CHAPTER 2: Doing Psychology Research

Question 1

What is the goal of basic and applied psychology research?

Answer 1

the goal of basic psychology research is to increase the overall understanding of human behavior. The goal of applied psychology research is to make applications to the world, and help contribute to the solution of social problems; we want to be able to predict the future! Trying to figure out what X causes Y.

Question 2

What is random sampling and why is it crucial in psychology research

Answer 2

Random sampling is a method of selecting participants for a study so that everyone has an equal probability of being selected for the study. This is important because a lot of psychology research has been conducted on White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic population (WEIRD), and we need to be able to generalize the results for a larger population.

Question 3

Explain blinding and the types of blinding are done in psychology research

Answer 3

Single blinding: participants don’t know the condition they’re in (real or placebo).
Double blinding: both the participants and researchers don’t know the conditions the participants are in. Blinding is used to minimize experimenter/participant bias and improve credibility of the experiment

Question 4

External validity, internal validity, and construct validity

Answer 4

External validity: the likelihood that the results of a study would be obtained for other people and situations
Internal validity: the degree to which the manipulation of the independent variables affected the dependent variables, rather than a third variable
Construct validity: how well a test measures the concept it was designed to evaluate

Question 5

experimental and mundane realism

Answer 5

Experimental realism: the degree to which the experiment allows participants to behave naturally and spontaneously
Mundane realism: the degree of which an experimental environment simulates real places and events in the real world