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PSYCH 104 > Chapter 2 and Appendix > Flashcards

Chapter 2 and Appendix Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the scientific approach?

A

asking and answering questions about the world around us

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2
Q

What are the five steps of studying behaviour?

A
  1. Identify the question of interest
  2. Gather information and form hypothesis
  3. Test hypothesis by conducting research
  4. Analyze data, draw tentative conclusions, report findings
  5. Build a body of knowledge, ask further questions, conduct more research, develop and test theories
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3
Q

What is hindsight understanding?

A

relies on explanations “after the fact”

drawback: past events can be explained in many ways

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4
Q

What is understanding through prediction?

A

uses scientific method

satisfies curiosity, builds knowledge, generates principles that can be applied to new situations

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5
Q

What are characteristics of good theories?

A
  1. Organize information in meaningful ways
  2. Are testable
  3. Have prediction supported by research
  4. Conform to law of parsimony
  5. Simpler theory is preferred
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6
Q

What is a variable?

A

any factor that may vary

height, weight, age, GPA, eye color, reaction time, accuracy

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7
Q

What is an operational definition?

A

some variables are harder to define
operational definition is the specific procedure used to define a variable
thus the same variable can be defined in different ways across different studies

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8
Q

What is an independent variable?

A

the variable the researcher is manipulating

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9
Q

What is a dependent variable?

A

the variable the researcher is measurring

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10
Q

What are the pros and cons of self reports?

A

Pros: a way to measure a wide range of information, such as beliefs, feelings, experiences, and behavior

Cons: only reliable if reports are accurate, social desirability bias

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11
Q

What are overt behaviors?

A

response times (item detection, problem solving)
accuracy
looking rates

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12
Q

What is descriptive research?

A

identify and understand behaviors in natural settings

provides clue to cause-effect relationships

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13
Q

What are case studies?

A

in-depth analysis of individual, group, or event

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14
Q

What are advantages of case studies?

A

can study a rare phenomenon in detail
may challenge validity of current theories
can provide insights into many areas

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15
Q

What are disadvantages of case studies?

A

cannot determine case and effect
potentially poor generalizability
potentially biased data handling/analyzing

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16
Q

What is naturalistic observation?

A

observation of behavior in a natural setting

not intervening or changing the behaviors being observed

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17
Q

What are advantages of naturalistic observation?

A

provides a rich description of behavior

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18
Q

What are disadvantages of naturalistic obervation?

A

does not permit clear causal conclusions
potential bias in interpreting the observations
mere presence of observer may change the subject’s behavior

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19
Q

What is a representative sample?

A

one that reflects the important characteristics of the population
a sample composed of 80% males would not represent a student body in which only 45% are men

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20
Q

What is random sampling?

A

to obtain a representative sample

in which every member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen to participate in the survey

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21
Q

What is correlation research?

A

goal is to determine the extent to which an association exists between two variables (X and Y)
researcher measures one variable (X)
researcher measures second variable (Y)
variables are not manipulated, just measured

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22
Q

What is bidirectionality?

A

two way causality
X causes Y
Y causes X

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23
Q

What is spurious association?

A

not genuine
third variable problem
correlation due to a third variable

24
Q

What is a correlation coefficient?

A

correlations are mathematically described by a correlation coefficient
ranges from -1.0 to +1.0
sign indicates direction
absolute value indicates strength

25
Q

What is positive correlation?

A

variables change in the same direction
as X increases, Y increases
as X decreases, Y decreases

26
Q

What is negative correlation?

A

variables changes in opposite direction
as X increases, Y decreases
as X decreases, Y increases

27
Q

What are scatterplots?

A 
depicts the correlation
shows direction (positive or negative) of a relationship
28
Q

What are advantages of correlational studies?

A

show the strength of relationship present
can be used to make predictions about variables
identifies “real-world” associations

29
Q

What are disadvantages of correlational studies?

A

can’t assume a relationship exists
relationships may be due to a third unmeasured variable
shows an association NOT a cause

30
Q

What are three essential characteristics of experiments?

A
  1. Manipulate one variable
  2. Measure whether tis variable produces changes in another variable
  3. Control for other factors that might influence results
31
Q

What are experiments?

A

random assignment of participants to the different conditions
manipulation of independent variables
(some) control over extraneous variables

32
Q

What is random sampling?

A

equal chance of someone from the population being chosen

33
Q

What is random assignment?

A

equal chance of the same participants being assigned to any of the experimental groups

34
Q

What is the manipulation of independent variables?

A

the variables/factors the experimenter manipulates
need to control other factors, otherwise cannot be sure whether the outcome of the experiment is due to experimental manipulation

35
Q

What is between-subjects design?

A

some participants get one experimental manipulation, while the others gets the other experimental manipulation

36
Q

What are the pros and cons of between-subjects design?

A

Pros: timing doesn’t matter, no practice effects

Cons: variability due to individual differences across two groups, need many more subjects

37
Q

What is within-subjects design?

A

all participants participate in all experimental manipulations

38
Q

What are the pros and cons of within-subjects design?

A

Pros: less random noise, fewer participants needed

Cons: carryover effects, practice, fatigue, timing may matter

39
Q

What are interaction effects?

A

occurs when you have 2 or more independent variables each of which has at least 2 conditions

40
Q

What is validity?

A

how well an experimental procedure actually tests what it is designed to test

41
Q

What is internal validity?

A

degree to which conclusions are supported by the data you have

42
Q

What are threats to validity?

A

confounding variables
demand characteristics, Placebo effect
experimenter expectancy effects

43
Q

What is the placebo effect?

A

change behavior based on expecting a change/improvement
decreases internal validity
provides an alternative explanation for changes in experimental/treatment group

44
Q

What is the experimenter expectancy effect?

A

unintentional ways experimenters influence participants (in direction of hypothesis)
minimized by double-blind procedure

45
Q

What are descriptive statistics?

A

numerically describe data set (distribution of measure)

46
Q

What are measures of central tendency?

A

mean
median
mode
quartiles

47
Q

What are measures of dispersion/variation?

A

standard deviation
variance
range

48
Q

What is a histogram?

A

graph of frequency distribution
scores (intervals) plotted on X axis
frequencies plotted on Y axis
a bar above each score, height of bar indicates how frequently score occured

49
Q

What are non-normal distributions?

A

data is skewed, tilted sharply to one side or the other
mean is affected by extreme scores (outliers)
median and mode better reflect central tendency

50
Q

What is dispersion/variability?

A

measure of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are (spread of scores)

51
Q

What is the range?

A

simplest measure of variability
difference between highest and lowest measures
the higher the range, the less likely to find statistical significance

52
Q

What is standard deviation?

A

measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean
more clustering = standard deviation

53
Q

What is variance?

A

average of squared deviation scores about the mean

54
Q

What is factor analysis?

A

reduced a large number of correlations among many measures to a smaller number of clusters
valuable tool when identifying dimensions of behavior

55
Q

What is statistical significance?

A

minimum level is less than 0.05

p < 0.05 in order to be statistically significant

56
Q

What is a null hypothesis?

A

any observed differences between control and experimental group are due to chance, assumed to be true until proven wrong

57
Q

What is practical significance?

A

real world importance

with huge sample sizes, can have statistical significance but not practical significance

PSYCH 104 (9 decks)

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