Chapter 2: Methodology Flashcards
What is HINDSIGHT BIAS?
the tendency for people to exaggerate how much they could’ve predicted the outcome after knowing that it occurred, OR the opposite finding feels just as obvious as the results that were actually obtained
What is a THEORY?
an organized set of principles that can be used to explain observed phenomena
What is a HYPOTHESIS?
a testable statement or idea about the relationship bw 2 or more variables
What is an OPERATIONAL DEFINITION?
the precise specification of how variables are measured or manipulated
What is the OBSERVATIONAL METHOD?
the technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements of their behaviour; can vary in the degrees to which the observer actively participates in the scene
What is an ETHNOGRAPHY?
the method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside without imposing any preconceived notions they might have
What is ARCHIVAL ANALYSIS?
a form of the observational method whereby the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture
What is the CORRELATIONAL METHOD?
the technique whereby researchers systematically measure two or more variables and assess the relation bw them
What is the EXPERIMENTAL METHOD?
the method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical for the independent variable
What is INTERNAL VALIDITY?
ensuring that nothing other than the independent variable can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions
What is EXTERNAL VALIDITY?
the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and other people
What is PSYCHOLOGICAL REALISM?
the extent to which psychological processes triggered in an experiment occur in every day life
What are FIELD EXPERIMENTS?
experiments conducted in natural settings rather than the laboratory
What is the BASIC DILEMMA OF THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGIST?
the trade-off bw internal and external validity in conducting research
the choice bw randomly assigning people conditions and having enough control to make sure there are no other variables influencing the results
What is BASIC RESEARCH?
studies that are designed to find the best answer as to why people behave the way they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity
What is APPLIED RESEARCH?
studies designed specifically to solve a particular social problem; building a theory of behaviour is usually secondary to solving the specific problem
What is CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH?
research conducted with members of different cultures to see whether the psychological processes of interest are present across cultures or whether they are specific to a single culture
