Chapter 2 - Research Methods in Social Psychology Flashcards
Anecdotal evidence
An argument that is based on personal experience and not considered reliable or representative.
Archival research
A type of research in which the researcher analyses records or archives instead of collecting data from live human participants.
Basking in reflected glory
The tendency for people to associate themselves with successful people or groups.
Big data
The analysis of large data sets.
Complex experimental designs
An experiment with two or more independent variables.
Confederate
An actor working with the researcher. Most often, this individual is used to deceive unsuspecting research participants. Also known as “stooge.”
Correlational research
A type of descriptive research that involves measuring the association between two variables, or how they go together.
Cover story
A fake description of the purpose and/or procedure of a study, used when deception is necessary in order to answer a research question.
Demand characteristics
Subtle cues that make participants aware of what the experimenter expects to find or how participants are expected to behave.
Dependent variable
The variable the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiment.
Ecological validity
The degree to which a study finding has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life.
Electronically activated recorder (EAR)
A methodology where participants wear a small, portable audio recorder that intermittently records snippets of ambient sounds around them.
Field experiment
An experiment that occurs outside of the lab and in a real world situation.
Experience sampling methods
Systematic ways of having participants provide samples of their ongoing behavior. Participants’ reports are dependent (contingent) upon either a signal, pre-established intervals, or the occurrence of some event.
Hypothesis
A logical idea that can be tested.
Implicit association test (IAT)
A computer-based categorization task that measures the strength of association between specific concepts over several trials.
Independent variable
The variable the researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment.
Laboratory enviornments
A setting in which the researcher can carefully control situations and manipulate variables.
Manipulation check
A measure used to determine whether or not the manipulation of the independent variable has had its intended effect of the participants.
Naturalistic observation
Unobtrusively watching people as they go about the business of living their lives.
Operationalize
How researchers specifically measure a concept.
Participant variable
The individual characteristics of research subjects - age, personality, health, intelligence, etc.
Priming
The process by which exposing people to one stimulus makes certain thoughts, feelings or behaviors more salient.
Random assignment
Assigning participants to receive different conditions of an experiment by chance.
