Chapter 2 | Research Methodology Flashcards
What is Empiricism?
Empiricism is the idea that all learning comes from only experience and observations. It involves data collection and analysis and requires carefully planned, systematic steps.
This helps psychologists be confident that empirical results provide a true understanding of mental activity and behavior.
What are the three primary goals of science?
Description (what), Prediction (when and where), and explanation (why).
What is the scientific method?
A systematic and dynamic procedure of observing and measuring phenomena, used to achieve the goals of description, prediction, control, and explanation; it involves an interaction among research, theories, and hypotheses.
What are the steps to the scientific method?
1 - Pose a specific, testable research question
2 - Educate yourself about what is already known about your theory
3 -Form a hypothesis that will guide your studies
4 - Design a study
5 -Conduct the study
6 - Analyze the data
7 - Report the results
What is replication?
The repetition of a research study to confirm or contradict the results.
It involves repeating a study to see if the results are the same. Independent replications provide more powerful support because they rule out the possibility that some feature of the original setting such as the experimenter’s personality, may have contributed to the findings.
Why might a study not replicate?
Sometimes the theory itself is wrong and the original study was a false positive.
Factors that are not hypothesizes to be important turn out to make a difference.
What are some questionable research practices that make studies less likely to replicate?
Small samples - Larger samples are less prone to be skewed toward one town/gender/other factor that may distort the results.
HARKing - “Hypothesizing after the results are known” (after the fact guesses). Leaves the readers thinking the study was designed to test the one and only hypothesis that wa supported, when random chance may have led to support for any hypotheses.
P-Hacking - Tests the same hypothesis using statistical tests in different variations until one produces a statistically significant result.
Underreporting null effects - The underre- porting of negative, or null, results is a form of publication bias that occurs when researchers and/or reviewers fail to commu- nicate findings due to unfavourable directionality or perceived unimportance.
What are the best practices for psychological science?
Preregistration - when researchers lay out their hypotheses, methods, and analysis plan ahead of time and publish it on a time-stamped website.
Meta-analysis - “study of studies” combining the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion.
How does preregistration prevent HARKing?
Readers can known whether the results were predicted a priori, the analyses presented were planned in advance, and all the tests and studies were reported.
Why would a critical thinker place more trust in a publication that has been peer-reviewed?
The peer reviewer ensures that the results are described with sufficient detail, and determines their credibility. Reviewers also confirm that the text is consistent with the information presented in tables and figures, and that all figures and tables included are important and relevant.
Peer-reviewed articles have been reviewed by other professionals or scholars in the field and are generally the most accurate.
What is descriptive research?
Research methods that involve observing behavior to describe that behavior objectively and systematically.
The three basic types of descriptive research methods - case studies, observation, self-report methods, interviews.
What are case studies?
Involves the intensive observation, recording, and description of an atypical person or organization.
To be selected for intensive study, one may have a special/unique aspect; an organization may be doing something very well or poorly.
The goal of a case study is to describe the events or experiences that led up to or resulted from the exceptional feature of the person or organization.
Note: findings from case studies do not generalize or apply to the general popuation.
What are observational studies?
It involves systematically assessing and coding overt behavior.
Two main types include participant observation (the researcher is involved) and naturalistic observation (the researcher is not involved and remains passive).
What are self-reports and interviews?
Self-report methods (surveys/questionnaires) collect data in which people are asked to provide information about themselves. They are easy to administer and cost-efficient with typically numeric responses (on a scale of 1-to-5).
Interview methods involve responses in written or spoken sentences or paragraphs. Can be used with groups that cannot answer surveys or questionnaires (children). They are helpful in gaining a more in-depth view of a respondent’s opinions, experiences, and attitudes.
What is a major limitation of case studies?
One major limitation of case studies is that it is often difficult to generalize findings from the individual studied to other individuals.
What are correlation studies?
A research method that describes and predicts how variables are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them or assign causation between them.
Scatterplots
The first step in examining the correlation between two variables, providing a convenient picture of the data.
Positive correlation - a relationship between two variables that move in the same direction. A positive correlation exists when one variable decreases as the other variable decreases, or one variable increases while the other increases.
Negative correlation - a relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other decreases, and vice versa.
