Chapter 2 - Research Methods Flashcards
Validity
Extent in which an instrument measures or predicts what it is supposed to do. Degree to wether what is tested is actually being tested.
What are the commonly used Measures of Central Tendency?
Mean, Median, and Mode. They characterize the typical value in a set of data.
Reliability
Repeatability or consistancy of the results
Theories
Collection of concepts that are used to explain phenomina.
Placebo
Form of treatment. Can be physical of psychological. Does not contain active ingredient.
Placebo effect
Response to the belief that the placebo has taken effect.
Double-blind procedure
Study in which NEITHER of the participants know who is recieving a particular treatment. It eliminates bias.
Single-blind procedure
Expetimental procedure in which the experimenters (NOT the subjects) know the makeup of the groups during the experiments.
Control group
Group that is seperated fron the rest of the experiment. Does not recieve active ingredient or factor.
Experimental group
A group that is being exposed to the variable under study.
Experiment
A test or operation for the purpose of discovering something unknown or testing a principle or theory.
Correlational Methods
Correlation = association
If an increase in one variable is accosiated with an increase in the other variable, this is a postivie variable. If an increase in one variable is accosiated with a decrease, it is a negative variable.
Operational definition
How the experiment is run or operates.
Describes exactly what the variables are and how they are measured.
Hypothesis
Prediction of how two or more factors are likely to be related.
Population
Total set of individuals to which generalizations will be made based on an experimetal sample.
Random assignment
Refers to the usage of chance procedures in psychology experiments to ensure each participant has the same opportunity to be assigned to any given group.
Subjects
The people or objects used to perform the experiment. All participants.
Sample
A subset of population that is used to represent the entire group as a whole.
Ex Post facto studies
AFTER THE FACT
Research method in which the independent variable is administered prior to the study.
Study is done after the effect, the researchers backtrack.
Random selection
Selection process in which the sample is randomly drawn from the population as a whole.
Experimenter Bias
Phenomenon.
Outcome of the experiment tends to be biased towards the experimenter.
Independent variable
Variable that is changed to test the effect. It is the CAUSE of the effect.
Dependent variable
Measured variable in the experiment. The outcome. It is the EFFECT of the cause.
Counterbalancing
Research design.
All possible orders of presenting the variables are needed. Splitting the control and experimental group in half.
Naturalistic observation
Study method.
Involves coverty or overtly watching subjects’ behaviors in their natural enviroment, without intervention.
Quasi-experiments
SORTA-experiments. Resembles an actual experiment.
The experiments take advantage of natural occurances. The subjects are HAND PICKED and DO NOT prove cause and effect.
Within-subjects design
Research design. Each participant is used as his or her own control.
SAME group for both CONTROL and EXPERIMETAL.
Between-subjects design
Research design. Different people as control and experimental groups. They are assigned to their groups randomly.
Case study
Study or observation of an individual.
Interview, test, etc.
Representative sample
Subgroup of the population that posesses the same characteristics of the population.
Race, sex, gender, etc.
Generalize
The results of the experiment can be generalized or applied to the rest of the country.
Random sample
Group of subjects representing the population and are selected by chance.
Confounding variable
The variable that jacks up your experiment.
Heat, time of practice, hunger, experimenter gender, etc.
Nominal scale
Scale in which numbers are those that are used to name something.
Ex. 1 = boy
2 = girl
Ordinal scale
Includes numbers that can be rankedex. Highest score for the test is “1”, second highest is “2”, third highest is “3”
Interval scale
Scale of numbers with meaningful differences between eachother
Ex. Difference between 32f and 42f is 10. The difference between 64f and 84f is also 10, but 64f is not twice as hot as 32f.
DOES NOT have a zero point.
Ratio scale
When a ratio can be made with two numbers. Ratio scales has a real or absolute zero point.
Statistics
Field that involves analysis of numerical data about samples of the population.
Descriptive statistics
Numbers that summarize a set of research data. Describes sets of interval or ratio data.
Frequency distribution
Orderly arrangement or data indivating frequency of each score or group of scores.
Histogram
Bar graph from frequency distribution.
Frequency polygon
Graph that replaces bars with lines and points.
Central tendency
Describes the most typical scores for a distribution or set of data. Mean, median, mode.
Bimodal
Two scores that appear most commonly.
Multimodial
More than two scores that appear most frequently.
Median
Middle score when data is ordered by SIZE.
ODD, it is the middle score.
EVEN, middle score is obtained between the two numbers.
Ex. EVEN. Mid #s = 2 and 3. Median is 2.5
Mean
Average of the scores. Add all the scores together and divide by the number of scores.
In experimental psychology, a signficant different refers to a…
Difference not likely due to chance.
A student who obtained a percentile rank of 75 on an achievement test is best characterized as having…
Scored higher than 75% of test takers.
Random assignment should eliminate…
Many confounding variables.
P value is…
Confidence one has in data.
What is the Z value?
Z is Standard debiation, or S value.
SD for IQ?
15
SD for SAT math?
100
