Chapter 1: Statistics and the Scientific Method

Question 0

Tenacity?

Answer 0

information accepted as true because its always been believed to be true or repeated often……persistent…very difficult to change!

Question 1

What are the methods of knowing? (6)

Answer 1

Tenacity, intuition, authority, rationalism, observation and scientific method.

Question 2

Intuition?

Answer 2

Ominous significance of random/chance events
information is accepted based on a gut feeling
cons: biases affect perceptions and can lead to crazy intuitions
unsupported by evidence
no critical eval by others !

Question 3

Authority?

Answer 3

acceptance of information from an authority.
cons: authorities can be wrong
expertise generalizes other areas
tend to be accepted without question…

Question 4

Rationalism

Answer 4

knowledge gained by applying pure reason and logic!
major + minor premise taken as true = correct conclusion
cons: incorrect premise leads to incorrect conclusion…

Question 5

Observation?Empiricism ?

Answer 5

learning through observation and experience..
The doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience…
cons difficult to be objective….senses can be easily tricked..
humans are full of biases…

Question 6

Scientific Method??

Answer 6

all ideas are subjected to empirical test
combination of empiricism and rationalism…
objective observations
data based conclusions
tentative conclusions
asks answerable questions….that can be proven valid or wrong…
Observation-theory-prediction-experiment

Question 7

Population?

Answer 7

complete set of individuals we are interested in studying….

Question 8

Sample?

Answer 8

subset of individuals from the population! we draw conclusions on the population from this….

Question 9

Variables?

Answer 9

any characteristic of individuals that can take on different values depending on the situation…

Question 10

Independent Variable?

Answer 10

manipulated by researcher

Question 11

Dependent Variable?

Answer 11

measured to determine effect of the IV…

Question 12

Statistic

Answer 12

calculated on the sample data….

Question 13

Parameter?

Answer 13

number calculated on the population data..

Question 14

Observational Studies?3 types

1. Naturalistic
2. Parameter Estimation
3. Correlational Studies

Answer 14

no direct exp manipulation of variables by researcher…

1. just observe in natural environment
2. interested in a characteristic of the pop
3. determine if 2 or more variables are related….

Question 15

True experiments?

Answer 15

researchers attempt to determine if changes in one variable produce changes in another …actively manipulate variables…

Question 16

Constant?

Answer 16

something that is not susceptible to variation or change..

cannot be statistically analyzed …

Question 17

Variable??

Answer 17

something susceptible to change or variation
2 or more values…
exp research either IV or DV
correlational research either predictor or criterion..
qualitative or quantitative ..

Question 18

Descriptive Statistics?

Answer 18

describes or characterize the data…

averages, percents variability ..

Question 19

Inferential Statistics..

Answer 19

use the obtained sample data to infer to populations..

t-test, correlations..regression…