Chapter 2 Flashcards
What does LOTS stand for?
Lots of Data!!!
L-Data
consists of information that can be obtained from a person’s life history or life record (ex: school grades,
criminal history)
O-Data
observer data or information provided by knowledgeable observers such as parents, friends, teachers.
T-Data
test data or information obtained from experimental
procedures in which researchers measure people’s performance on tasks
S-Data
self-report data that is usually gathered through questionnaires that ask the individual to rate themselves
fixed measures
procedures in which exactly the same measures/items are administered to all people in a psychological study and scores for all people are computed
in exactly the same way (ex: SAT)
flexible measures
procedures that do something other than give all people a common set of questions
nomothetic
the search for scientific laws that apply, in a fixed manner, to everyone
idiographic
Flexible assessment techniques tailored to the individual being studied
Four targets of assessment
- average behavior
- variability in behavior
- conscious thought
- unconscious mental events
Reliability
refers to the extent to which observations can be replicate
How is reliability measured?
internal-consistency, test-retest reliability
Validity
the extent to which observations actually reflect the phenomena of interest in a given study
What are the different types of validity?
construct and discriminant
Tuskegee, Milgram, and Zimbardo studies
they all helped establish rules of informed consent
1981 APA principles
DO NO HARM, established ethical principles in research
three general strategies of research
- case studies
- correlation studies
- experimental research
Case studies
an idiographic method, not pre-planned or hypothesized. You have to wait for an opportunity to present itself.
Correlation studies
refers to a research strategy in which researchers examine the relationship among variables in a large population of people, where none of the variables is experimentally manipulated (questionnaires, surveys)
limitations: cannot draw conclusions about casuality, the reliance of self-reporting, provide superficial information
Experimental Research
limitations: ecological validity, creates artificial settings
