Chapter 2 Flashcards by Jade Morter

Two core beliefs of science:

The universe operates according to certain natural laws. Such laws are discoverable and testable

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The scientific method uses:

Inductive and deductive reasoning

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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.

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Inductive reasoning is based on….

empirical (objectively testable) observations that lead to development of theories

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Ideas about laws that govern phenomena is a description of…?

Inductive Reasoning

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Inductive Reasoning uses what the most?

hypothetico-deductive reasoning

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Inductive Reasoning begin with an educated guess and design controlled observations to support or invalidate their

Hypotheses

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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.

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The term that describes using the scientific method to study human behaviour and mental processes is….

Psychology

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Define Pseudo-psychology

No use of the scientific method to study human behaviour and mental processes.

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2 examples of pseudo psychology:

Parapsychology and astrology

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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

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Define a variable

a condition, event or situation that is of interest or may have an influence on your study.

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What are the two names of the two types of variables?

An independent variable and a dependent variable

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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)

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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

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What is a Confounding Variable

not only can effect results but can lead to changes in one of the variable

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In addition to identifying and defining the variable, a researcher must also….?

Operationalize them

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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.

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Define Participants

Those who participate in your study

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Population

the entire group that is of interest to researchers (not all will participate in the study)

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Sample

A portion or subset of any population that is selected for the study

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Random Selection

Choosing participants in such a way that everybody in a population of interest has an equal chance of participating in the study

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What is the benefit of random selection?

minimizes the chance of only having participants who confirm your hypothesis

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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

The lower the p value, the .... likely it is that you would find the same result using a different sample

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