Chapter 2 - The Research Enterprise in Psychology Flashcards
Hypothesis
A tentative statement about ther relationship between two or more variables
Theory
A system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations
The 5 steps in a scientific investigation
Formulate a hypothesis, design the study, collect the data, analyze the data and draw conclusions, and report the findings
Operational definitions
Defining research variables so that they can be measured and controlled
Falsifiability
The ability for a hypothesis to be proven wrong
Experimental research method
The researcher controls the experiment with multiple study groups and variables
Observational/descriptive research method
The researcher simply observes and has no control over the experiment
Experimental findings are published where?
In professional scholarly journals so that they can be peer-edited, reviewed, and researched again
Naturalistic observation
The researcher observes without interfering with the subject material; they do not know that the researcher is there
Case study
An in-depth investigation about an individual subject
Survey
Questionnaires or interviews are used to gather information
Meta-analysis
Overall research on a subject using many experiments and findings on the subject
Sample bias
A wrong sample group is chosen which leads to bias
Placebo
A false positive is given in a controlled experiment
Social desirability effect
Behavior changes when people conform to other’s expectations
