Chapter 2: Psychology as a Science Flashcards
What are the Scientific Principles built on?
The univerise operates according to certain natural laws, such laws are discoverable and testable
What is deductive reasoning?
process that starts with broad basi cprinciples and applies them in specific situations
What are biases?
distorted beliefs based on a prson’s subjective sense of reality
What is inductive reasoning?
reasoning process proceeding from small specific situations to more general truths/ avoids biases
What is the definition of empirical?
able to be tested in objective ways
What are theories?
ideas about laws that govern phenomena
What is the hypothetico-deductive reasoning?
scientists begin with an educated guess, then set about desighined small controlled obersvatioms to support their hypothesis
What is a hypothesis?
a general statement about the way variables relate that is objectively failiifibale
What are people doing when the misrepresting the since of psychology?
Pseidopyshcology
What is a variable?
A condition, event or situation that is studied in an experiment; INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: the condition or event that is a factor in chaning another condition or event; what chages will it cause? DEPENDENT VARIABLE: the condition or event that changes in respond to the IV
What does Operationalizing mean?
theIn addition to defining variable you also have to operationlize the variables- develop very precise definitions of the independent and dependent variables tat allow you to measure and test them. Sometimes it is hard to operationalize the dependent variable if it is something like aggressive behaviour; you could have participants fill out a questionnaire etc.
What is the definition of a sample?
The group of people studied in an experiment used to stand in for an entire group of people; b/c researchers cannot study an entire population
What is the definition of random selection?
Most of the time researchers prefer to obtain their samples through random selection; choosing participants in a way that everybody in the population of interest has an equal chance of becoming part of the sample; you can minimize SAMPLING BIASES; you will not inadvertently select a group that is especially likely to confirm your hypothesis
What are the different types of Research Methods?
Descriptive: studies the allow researchers to demonstrate a relationship between the variables of interest, without specifying a casual relationship
Experimental: experiments which allow researchers to explain the causes of behaviour
What are the different descriptive research methods?
Case Studies, Naturalistic Observation, Surveys, and (Correlation)
Describe Case Studies
A case study focuses on a single person; medical practitioners who treat people with problems often conduct case studies to help determine a therapeutic intervention; it can be a good resource for developing early ideas about phenomena; but it can be affected greatly by researcher biases ( when researchers see only what they expect to see) another disadvantage is that researchers cannot generalize to other situations from the study of one single person
Describe Naturalistic Observation
Researchers watch as unobtrusively as possible while people behave as they normally do; children in schools or daycare is an example; they are more reflective of actual human behaviour then most other research designs; can be subject to researcher biases; mere presence of a reacher can change behaviour of participants
What is the Hawthorne Effect?
People who are being observed will improve behaviour because they know they are being watched or guided, not in response to an experimental manipulation
Describe Surveys
Researchers ask people a series of questions, different ways to ask; surveys allow researchers to obtain information the they may not be able to gather otherwise; provide data that enable researchers to measure how strong the relationship is between two variables of interest; data can be unreliable because people often answer surveys in ways that are socially acceptable rather than how they actually feel
Describe Experiments
To now what causes what; controlled observation in which researchers manipulate levels of one variable
What is the Experimental group?
The group that is exposed to the IV
What is the control group?
The group that has not been or will not be exposed to the IV
What are demand characteristics?
Researchers must set up their studies so that they do not unintentionally convert to participants the outcome that they expect to see
What is a double-blind procedure?
It is when neither the participant or the researcher knows which group the participant is in
What is a Corrleation?
a predictable relationship between two or more variables
What is a Coreelation coefficient?
A statstic expressing the strength and nature of a realshonship between two variables; it can range from -1.00 to +1.00; the positive or negative tells you the direction of the relationship; when scores on both variables get bigger together POSITIVE CORRELATION; when variables are NEGATIVELY CORRELATED higher scores on one variable are relate to lower scores on another variable; the number tells us the size or strength of the realshonship between variables, the larger the number the STRONGER the relationship, a correlation coefficient of 0 means that there is no linear relationship between the two variables; a correlation of -1.00 or +1.00 is known as a perfect correlation the variable scores are aways perfectly related; one score always rises or falls in direct proportion to the changes in the other variable; corrleations offer lots of useful info when we are interested in the scientific goal of prediction
What does correlation not tell you?
Causation! whether or not a change in one variable actually causes the change in the other/ only experimental studies and experimental analyses can tell us weheterh casualty is at work
What is Corrlational Research?
The descriptive approach to psychological research; often involves looking at the realshhonships among variables using correlation statistics
What are descriptive statistics?
describe or summarize the data gathered from a study
What are inferential statistics?
tell researchers what they can conclude, more broadly from their results
What is the standard deviation?
index of how mucht he participants score vary from oner another within each group
What is replication?
repeated testing of a hypothesis to ensure that the results you achieve in one expiermtn are not due to chance
What is the REB?
research oversight group that evaluates research to protect the rights of participants in the study
What do the REB do?
Obtain informed consent; gives info on purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, of the study etc; protect participants from harm, protect confidentiality, voluntary participation, complete debriefing,
