chapter 2 Flashcards
Research design matters. Why?
2 reasons
1) science has helped practitioners who work with individuals with autism to avoid wasting valuable time on facilitated communication that is ineffective
2) science has allowed practitioners to develop and test treatments for autism that work
what is Prefrontal Lobotomy?
surgery that severs the fibres connecting the brain’s frontal lobes from the underlying thalamus
which condition was prefrontal lobotomy used for? AND why was it later scrapped?
Used for schizophrenia. The problem is systematic research was not conducted, all proof was based on subjective clinical reports
who created prefrontal lobotomy for schizophrenia?
Egas Moniz (nobel prize winner)
What are the 2 methods of thinking?
system 1 (aka intuitive thinking): involves heuristics which is a mental shortcut that allows quick problem solving but occasionally leads to mistakes (predictable wrong)
System 2 (aka analytical thinking): requires reflectivity.
define Heuristic
Mental shortcut that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world
define Representative Heuristic
It involves making judgments by comparing things to concepts we already have in mind. While this shortcut can speed up the decision-making process, it can also lead to poor choices and stereotypes.
Ex: police who are looking for a suspect in a crime might focus disproportionately on Black people in their search, because the representativeness heuristic (and the stereotypes that they are drawing on) causes them to assume that a Black person is more likely to be a criminal than somebody from another group.
define Availability Heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds.
Ex: Are there more trees in downtown or college? College. You didn’t count the number of trees but you used previous knowledge and came to the conclusion that downtown has many buildings.
Define base rate
How common a characteristic or behaviour is the general population
What are the 4 types of research designs?
1) Naturalistic observation: Watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate the situation
2) case studies:Research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period.
3) correlational designs: Research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated.
4) experimental designs: random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable.
Define Random selection and what is it the key of?
procedure that ensures that every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate.
Also KEY to generalizability
Define reliability AND the 2 types of reliability
definition: Consistency of Measurement
2 types:
1) test-retest reliability: a reliable questionnaire wields similar scores over time
2) interrater-reliability: different people who conduct an interview or who make behavioural observations disagree on what they’re measuring. Ex: 2 people sent to do testing in clinic of the same thing but the data shows its different
define validity
Extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure
does it actually measure what it says it does?
Define response set
distorting the answers to questions to paint ourselves in a positive light
define malingering
fabrication or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms designed to achieve achieve a clear-cut personal goal. Ex: someone faking an injury to obtain financial compensation
define Self-Report Measures
questionnaires assessing a variety of characteristics (e.g., interests, traits)
define Correlational Design AND what words are mostly used?
Research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated.
words: “associated”, “linked”,”rarely”
what are the 2 types of correlation?
1) POSITIVE correlation: if x increases then y increases
2) NEGATIVE correlation: if x decreases then y increases or if x increases then y decreases
What are the KEY ingredients to an experiment?
1) random assignment
2) manipulation of independent variable
define random assignment and describe the breakdown
Randomly sorting participants into groups
- these groups are then broken down to the control and experiment group
define between-subjects designs
comparing experimental group to control group
define within-subject designs
In an experiment, each participants act as his or hers own control.
ex: only 1 group. data collected before experiments (control) and after(experimental) thus the group acts as its own control and experimental
define independent and dependent variables
independent variable: Variable that an experimenter manipulates
dependent variable: Variable that an experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation has an effect.
define the placebo effect and the solution for it.
Improvement resulting from the mere expectation or improvement
solution: patients must remain BLIND. not knowing what they received
define blind
Unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group.
define the Nocebo Effect
harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm (e.g., voodoo doll phenomenon)
define Experimenter Expectancy Effect
researcher’s hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias that outcome of a study..
Ex: participants don’t know the conditions but the researcher does
define double blind
When neither researchers nor participations are aware of who’s in the experimental or control group.
what is demand characteristics?
Cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researchers hypothesis.
define descriptive statistics
describe or summarize data in a meaningful way
define central tendency
measure of the “central” scores in a data set, or where the group tends to cluster.
define mean
average; a measure or central tendency
define median
middle score in data set; a measure of central tendency
define mode
Most frequent score in a data set; a measure of central tendency
define range
Difference between the highest and lowest scores; a measure of dispersion
define standard deviation
Measure of dispersion that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean.
define Inferential Statistics
Allows us to determine how much we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population.
define Statistical Significance
Seeing if our findings would have occurred by chance. If less than 5 in 100 times (1 in 20* reduced form*) then indeed it is by chance
define Practical Significance
real-world importance
