Chapter 2- Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research Flashcards
hindsight bias
-people exaggerate how much they could have predicted an outcome after knowing that it occurred
diffusion of responsibility
-assuming someone else will take action
Ex: assuming someone else will call police on disruptive neighbor
methods for answering questions about social behavior
- ) observational method
- ) correlational method
- ) experimental method
observational method
- researcher observes people and records behavior
- goal is to describe what people or type of behavior are like
- ethnography or archival analysis
ethnography
- observing from inside w/o having preconceived notion of subjects
- goal is to understand complexity of group by seeing in action
- must try to understand point of view of people being studied
interjudge reliability
- level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe group
- ensures subjectivity
archival analysis
- researcher examines documents of culture
- diaries, novels, newspaper, etc
- tells about values and beliefs
limits to observational method
- certain behaviors are difficult to observe b.c they rarely occur or occur in private
- typically only one setting, group, etc
- social psychologists want to do more explaining
- archival analysis limited
correlational method
- two variables measured and relationship assessed
- often used in surveys
correlation coefficient
-tells how well you can predict one variable from another
positive correlation
-increased value of one variable is associated with increased value of other
negative correlation
-increased value of one variable associated with decreased value of other
advantages of surveys
- allow researcher to judge relationship between variables difficult to observe
- random selection
random selection
-ensuring sample of people represents population by giving everyone equal chance of being selected
problem with survey
-accuracy of responses
Ex: people may answer how they “should” as opposed to how they “would” in hypothetical situation
correlation DOES NOT
equal causation
experimental method
- only way to determine causal relationship
- randomly assign participants to different conditions
- must have internal validity
- direct intervention (manipulation)
independent variable
-variable changed to see effect on dependent variable
internal validity
-keeping everything beside the independent variable the same in all conditions
random assignment
- everyone has equal chance of taking part in any condition
- ensres that differences in participant traits are distributed evenly
probability level (p-value)
- tells if results occurred by chance and no b/c of IV
- if differ significantly than expected by chance -> IV caused difference
external validity
- extent to which results of study can be generalized to other situations or people
- generalizability across situations or people
- heightened with field studies
psychological realism
- extent to which psychological processes triggered in experiment are similar to psychological process that occur in everyday life
- heightened if people feel involved in real event
field experiment
- study behavior in natural setting
- still control IV and assign randomly
- difficult to control extraneous variables
trade-off between internal and external validity
- difficult to…
1. ) randomly assign people to conditions
2. ) have control over situation
3. ) ensure no extraneous variables influence results
4. ) make generalizable to everyday life
replication
- repeating study
- often different subjects or settings
- ultimate test of external validity
meta-analysis
- average results of multiple studies to see if effect of IV is reliable
- if IV has effect on most studies -> conclude IV influence DV
goal of basic research
- find best answer to question of why people behave
- not trying to solve specific social or psychological problem
applied research
-geared toward solving particular social problem
cross-cultural research
- study members of different cultures to see if psychological processes of interest are present in other cultures
- requires researcher to oppose viewpoints and learn cultural values
evolutionary theory
- Charles Darwin
- explains ways in which animals adapt to environment
- natural selection
informed consent
-researcher explains nature of experiment and asks for permission BEFORE beginning
deception experiment
- misleading participants about true purpose of study
- must debrief after
institutional review board (IRB)
- group of at least 1 scientist, 1 nonscientist, and 1 member not affiliated with IRB
- review proposed research to make sure ethical
- research must be approved before it can be conducted
social neuroscience
-connection between biological processes and social behavior
Ex: hormones, immune system, neurological processes
______________ involves systematic examination of the documents or records of a culture
archival analysis
The primary goal of cross-cultural research is to
demonstrate cultural dependence on psychological processes
highest correlation
-1 or 1
Based on information from your text: Basic research is to _____ as applied research is to _____
satisfying intellectual curiosity; solving social problems
A cult in the 1950s believed that the world was coming to an end very soon. Researchers Leon Festinger and his colleagues studied this cult by joining the group and pretending to share these beliefs. What research method were they using
ethnography
Using random selection is a way to ensure that
a sample is representative of a population by giving everyone an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
Before Jonas Salk discovered a vaccine to prevent polio, people noticed a correlation between outside temperature and the incidence of polio: The warmer the temperature over the course of the year, the more outbreaks of polio. This relationship is an example of a _________ correlation
positive
_____ allows researchers to rule out differences among participants as the cause of differences in the dependent variable.
random assignment
Dr. Burnett conducts a study in which either a male or female driver appears to be stranded by a stalled car along the side of a busy highway, and the number of drivers who stop to help are counted. Which research method is Dr. Burnett using for this study
field experiment
In a study of frustration and aggression, some participants were exposed to an accomplice who insulted them, and others were exposed to no such insult. Participants were then allowed to recommend whether the accomplice should be fired. Those who were insulted were more likely to retaliate by recommending that the accomplice lose his job. In this experiment, the ________ was the dependent variable
participants’ recommendations
A hypothesis is most like a
hunch
________ is the extent to which results of a study can be generalized to other situations or other people.
external validity
Patricia and John have each independently recorded the number of times the words “right” and “responsibility” appeared in a civics textbook. They compared their counts, and found that of the thousands of references to rights and responsibilities, they only disagreed by two occurrences. This example illustrates high
interjudge reliability
All of the following are limits on observational research except
the coding of the data tends to be low in reliability
It is important to know the probability level for a given set of experimental findings because p-values
inform experimenters whether their results might have happened by chance
A ________ enables researchers to decide whether the effects of an independent variable are reliable across studies.
meta-analysis
In which of the following types of research is the researcher most concerned with the representativeness of the sample used?
survey
No matter how artificial an experimental situation may at first appear, if participants think, feel, or react the way that people in a real-life situation would react, the experiment has
high psychological realism
mundane realism
extent to which experimental setting represents real life
