Chapter 2 Flashcards
Validity
- refers to the goodness with which a concrete event defines a property.
ex. ) smiling is a concrete event which means a person is happy
reliability
- the tendency for an instrument to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.
internal validity
- an attribute of an experiment that allows it to establish casual relationships
- this means in an experiment everything we said was working is actually working.
External Validity
- An attribute of an experiment in which variables have been defined in a normal typical , or realistic way.
- variables exposed
Predictive
-Trying to see if there is a relationship between the validity
Naturalistic Observation
- technique for gathering scientific information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environment.
disadvantages of Naturalistic Observation
- Some things we want to observe don’t happen naturally
- Other things we want to observe can only be done through survey, giving a test, conducting an interview, or hooking up someone to a machine.
advantages of Naturalistic Observation
- People are less likely to be influenced by demand characteristics through anonymous survey and questionnaires.
- measure behaviors that cannot be easily controlled (like if you are obviously affected by something and it shows easily)
- Avoiding demand characteristics by not letting people know the true purpose of the observation experiment.
Double - Blind Study
- When an Observation whose true purpose is hidden form both the observer and the person being observed.
- most common
Single- Blind Study
- When the Experimenters know the purpose of the experiment but not the subjects
Scientific Method
- procedure for finding the truth by using empirical evidence.
- Composed of creating a “Theory” which is a (hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon) and a “Hypothesis” (a falsifiable prediction made by a theory)
Informed Consent
- written agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail
- DOESN’T mean that the person has to know everything about the study BUT they need to know of anything that is harmful or painful
- if they cannot give consent due to restrictions then consent must come from legal guardian.
debriefing
- verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study
- happens if a participant is deceived in any way
independent variable
- variable that is manipulated
- “under our control”
dependent variable
- variable that is measured
- “value depends on what the participant says or does”
Experimental group
- group of people who experience a stimulus
- gets base level of Dependent variable
control group
- group of pool who do not experience the stimulus
- Gets base level of Independent Variable.
population
- COMPLETE collection of people in a study
- always larger than a sample
sample
- PARTIAL collection of people drawn from a population.
- every single person in the population has a chance to be selected
- not every sample will be represented
- large sample is 300 or more
correlation
-variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other.
The Ethics of Research
- APA Guidelines Middle-mist and Milgram experiments
- Institutional Review Boards (IRB)
- Informed Consent
- Debriefing
- Confidentiality
Mean
-Average value of scores
Median
-Middle value when you arrange your scores lowest to highest
