Chapter 2/3 (week 2) Flashcards
Why should we not rely on personal experience over research?
Experience has no comparison group and is confounded.
Why is a comparison group important when conducting research?
Because what if there is a better method/solution than the initial one used? Ex: radical mastectomies vs simple mastectomies. Radical were used for years but after a long time simple ones were found to do the exact same thing AND save the lymph nodes and chest wall.
Confound
a potential alternative explanation
What does it mean that experience is confounded?
We can be biased in what we think causes an outcome, but there’s usually confounds that we didn’t eliminate. Ex: a bath at bedtime is what helps my baby sleep better. Could it really be due to your interaction with the baby?
6 points that make research better than personal experience
-comparison groups
-rules out confounds
-dig deeper
-looks at weight of evidence
-theory-data cycle
-publication/peer-review
Although we know research is better than personal experience what is one thing to keep in mind about research?
Scientific findings are not expected to explain 100% of cases. There are always exceptions and research is probabilistic!!!
4 things to consider before trusting authority figures
-source of their ideas?
-did they provide subjective/personal opinion?
-they may be biased
-different authorities may disagree
Halo effect
people who think that since they excel in their field they excel in all fields
consensus/common sense
accepting a conclusion because it’s accepted by the majority of people
famous example of a consensus that’s actually incorrect
“opposites attract” is widely believed but there’s actually research that supports the opposite.
intuition (in research)
believing something based on a gut feeling
what’s the main limitation of relying on intuition?
it’s often biased and can lead to worse decisions
4 non-scientific sources of knowledge
personal experience
authority
intuition
consensus
5 forms of intuition bias
present/present bias
availability heuristic
being swayed by a good story
confirmation bias
bias blind spot
being swayed by a good story
accepting something because it feels natural/”makes sense”
availability heuristic
-incorrectly estimating the frequency of an event by relying on what comes to mind easiest
example of availability heuristic
“im scared of planes because they crash often”
-do they crash often or are plane crashes just reported more frequently than successful plane travel?
-example of overestimation
present/present bias
incorrectly estimating the relationship between event and outcome. we rely on what’s present and FAIL TO CONSIDER WHAT’S ABSENT
confirmation bias
tendency to look only at info that agrees with our beliefs
bias blind spot
denying/being unaware of biases in oneself
why is there typically a group of researchers/hiring committee/etc. rather than just 1 person in charge?
bias blind spot.
what 2 things are people with a bias blind spot less likely to do?
accept advice from others & learn from training that would help them make better decisions
primary sources
report DIRECTLY from the results of an empirical study/ies
secondary sources
summarize past findings or produce a new theory
components of a journal article IN ORDER
- abstract
- introduction
- methods
- results
- discussion
- references
3 parts of a research introduction
-background info/motivation for study
-review of past literature
-study’s purpose and hypotheses
abstract
concise summary of the article
research paper discussion
interpretation of the results WITH RESPECT TO THE HYPOTHESES
in articles with multiple studies, each study can have its own what?
intro, methods, results and discussion
disinformation
a news story, photo, video, etc. deliberately created to be false or misleading
what may stay the same in one study but could vary in another?
a constant
how many levels does a variable have?
at least 2
measured vs manipulated variables
measured: levels are observed/recorded
manipulated: controlled by researchers
in what type of study are variables manipulated?
causal/experiments.
2 reasons why some variables can only be measured and not manipulated
- naturally occurring attributes (age, gender, etc.)
- ethics
most of this type of variable can be both measured and manipulated
physiological
4 types of “roles” of variables
subject variables (self-esteem)
context variables (privacy)
stimulus variables (something presented that provokes a response)
response variables (test performance)
2 data types of variables
quantitative: levels differ in amount
qualitative: levels differ in quality/type
where do categorical, ordinal and nominal variables belong to?
categorical and nominal - qualitative
ordinal - quantitative
main difference between conceptual definition and operational definition of a variable
the operational definition defines the method that a variable is measured/manipulated; a conceptual definition is just an abstract/theoretical statement about a variable.
ex: hunger: number of hours of food deprivation (operational)
hunger: desire for food (conceptual)
3 reasons why operational definition are important
-replication
-forces researchers to clarify ideas
-objectivity and public verification
relation of variables in experimental studies vs non-experimental studies
experimental: IV is manipulated, DV is measured
non-experimental: predictor variable is assumed IV, criterion variable is assumed DV
difference in IV in experimental vs non-experimental studies
experimental: manipulated
non-experimental: measured
