Chap 2 Reading Flashcards
What is serendipity?
The accidental discovey of something important. Serendipity involves stumbling across something by chance - often while looking for something else - and having the wisdom and curiosity to recognize that you may be on to an important discovery.
What databases are available for research purposes?
PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE and Google Scholar
What is the definition of a hypothesis?
Hypothesis is a tentative proposition about the causes or outcome of an event, or more generally, about how variables are related. Hypotheses should be based on a reasoned analysis of existing evidence relevant to the question being studied.
What is inductive reasoning?
Using specific facts to form a general conclusion or general principle. Facts can be considered findings from previous research. Inductive reasoning is seen in medical fields when doctors analyze a patient’s symptoms and make a hypothesis regarding their condition.
What is a theory?
A theory is a set of formal statements that specifies how and why variables or events are related. Theories are broader then hypotheses.
What is deductive reasoning?
Using a general principle to reach a more specific conclusion. If a tenative decision is made regarding an ulcer, a physician can reason that X is because of Y.
What are aspects of a hypothesis?
Testability is a key criterion that a hypothesis must satisfy. By this principle, it must also be able to falsified.
What is quantitative research?
Quantitative research relies primarily on numerical data and numerical analysis to describe and understand behaviour.
What is qualitative research?
Qualitative research seeks to achieve a relatively holistic or thematic description and understanding of behaviour, primarily through the nonstatstical analysis of data.
How can qualitative researchers examine data?
Qualitiatively oriented researchers may examine such data without using statistics such as by trying to identify and describe important patterns or themes that emerge.
What is a content analysis?
An analysis of the different types of content found within or represented by a set of data.
What is a mixed-methods research?
Mixed-methods research is the constituted combination of qualitative and quantitative thread
What is the definition of an experiment?
The researcher manipulates one or more variables, attempts to control extraneous factors, and then measures how the manipulated variables affect participants’ responses.
What is an independent variable?
The manipulated variable.
What is a dependent variable?
The measured variable.
Independent versus dependent is..
..manipulated versus measured.
What is descriptive research?
Also called nonexperimental research, researchers measure variables but do not manipulate them.
What is internal validity?
IV represents the degree to which we can confidently infer that our study demonstrated that one variable had a causal effect on another variable.
What is external validity?
External validity concerns inferences about the generalizability of the findings beyond the circumstances of the present study.
What is a field experiment?
A study in which researcgers manipulate an dependent variable in a natural setting and exercise some control over extraneous factors.
What is a cross-sectional research?
People of different ages are compared at the same point in tme. Ex. Adolescents vs. Adults
What is longitudinal reseach?
The same participants are tested across different time periods.
What is sequential research design?
Several age cohorts are tested longitudinally.
In relation to sampling, what is a population?
Consists of all the cases or observations of interest to us in a given study.
What is the mode in measured studies?
The most frequently occurring score in a distriution. It occurs five times.
What is the median in measured studies?
The midpoint of a distribution.
What is the mean in measured studies?
The arithmetic average of a distribution of scores.
What are factors to consider when designing a study?
Ethics, operationism, which design will be the best to answer the research question, who will comprise the sample, who will conduct the research, sampling
What is the range in descriptive statistics?
The distance between highest and lowest scores.
What is the variance in descriptive statistics?
The average squared divison of the range.
What are descriptive statistics?
Organizing and summarizing a set of data.
What is inferential statistics?
Using sample data to infer the nature of the population. Inferential statistics reveal the probability that our findings are due to chance.
In drawing conclusions, what are two errors that can be made?
False alarm and missed opportunities; false alarms occur when we mistakenly infer that variables are associated when they have nothing in common and the reverse occurs in missed opportunities.
What is parsimony?
Explanations should use the minimum number of principles necessary to account for the maximum number of facts.
