Chapter 2: Psychology as a Science

Question 1

What are the two scientific principles?

Answer 1

The universe functions according to certain natural laws and those laws are measurable and testable.

Question 2

What is deductive reasoning?

Answer 2

Starting off which an overarching theory and testing it out on smaller specific truths.

Question 3

What is inductive reasoning?

Answer 3

Using direct observations to create broad conclusions and combining them to create grand theories.

Question 4

What model does psychological research use?

Answer 4

Hypothetico-deductive.

Question 5

What is the hypothetico-deductive approach?

Answer 5

Starting off with an educated hypothesis and making experiments to prove it right on wrong.

Question 6

What are the 4 steps of the scientific approach in psychology?

Answer 6

Make observation, develop hypotheses, test hypotheses, build theory.

Question 7

What is the main idea behind psychological research?

Answer 7

Isolate the contribution of factors and think about how they come together to influence human behaviours.

Question 8

How is psychology distinct from other scientific field?

Answer 8

Psychology deals in major ways with issues associated with values, morality, and personal preference.

Question 9

How does pop psychology differ from real psychology?

Answer 9

Psychology does not claim to address all human issues unlike pseudoscience.

Question 10

What is a variable?

Answer 10

Any condition or event. A thing.

Question 11

What is an independent variable?

Answer 11

Any condition or event that thought to be a factor in changing another condition or event.

Question 12

What is a dependent variable.

Answer 12

The condition or event expected to change as a result of varying the independent variable.

Question 13

What does it mean to operationalize a variable?

Answer 13

Develop a very precise definition of the independent and dependent variables that allow for measurement and testing.

Question 14

What is a consideration to keep in mind went making operational definitions?

Answer 14

The way variables are operationalized have implications for the possible conclusions researchers can draw.

Question 15

What is random selection when choosing participants?

Answer 15

Choosing participants randomly so they accurately represent their population and avoids sampling bias.

Question 16

What are the two broad main categories of conducting psychological research?

Answer 16

Descriptive and experimental research?

Question 17

What does experimental research determine that descriptive cannot?

Answer 17

Cause-and-effect relationships.

Question 18

What is the purpose of descriptive research?

Answer 18

To observe, collect and record data.

Question 19

What are the advantages of descriptive research?

Answer 19

Good for developing early ideas, more reflective of actual behaviour, easier to collect data.

Question 20

What are the disadvantages of descriptive research?

Answer 20

Little to no control over variables, researcher and participant bias, cannot explain cause and effect.

Question 21

What is the purpose of experimental research.

Answer 21

Identify cause and effect.

Question 22

What are the advantages of experimental research?

Answer 22

Allows researchers precise controls over variables and to identify cause and effect.

Question 23

What are the disadvantages of experimental research?

Answer 23

Ethical concerns, practical limits, artificiality of lab conditions, confounding variables, researcher and participant biases.

Question 24

What are the three outlined descriptive research methods?

Answer 24

Case study, survey, naturalistic observation.

Question 25

What is an advantage of conducting a case study?

Answer 25

It is a good way of developing early ideas about phenomena.

Question 26

What are some disadvantages of case studies?

Answer 26

Can be greatly affected by researcher bias and you cannot confidently generalize findings to a wider population.

Question 27

What is an advantage of naturalistic observations?

Answer 27

Being more reflective of actual human behaviour than most other research designs.

Question 28

What is a disadvantage of naturalistic observations?

Answer 28

Can be subject to researcher bias and the idea of being observed causes participants to act differently.

Question 29

What are advantages of a survey approach?

Answer 29

Allows researchers to obtain different types of information. Can measure how strong the relationship is between two variables. Can gather large amounts of data.

Question 30

What are some disadvantages of a survey approach?

Answer 30

Can be victim to subject bias. Cannot tell the direction of the relationship between variables.

Question 31

What are the three main groups in an experiment?

Answer 31

Experimental, control, placebo groups.

Question 32

What separates an experiment from a descriptive research method?

Answer 32

The researchers are able to manipulate the independent variable.

Question 33

What is Demand Characteristic?

Answer 33

Conveying to the participants the desired outcome of the research, leading to bias.

Question 34

What is a double-blind procedure?

Answer 34

Neither the participant nor the researcher knows which group the participant is in.

Question 35

Why would you make a control group perform a task during an experiment?

Answer 35

To make sure the changes seen in the experimental are actually the result of variables and not just from doing anything.

Question 36

What is a correlation?

Answer 36

A predictable relationship between two or more variables.

Question 37

What is a correlation coefficient?

Answer 37

A statistic expressing the strength and nature of a relationship between two variables.

Question 38

What is a positive correlation?

Answer 38

Relationship in which scores on two variables increase together.

Question 39

What is a negative correlation?

Answer 39

A relationship in which scores on one variable increase and decrease for another.

Question 40

What is a perfect correlation.

Answer 40

One in which two variables are exactly related.

Question 41

What is a strong correlation coefficient?

Answer 41

When the r value is greater than +-0.7

Question 42

What is an "exciting" correlation coefficient?

Answer 42

0.3 and above.

Question 43

What does correlation not tell us?

Answer 43

Causality.

Question 44

What kind of analyses do establish cause and effect?

Answer 44

Experimental analyses.

Question 45

What are the two kinds of experimental analyses?

Answer 45

Descriptive and inferential stastistics.

Question 46

What are descriptive statistics?

Answer 46

Describe or summarize the data gathered from a study.

Question 47

What are inferential statistics?

Answer 47

Tell researchers what they can more broadly conclude or infer from results.

Question 48

How can researchers describe and summarize differences/results between the scores of the experimental and control groups?

Answer 48

By calculating the mean and standard deviation from each group.

Question 49

What is the mean.

Answer 49

The arithmetic average from the scores of all participants in a group.

Question 50

What is a standard deviation?

Answer 50

An index of how much the participant' scores vary from one another.

Question 51

How do researchers compare means?

Answer 51

By using statistical procedures known as t-tests (two groups) or analyses of variance (two or more groups.)

Question 52

How do you use statistical procedures (t-tests and analyses of variance)?

Answer 52

You look both at the mean differences and at the variance within the groups, as well as the size of the groups.

Question 53

What do statistical procedures (t-tests, analyses of variance) help determine?

Answer 53

If differences between groups are statistically significant, known as significance tests.

Question 54

What is the purpose of calculating a probability statistic?

Answer 54

To determine how much a difference is due to the independent variable.

Question 55

What is the probability yield (p-value) of a statistically significant test?

Answer 55

Less than 0.5.

Question 56

What does the numerical difference and the probability statistic NOT give us?

Answer 56

How big the effect in the study is.

Question 57

What statistic needs to be calculated in order to determine the strength of the relationship between two variables?

Answer 57

Effect Size

Question 58

How can we determine if a hypothesis is really correct over time?

Answer 58

Through Replication.

Question 59

What ensures that researchers follow proper ethical practices?

Answer 59

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Question 60

What 4 steps much researchers follow in order to experiment in an ethical manner?

Answer 60

Obtain informed consent, protect participants from harm and discomfort, protect confidentiality, provide complete debriefing.

Question 61

What does a research sample do?

Answer 61

It is a small group meant to represent a larger population.