not generalize well to the real world. Sometimes difficult to avoid experimenter effects.
Descriptive Statistics:
Statistical procedures that summarize behavioural observations
Examples Include:
mean, median, and mode
standard deviation
1) Introduces variability, range and standard deviation
2) Range Defined
3) Range - Disadvantage
4) Standard Deviation
5) Standard Deviation (Interactive)
6) Standard Deviation Formula
7) Standard Deviation and Normal Distribution
Central Tendency: Representative Scores
Mean : Arithmetic average
Median : Middle value of scores
Mode : Most frequent score
Normal Distribution
Scores clustered around the mean in the
form of a bell-shaped curve
mean median and mode are all the same number
bimodal distribution is when there are 2 modes and the gragh is shapped like an M for example taking the grades of people who come to class and those who dont
Variability
Degree to which a group of scores are clustered or distributed.
lots of spread- highly variable
Range
Difference between the largest and smallest scores in a distribution.
Standard Deviation:
Indicates average difference between scores in a distribution and their
mean.
the further the scores from the means the higher the SD
Inferential Statistics
Allow researchers to draw
inferences about how statistically
meaningful a study’s results are
Inferential Statistics: math procedure used to make inferences abouit a population from a sample-
Inferential Statistics
Significance Tests: tell researches how likely a result was to have occured merely by chance. can same results be obtained with different participants
Null Hypothesis:
Statistical Sig: if happend 5 or fewwer times in repetition of the same study
Effect size:
The amount of variance among scores in a study accounted for by the
independent variable.
Meta-analysis:
A procedure for combining and analyzing data from many studies.
Determines how much variance in scores across all studies can be
explained by a particular variable.
Interpretation of results depends on how the research was conducted.
Cross-selctional study: looks at old and younger groups at a given time
longitudinal study: follows same people over time and reassess at regular interval
Three Levels of Monitoring Ehtical gUIDELINES
- Federal Level
- Institutional Level
- Individual Level
federal gove: The Tri-Council
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR)
need research ethics boards- make sure they conform to the guidelines
Tri-Council’s Eight Main Principles
- Respect for Human Dignity
- Respect for Free and Informed Consent
- Respect for Vulnerable Persons
- Respect for Privacy and Confidentiality
- Respect for Justice and Inclusiveness
- Balancing harms and benefits
- Minimizing harm
- Maximizing Benefit
must be able to make informed consent and withdraw, must be able to make proper decisions
Animals are used in studies to:
Conduct basic research
Discover practical applications
Clarify theoretical questions
Improve the welfare of both humans and animals
Study issues that cannot be studied experimentally with human
beings
2.1 What Makes Research Scientific?
The five characteristics of the ideal scientist are: 1) Precision, 2) Scepticism, 3)
reliance on empirical evidence, 4) willingness to make “risky predictions”, and 5)
openness
2.2 Descriptive Studies
Descriptive studies allow researchers to describe and predict behaviour.
Four types of descriptive studies include case studies, observational studies,
psychological tests, and surveys.
2.3 Correlational Studies
Correlational studies reveal the strength of the relation between two variables.
A correlation does not show causation.
