Chapter 2 Flashcards
Two core beliefs of science:
The universe operates according to certain natural laws. Such laws are discoverable and testable
The scientific method uses:
Inductive and deductive reasoning
Explain the scientific method
Deductive reasoning is using general principles to apply to a specific situation. Subject to thinkers biases.
Inductive reasoning uses specific examples to make general conclusions.
Inductive reasoning is based on….
empirical (objectively testable) observations that lead to development of theories
Ideas about laws that govern phenomena is a description of…?
Inductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning uses what the most?
hypothetico-deductive reasoning
Inductive Reasoning begin with an educated guess and design controlled observations to support or invalidate their
Hypotheses
Two goals of psychological research
To isolate factors that affect behaviour and to examine how those factors interact with each other. Also to deal with issues with values, morality and personal preference and tries to provide society with useful info for practical application.
The term that describes using the scientific method to study human behaviour and mental processes is….
Psychology
Define Pseudo-psychology
No use of the scientific method to study human behaviour and mental processes.
2 examples of pseudo psychology:
Parapsychology and astrology
Identify the 6 steps to the scientific method
1) Identify questions of interest 2) develop a testable hypothesis 3) Select a research method, choose participants 4) analyze the data and accept or reject hypothesis 5)seek scientific review, publish and replicate 6) Build a theory
Define a variable
a condition, event or situation that is of interest or may have an influence on your study.
What are the two names of the two types of variables?
An independent variable and a dependent variable
Explain the two types of variables
IV: the variable that you manipulate. A condition or event that is thought to be a factor in chaining another condition or event (ie. Sleep deprivation). DV: is the variable that you measure (or the variable that is changed by the IV (behaviour)
What is an extraneous variable (EV)
something that could somehow effect the relationship between the IV and DV such as drug intake, personality, gender, age
What is a Confounding Variable
not only can effect results but can lead to changes in one of the variable
In addition to identifying and defining the variable, a researcher must also….?
Operationalize them
What defines operationalize? Give any example
how we (the researcher) decide to measure our variables. For example how would you measure love? Increase heart rate, temperature, etc.
Define Participants
Those who participate in your study
Population
the entire group that is of interest to researchers (not all will participate in the study)
Sample
A portion or subset of any population that is selected for the study
Random Selection
Choosing participants in such a way that everybody in a population of interest has an equal chance of participating in the study
What is the benefit of random selection?
minimizes the chance of only having participants who confirm your hypothesis
Sampling Bias
Choosing a sample that does not represent your population
What are the two types of research?
Descriptive and Experimental
What is descriptive research? (3 pts)
research method used to observe and describe behaviour. It is used to determine the existence of a relationship between the variables. It does not specify causation between variables.
What is experimental research (2 pts)
To demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between the variables. It manipulates at least one variable to examine change in another
What are three types of descriptive research?
Case study, Naturalistic Observation and Surveys
What is a case study?
An intensive study of 1 or 2 people
What are the advantages of case studies? (2)
It is the only method you can use if the type of behaviour you are looking at is rare and it is very detailed
What are the disadvantages? (3)
You cannot generalize your results to all people, you cannot determine cause and effect, and there is researcher bias
What is naturalistic observation?
systematic observation of people behaving as they normally do in their natural environment
What are the advantages of naturalistic observation? (2)
can study things that are too unethical to do in an experiment. There is also no direct intervention
What is the disadvantage of naturalistic observation?(4)
Time consuming, cannot determine cause and effect, researcher bias, and presence of people that might lie about researcher can cause participants to behave differently.
What is the Hawthorne Effect?
When people are put into experimental situations, some act differently than they normally would
What is a survey?
Asking people directly about their behaviours through a questionnaire or interview
What are the advantages of surveys? (2)
Quick and cheap
Disadvantages of surveys (3)
Some people lie, social desirability bias (making one sound favourable) and cannot determine cause and effect
What is an experiment?
A controlled observation in which researchers manipulate an independent variable to see if it causes the dependent variable to change
2 advantages of experiments
can establish cause and effect and can eliminate outside influences
1 disadvantage of experiments
might not be generalizable
What is ecological validity?
how well the results apply to situations in the real world (outside the lab)
What method can sometimes be unethical?
experiments
What is the experimental group?
the group that is exposed to the IV (manipulation or treatment)
What is the control group?
the group that isn’t exposed to the IV; this group is used to compare how the IV changes the DV
What is random assignment used for?
To balance or account for any individual differences. therefore each participant has an equal chance of being in the experimental or control group
What is a placebo effect?
to believe that they are going to get better - sugar pill
What is a double blind procedure?
neither the participant nor the researcher knows who is in which group
After collecting data, it needs to be analyzed using….
statistics
what are statistics?
a mathematical approach to assessing the outcome of your study
Statistical analyses differ depending on the
type of research
What is descriptive research?
correlations indicate if there is a relationship between the variables
What is experimental research?
statistic indicate if the hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful difference between the groups
What is a correlation
a predictable relationship between two or more variables
What is a correlation coefficient?
it expresses the strength and nature of the relationship between variables
What to correlations range from?
-1.00 to +1.00
What does the number indicate in correlations
the number indicates the strength of the relationship
The closer the correlation is the….. the relationship
stronger
Do the - and + represent strength?
no, it indicates the direction or nature of the relationship
Find the biggest or smallest number strongest correlation?
biggest
What is a positive correlation?
when one variable increases, the other increases
What is a negative correlation?
when one variable increases, the other decreases
What is a perfect correlation
when a change in one variable always causes the same proportion of change to another variable
What is an advantage of correlations?
describes how the variables are related
What is disadvantage of correlations?
cannot determine cause and effect
What do descriptive statistics do?
describe the data
What is the mean?
average of all the scores
What is the standard deviation?
how much the participants scores vary from one another
the higher the standard deviation, the less…
consistency among the individual
the lower standard deviation, the more
predictable the individual scores
What are inferential statistics?
help to draw conclusions about the data
What is a p-value? also called?
tells you the probability that the results were not due to chance, also called statistical significance
If you have a p-value lower than .05 that means there is a ….% likelihood that your results occurred by chance
5%
The lower the p value, the …. likely it is that you would find the same result using a different sample
more
What does the effect size describe?
the strength of the relationship between the variables.
The larger the effect size, the …. the relationship and the …. likely you are that you would find the same result if you repeated the study. This is known as…
stronger/more/replication
What is REB?
Research ethics boards. They are considered the ethics police. They make sure that everyone who conducts research follows the ethical guidelines
What council oversees research involving animals as subjects?
The Canadian Council on Animal Care
