chapter 2: methods Flashcards
the belief that reason and logical argument is to how we acquire knowledge instead of experience
rationalism
what we think is true about behaviour is often different from how we actually behave
flaw in rationalism
rational explanations to describe and predict future behaviour
scientific theories
a six steps, logical approach to methodologically answer questions
scientific method
the six steps of scientific method
identify the problem, gather information, generate a hypothesis, design and conduct experiments, analyze data and formulate conclusion, restart the process
any means to capture, report, record, or describe a group, interested in identifying “what is” not necessarily understanding “why it is”
descriptive methods
the four methods of descriptive methods
naturalistic observation, participant observation, case studies, surveys
happens in a natural environment without any attempt to manipulate or control the conditions of the observation
naturalistic observation
researchers manipulate and control the conditions of the behaviour under observation
field experiments
pros and cons of naturalistic observation
pros: generate new ideas about an observed phenomenon
cons: lack of control over the environment with factors that may influence the data, difficult to replicate
where two or more observers agree with each other about the observations
interrater reliability
the extent to which research findings in the lab can be generalized to the real world
ecological validity
reactivity also known as Hawthorne effect, the novelty of being observed leads humans to perform better
reactivity
researcher becomes part of the group under investigation to gain access to a group
participant observation
pros and cons of participant observation
pros: provide enriching experience and greater access, opens up to new perspectives not would not be obtainable from naturalistic observation
cons: could increase reactivity and change behaviour, observer may become biased and too involved, they can influence participants’ behaviour, low degree of reliability
the consistency or repeatability of research findings
reliability
became a part of a psychiatric ward with either other researchers to observe the diagnostic techniques in the early 1970s, which demonstrated that physicians at the time could not reliably tell the difference between sane and insane people
David Rosenhan
in-depth analysis of a unique phenomenon or individual
case studies
“H.M.”, the most studied person in the history of psychology, study the role of the hippocampus in the formation of memory which led to the identification of different types of memories (episodic, semantic, procedural memories)
Henry Molaison
plays a role in behaviour and memory
entorhinal cortex
efficient way to quickly collect information and understanding of the current state of people’s opinions, perspectives, and experiences with a variety of waysp
surveys
all members of a group
population
a portion of a population
sample
sampling error a sample that deviates from a true representation of the population
sampling error
the tendency for people to answer a certain way that they feel are expected to answer
response bias
the tendency for people to agree with most or all items on a survey regardless of their actual opinion
acquiescent response bias
people respond in specific way that they think would be acceptable by others
socially desirable bias
“better-than-average effect”, the tendency for describe our own behaviour as better than average
illusory superiority
the influence of language or wording on people’s choices in a survey
wording effects
revolutionized the understanding of people’s sexual attitudes and behaviour from the data collected from survey
Alfred Kinsey
small few who are willing to take the survey are likely overrepresented in the survey
volunteer bias
how a research decides to measure a variable (the standard in an experiment)
operational definition
a set of principles of behaviours that psychologists follow in research
research ethics
a set of general principles that outline how people should be educated, treated, and respected in studies
ethics
which institution developed the five ethical principles
the American Psychological Association (APA)
research should strive to do good and avoid harm (benefits of the research vs the costs that participants may experience)
beneficence and non-maleficence
the ethical principle of developing trusting relationships between researchers and participants
fidelity
researchers must be honest and reliable with participants, they have a responsibility to hold the high standards of conduct and protect participants
fidelity and responsibility
psychologists should engage in accurate, non-biased practices in the science, teaching, and practice of psychology
integrity
fabricating or manipulating research data
falsification
strive to establish equality, participants should also be the same people who benefit from the outcomes
justice
an attribute that is essential in participant to answer the research question
inclusion criterion
attributes that would prevent participation because they can’t address the question
exclusion criterion
a set of characteristics shared by all participant that ensure they will meaningfully help to address the research question
eligibility criteria
researches should take measures to respect and protect participants’ rights, privacy, and welfare, and communicate openly and honestly about all details
respect for people’s rights and dignity
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
a committee of independent people who review and assess if the research project will be consistent with the general ethical principles
participants learn and understand about the purpose and potential risk of participating
consent
any group of individuals who are not able to give free and informed consent to participate
vulnerable populations
any instance when a potential participant has the inability to provide informed consent (child or mentally disabled)
decisional impairment
instances when the freedom of choice to participate is compromised as a result of undue influence from another source (feel forced our of fear or expectation of benefits)
situational vulnerability
affirmative person to take part in the study, given along with consent
assent
withholding information about the purpose and procedure of the study during the informed consent process
deception
another researcher who is acting like a participant
confederate
denoted as “r”, a measure that captures the direction and strength of a relationship between variables, does not prove cause and effect
correlation
provides a visual representation of relationships between variable, strong relationship = points cluster tightly together in a linear manner
scatterplot
variables change in the same direction, one increases the other increases as well
positively correlated
an increase in one variable leads to a decrease in the other
negatively correlated
indicates that there is no apparent relationship between variables
zero correlation
a straight line on a scatterplot showing the general relationship of the data
line of best fit
numerical representation of the strength of the relationship between variables, from -1 to +1, the closer the number is to either negative or positive 1, the stronger the correlation
correlation coefficient
another variable that may influence the outcome, which randomness in the study can eliminate
confounding variable
the notion that one variable directly affects another
causality
educated prediction about the outcome of an experiment
hypothesis
a good hypothesis should be
as simple as possible, specific, testable, and be falsifiable
the variable experimenter will manipulate and must contain at least two levels
independent variable (IV)
the variable the experimenters measure, the outcome
dependent variable (DV)
the confounding variable that are not the focus of the study but may influence the outcome if not controlled
extraneous variable
a type of sampling where individuals in a population has an equal chance of participating
simple random sample
a more careful approach to random sampling and particularly useful when there are two or more identifiable subgroups in the population (divided population into subgroups then randomly take samples in subgroups)
stratified random sample
not all individuals are equally likely to participate
non-random sample
a group of individuals that are selected because of a pre-existing condition or easy access to participation
convenience group
the group that receives treatment of interest
experimental group
receives placebo to compare results with the experimental group
control group
when there are no other explanations for the relationship between an independent and dependent variable (no extraneous variables), it should be able to repeated and the results would be the same
internal validity
whether the results from a study can be applied beyond the scope of the original study
external validity
external validity of how the results can be applied to other settings, people, or time periods
generalization
serves to establish internal and external validity
replication
“quantitative” statistical information that describes a dataset (measures of central tendency such as mean, median, and mode, and standard deviation)
descriptive statistics
tests and analyses that allow us to draw conclusions from our data, whether there is a measurable difference between two groups
inferential statistics
a single point to describe the centre of data
measure of central tendency
the average score, the most commonly used form of central tendency
mean
the middle number in a data set
median
the most frequently occurring number in a data set
mode
the most commonly used measure of variability
the average of the squared deviation score is variance, the square root of variance is standard deviation
standard deviation (SD)
probability of an event is less than 5%, the finding is real, reliable, and not due to chance.
statistically significant
bell-shaped curve, symmetrical, with a single central peak in the middle and the spread of data (SD) gets smaller and smaller as we move away from the mean
normal distribution
determined that around 1.64 standard deviations away from the mean represents the most extreme 5% of the population on one side of the distribution
Ronald Fisher
