chapter 6

Question 1

Descriptive Research

Answer 1

Goal is to describe behavior and/or characteristics of a population

Although it helps describe what people think or do, it doesn’t explain why

Important to psychologists because it can help lead to questions that need answered

Question 2

Descriptive Research Examples

Answer 2

• What is the average income level?
• How many students would be in favor of cutting out spring break from the school year?
• How many people have at least 1 child?

Question 3

Three types Descriptive Research

Answer 3

• Survey
• Demographic
• Epidemiological

Question 4

Survey Research

Answer 4

Use questionnaires, interviews or observational methods to ask participants questions

• How do we do it?
  
  • Cross-sectional survey design
  • Successive independent samples survey design
  • Longitudinal survey design

Question 5

Cross-sectional survey design

Answer 5

Single group that is supposed to represent the population

Question 6

Successive Independent Samples Survey Design

Answer 6

Two or more different samples complete the same question at different time points
-2 time points and 2 different groups
Importantly, they are different individuals at point 1 and 2
Problem: history effects

Question 7

History effects

Answer 7

results could be different depending on what’s happening in the world, not because people are changing

Examples
Feelings of patriotism in the US before and after 9/11
Decline in SAT scores
Amount of people who own iPhones before/after 2011

Question 8

Longitudinal Survey Design

Answer 8

Question (the same) participants more than once over time.
-Problems:
Participants might drop out: makes our sample different (meaning differences are because of the types of people staying, not “real changes”)

Examples
Music preferences over time
Athletic performance over time

Question 9

Demographic Research

Answer 9

Describing basic life events of a particular sample/population and then characterizing what people do
Examples
-Changes in birth rates
-retired
-employed
-married
-Divorce
-How many times people move (residential mobility)
* tells us how these items might effect other variables.

Question 10

Epidemiological Research

Answer 10

Study of disease and death (including mental disorders)

Can help psychologists learn if there are certain social groups more or less at risk

Question 11

Presenting Descriptive Data

Answer 11

-simple frequency distribution
(smallest to largest; count of each value)
-Grouped frequency distribution (Grouped values together (class value); total count of each grouping)<—frequency

Question 12

Relative frequency

Answer 12

calculated by dividing total scores in each class interval by the total scores
-frequency/total scores=relative frequency

Question 13

histogram

Answer 13

Y-axis : is the outcome count or what you are interested

X- axis: is something that you cannot count

Question 14

How Do We Present Descriptive Data? Frequency distribution

Answer 14

Mean: Average (add all and divide by total number)
Median: the exact middle not affected by outliers or mode
Mode: the one that occurs the most
Range: difference between the largest and smallest scores
Variance &Standard deviation: tell us the distribution

Question 15

Measures of variability

Answer 15

Range: difference between the largest and smallest scores

Variance &Standard deviation: tell us the distribution