Chapter 2 Flashcards
What are 3 sources of evidence for behaviour?
- Your experience (friends/family)
- Your intuition (common sense + gut feeling)
- An authority (profs; parents; role models)
What does the statement, “scientists are empiricists” mean?
That they don’t base conclusions on intuition
Define empiricism
Involves using evidence from the senses as the basis for conclusions
Who invented the scientific method?
Francis Bacon
What are the 5 stages of the scientific process?
Identify (the question); Form (the hypothesis + gather information); Test (the hypothesis by conducting research); Analyze (the data); Build (a body of knowledge)
What is hindsight understanding?
After viewing a behaviour, propose an explanation that makes sense in that context
“I knew it all along”
What are the 3 types of hindsight understanding?
Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational
In hindsight understanding, what is meant by cognitive understanding?
To distort or misremember events
In hindsight understanding, what is meant by metacognitive understanding?
Easily understand how/why something happened
In hindsight understanding, what is meant by motivational understanding?
People like to think about the world being a cryptic place -> predictable
What makes a good theory?
Organize information in a meaningful way; is testable; predictions are supported by new research; conforms to law of parsimony
What is the law of parsimony?
The simplest solution is most likely the correct one
Define a variable
Any characteristic that can vary and be measured
What is an operational definition?
Defines a variable in terms of specific procedures used to produce or measure it (e.g., anxiety’s op. def. is measured through tone of voice, heart rate, body language, etc.)
What makes a good measure?
Reliability + Validity
What are some types of measures?
Self-Report; observational; psychological tests
What are self-report measures?
Participants report on their own knowledge, beliefs, feelings, experiences, or behaviour
What are some issues associated with self-report measures?
Social desirability bias; may ask suggestive or leadings questions; might not answer honestly
What is social desirability bias?
Desire to make a good impression
What type of measure, measures overt (directly observable) behaviour?
Observational
What must researchers/observers be trained to do when following observational measures?
Consistently code their observations for reliability in order to not throw off data
What are some issues with measures of overt behaviour?
Participants can change their behaviour when being observed; demand characteristics appear
Define demand characteristics
Aspects of an observational setting that make people behave as they think they should
What are psychological test measures?
Specialized tests designed by psychologists to measure particular variables
What are some different types of psychological tests?
Personality tests (typically self-reported); intelligence tests (psychological tests); neuropsychological tests (diagnosis different neurological reaction)
What are the different types of research?
Descriptive; Correlational; Experimental
What does descriptive research focus on?
Seeks to explain how an individual behaves, especially in natural environments
What is a type of descriptive research?
Naturalistic observation
Observing people/animals in their natural environment is what type of descriptive research?
Naturalistic Observation
What is an advantage of naturalistic observation?
Provides a rich description of behaviour; can avoid demand characteristics
What are some limits of naturalistic observation?
Can’t inform a person that they are being observed + can’t ask them questions; requires long periods of observation to get a single measure of a desired behaviour (not efficient)
What type of descriptive research asks participants questions through interviews or questionnaires?
Survey research
Define a population
The entire set of individuals about whom we wish to draw a conclusion
Define a sample
A subset of individuals drawn from a population
What is a representative sample?
A sample that reflects the important characteristics of the population (sample matches/represents the population)
What is random sampling?
Every member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen (completely random)
What are some of the downfalls of surveys?
Can’t be used to draw conclusions about cause and effect; rely on participants self-reports; incorrect generalizations about populations
What is variability?
How much measurements differ from one another
What is the range?
Value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the smallest
What is standard deviation?
Describes the average difference between the measurements in a frequency distribution and the mean of that distribution
What direction does the tail of a graph with the collected data point when it is positively skewed?
Tail goes to the right
What direction does the tail of a graph with the collected data point when it is negatively skewed?
Tail goes to the left
What is skewed distributions?
When a frequency distribution is normal (the shape looks like a ghost)
What is correlational research?
Looking for an association between two (or more) measured variables [Studies if there’s a relationship between x & y]
Is correlation the same as causation?
NO -> Just because they’re related doesn’t mean that x causes y
What does correlational research remind us?
That 2 variables may be related to one another only because they are both casually related to a third variable
What is a correlation coefficient?
It describes the relationship between 2 variables
What makes a positive correlation?
An increase in one variable relates to an increase in the other (ranges between 0 to 1)
What makes a negative correlation?
An increase in one variable relates to a decrease in the other (ranges from -1 to 0)
What makes a zero correlation?
There is no relationship (i.e. the 2 variables are not correlated with one another)
What are some advantages of correlational research?
- Show the strength of present relationships
- Can be used to make predictions about variables
- Identifies ‘real-world’ associations
What are some disadvantages of correlational research?
- Can’t assume cause-effect relationship exists
- Relationships may be due to a third unmeasured variable
What are the 4 stages of experimental research?
- Manipulation of one variable
- Measuring changes in another variable
- While holding all other factors constant (control for other variables)
- Can manipulate/measure more than one variables
What are the 4 stages of experimental research?
- Manipulation of one variable
- Measuring changes in another variable
- While holding all other factors constant (control for other variables)
- Can manipulate/measure more than one variable
What are the 2 types of research designs?
Between groups and repeated measures
How are ethical standards designed?
Designed to protect the welfare of both human and animal subjects in psychological research
What are the 5 ethical standards that psychologists must adhere too?
- Protect and promote the welfare of participants
- Avoid doing harm to participants
- Not carry out any studies unless the probable benefit is proportionately greater than the risk
- Provide informed consent
- Ensure privacy and confidentiality
What is refinement in relation to use of animals in testing?
Use of methods that alleviate or minimize potential pain, suffering, or distress, and enhance animal welfare for the animals used
What is reduction in relation to the use of animals in testing?
Use of methods that enable researchers to obtain comparable levels of information from fewer animals, or to obtain more information from the same number of animals
What is replacement in relation to use of animals in testing?
Methods which avoid or replace the use of animals in research
