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Psychology > Chapter 2: How Psychologists Do Research > Flashcards

Chapter 2: How Psychologists Do Research Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 5 key characteristics that make an ideal scientists?

A
  1. ) Precision
  2. ) Skepticism
  3. ) Reliance on empirical evidence
  4. ) Willingness to make “risky predictions”
  5. ) Openness
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2
Q

What is a theory?

A

An organized system of assumptions and principles that purpots to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interactions

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3
Q

What is a hypothesis?

A

A statement that attempts to predict or to account for a set of phenomena; scientific hypothesis specify relations among events or variables and are empirically tested.

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4
Q

What are operational definitions?

A

a precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifies the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being defined.

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5
Q

What is the principle of falsifiability?

A

the principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; that is, the theory must predict nt only what will happen, but also what will not happen.

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6
Q

What is confirmation bias?

A

the tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one’s own belief.

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7
Q

What must scientist do to make others believe their theory?

A

Must be willing to tell others where they got their ideas, how they tested them, and what the results were, clearly and in detail so that others can replicate and either verify or challenge their findings.

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8
Q

What is a representative sample?

A

A groupd of individuals, selected from a population for study, which matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex.

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9
Q

What are descriptive methods?

A

methods that yield descriptions of behaviour but not necessarily causal explanations.

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10
Q

What is a case study (case history)?

A

a detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated

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11
Q

What are observational studies?

A

a study in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behaviour without interfering with the behaviour; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation. `

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12
Q

What is the primary purpose of naturalistic observations?

A

to find out how people or animals act in their normal social environments.

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13
Q

What happens in observational studies?

A

researchers count, rate, or measure behaviour systematically, to guard against noticing only what they expect or want to see, and they keep careful observations.

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14
Q

Why must observers not be obvious about what they’re studying?

A

they need the group they are studying to act naturally

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15
Q

Why do some psychologists prefer lab observation?

A

they have more control of the situation

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16
Q

What is a negative side of lab observation?

A

the prescence of researchers and special equipment may cause people to behave differently than they would in their usual surroundings.

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17
Q

What are psychological tests?

A

procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities and values.

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18
Q

What do objective tests measure?

A

beliefs, feelings or behaviours of which an individual is aware.

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19
Q

What is another name for objective tests?

A

inventories

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20
Q

What do projective tests measure?

A

unconcious feelings or motives

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21
Q

Define standardize.

A

In test construction, to develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test.

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22
Q

What are norms in terms of test construction?

A

established standards of performance

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23
Q

Define reliability.

A

In test construction, the consistency of scores derived from a test, from one time to another.

24
Q

Define validity.

A

The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.

25
Q

What are surveys?

A

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions.

26
Q

What is volunteer bias?

A

A shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a representative sample; the volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer.

27
Q

What is a correlation study?

A

a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relation between two phenomena.

28
Q

What is a correlation?

A

a measure of how strong two variables are related to one another.

29
Q

What are variables?

A

Characteristics of behaviour or experience that can be measured or described by a numeric scale.

30
Q

What is positive correlation?

A

An association between increases in one variable and increases in another - or between decreases in another.

31
Q

What is negative correlation?

A

and association between increases in one variable and decreases in another.

32
Q

What is the coefficient of correlation?

A

A measure of correlation that ranges in value from -1.00 to +1.00

33
Q

What is illusionary correlation?

A

apparent associations between two things that are not really related.

34
Q

True or False: A correlation establishes causation.

A

False. It doesn’t.

35
Q

What is an experiment?

A

a controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.

36
Q

What is an independent variable?

A

a variable that an experimenter manipulates

37
Q

What is a dependent variable?

A

A variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable.

38
Q

What is a control condition?

A

In an experiment, a comparison condition in which participants are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition.

39
Q

What is random assignment?

A

A procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which each individual has the same probability as any other of being assigned to a given group.

40
Q

What is a placebo?

A

an inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a medical practitioner to a patient.

41
Q

What is a single-blind study?

A

an experiment in which the participants do not know whether they are in an experimental or a control group.

42
Q

What are experimenter effects?

A

unintended changes in study participants behaviour due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter.

43
Q

What is a double blind study?

A

an experiment in which neither the people being studied, nor the individuals running the study know who is in the control group until after the results are tallied.

44
Q

What is field research?

A

Descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the lab.

45
Q

What are the three major concerns that arise in cross cultural research?

A
  1. ) Methods and sampling (language barrier, could have learned very differently)
  2. ) Stereotyping (hard to not put the different cultures into one group.
  3. ) Reification: (to regard an intangible process, such as feeling, as if it were a literal object
46
Q

What are descriptive statistics?

A

statistical procedures that organize and summarize research data.

47
Q

What is the artimetic mean?

A

An average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and dividing the sunm by the total number of quantities in the set.

48
Q

What is standard deviation?

A

a commonly used measure of variability that indicates the average difference between scores in a distribution and their mean.

49
Q

What are inferential statistics?

A

statisical procedures that allow researchers to draw inferences about how statistically meaningful a study’s results are.

50
Q

What are inferences?

A

conclusions based on evidence.

51
Q

What are significance tests?

A

Statistical tests that show how likely it is that a study’s results occured merely by chance.

52
Q

What is a cross-sectional study?

A

a study in which people (or animals) of different ages are compared at a given time.

53
Q

What is a longitudinal study?

A

a study in which people (or animals) are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time.

54
Q

What is effect size?

A

the amount of variance among scores in a study accounted for by the independent variable

55
Q

What is meta-analysis?

A

a procedure for combining and analyzing data from mant studies; it determines how much of the variance in score across all studies can be explained by a particular variable.

56
Q

What is informed consent?

A

the doctrine that anyone who participates in human research must do so voluntarily and must know enough about the study to make an intelligent decision about whether to take part.

57
Q

FOr what 5 reasons do psychologists study animals?

A
  1. ) to conduct research on a particular species
  2. )to discover practical applications
  3. )to study issues that can’t be studied experimentally on humans due to ethical reasons
  4. )to clarify theoretical questions
  5. ) to improve human welfare.

Psychology (3 decks)

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