Definitions Flashcards
Method of posing questions to people with the goal of understanding relationship between variables.
Survey
Asking two questions in one.
“Do you like pizza and agree that tacos should always have cheese?”
Double-Barreled Questions
A question which offers alternatives that the responder must choose from.
“Of the following, which best describes your relationship with pizza?”
Close-Ended
A question to which the responder provides their own answer.
“What is your opinion on coffee?”
Open-Ended
A rating scale which uses numeric rating with words, most commonly 5 points to choose from.
Ex. Strongly Agee (1) - Strongly disagree (7)
Likert Rating Scale
A scale which you can select anywhere along the line.
“Studying is: Enjoyable - - - - - - - - I - Not Enjoyable”
Graphic Rating Scale
A scale which incorporates the question and answer into one.
“The effects of smoking are: Harmless (1), Okay (2), Annoying (3), Horrible (4), Deadly (5)”
Semantic Differential Scale
A scale which uses images instead of words.
“Which of the following faces best represents your mood?”
Non-verbal scale
A shortcut used on long surveys where people are answering in a specific manner instead of responding to the actual content.
Response Set
A response set in which respondents play it safe by answering in the middle of the scale.
Fence-sitting
A response set in which people answer ‘yes’ or ‘agree’ to everything.
Yea-Saying
A response set in which people answer according to what they believe is the socially acceptable answer.
Faking Good
A construct validity threat in which observers expectations influence their interpretation of participants behaviour or the overall outcome of a study.
Observer bias
A construct validity threat in which participants conform to observer expectations.
Observer effects
A research design in which observers are unaware of the conditions to which participants have been assigned or what the study is about
Masked Research Design
A construct validity threat in which participants behaviour changes due to the presence of an observer
Reactivity
An association between two variables
Correlation
The strength of an association
Effect Size
How likely it is that a correlation is not due to chance
Statistical Significance
A value which helps evaluate the probability of whether a sample’s association came from a population in which the association is zero
p Value
Extreme scores which stand out from the rest and can pull results towards them
Outliers
Lack of variability in responses, not a full enough range of scores on a particular variable
Restriction of Range
When results end up with mostly high scores
Ceiling Effect
When results end up with mostly low scores
Floor Effect
A change in behaviour that emerges more or less spontaneously over time
Maturation Threat
An external event that effects most members of the treatment group at the same time
History Threat
When a performance is extreme (low or high) due to random chance and scores regress back to the mean (average) during subsequent testing
Regression Threat
Reduction in participant numbers that occurs when people drop out before the end of a study
Attrition Threat
Change in the participants as a result of taking a test more than once (practice, fatigue effects)
Testing Threats
When an instrument changes over time or is not precise at measuring what its supposed to
Instrumentation Threat
When participants guess what the study is supposed to be about and change their behaviour in the expected direction
Demand Characteristics
When people receive treatment and improve but only because they believe they are receiving a valid treatment
Placebo Effect
Separate dependent variable used to make sure the manipulation of a variable worked
Manipulation Check
Any factor that can inflate or deflate a person’s true score on a dependent measure
Measurement Error
When a study is repeated as closely as possible to the original just with a new sample
Direct Replication
When a study is repeated with the same hypothesis and variables but the method is changed
Conceptual Replication
When a study is repeated with the same hypothesis and method but a new variable is added
Replication with Extension
A way of mathematically averaging the results of all studies that have tested the same variable to see what conclusion that whole body of evidence supports
Meta-Analysis
The idea that a meta-analysis might be overestimating the true size of an effect because null effects have not been included in the collection process
File Drawer Problem
Logical process of using data from a sample to make inferences about some population as a whole
Inferential Statistics
Point at which researchers place the p-value to determine whether or not to reject a hypothesis
Alpha Level
A test which allows researchers to test whether the difference between two group means in an independent-group design is statistically significant
t Test
Concluding that there IS an effect in a population when there is NO effect
Type I Error
Concluding there is NO effect in a population when there IS an effect
Type II Error
Designs with two or more independent varibales
Factorial Design
The simplest factorial design
2 x 2 Factorial Design
Each independent variables potential effect
Main Effect
When one thing changes because of another variable
Interaction
A design in which all levels receive different groups of people
Independent group design
A design in which one group receives all levels of a study
Repeated measure design
A design which is used when random assignment can not be done
Quasi-Experimental design
A control group which receives treatment later
Parallel group
A design which is usually focused only on a single case (or select few)
Small-N design
The extent to which the subjects in a study represent the population they are intended to represent - how well the setting in a study represent other settings or contexts
Generalizability
Aspect of external validity in which the focus is on whether a laboratory study generalizes to real-world settings
Ecological Validity
Laboratory research which is just as realistic as the real world
Experimental Realism
All other things equal, the simplest solution is the best
Parsimony (Occam’s Razor)
When we accept a conclusion because it appears to make sense
Swayed by a Good Story
When we are persuaded by what comes easiest to mind, can lead us to overestimate frequency
Availability Heuristic
When we fail to think about what we can not see and focus only on what is readily present
Present/Present Bias
When we don’t want to let go of our beliefs so we seek out information that supports them
Focusing on Evidence we Like Best
Asking only questions that lead to a particular, expected response
Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing
Belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to cognitive biases
Bias Blind Spot
Something that could vary but only has one level in a study
Constant
Variable whose levels are measured
Dependent Variable
Variable whose levels are manipualted
Independent Variable
Turning a concept of interest into a measured or manipulated variable
Operationalize
Variables with no meaningful numeric value
Categorical (nominal)
A claim which describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable
Frequency Claim
A claim which argues that one level of a variable is linked with a particular level of another variable
Association Claim
A claim which argues that one variable is responsible for changing the other
Causal Claim
How well the variables in a study are measured or manipulated
Construct Validity
The extent to which results of a study generalize to some larger population as well as other situations
External Validity
The strength of an effect and its statistical significance
Statistical Validity
The extent to which a third variable is not responsible for the outcome of a study
Internal Validity
Statistical tool used to organize and summarize the properties of a set of data
Descriptive Statistics
A measure of what value the individual scores tend to center on
Central Tendency
The most common score
Mode
The value of the middlemost score
Median
The average score
Mean
Computation that captures how far, on average, each score is from the mean
Standard Deviation
Computation that quantifies how spread out scores of a sample are around their mean
Variance
A variable whose values can be recorded as meaningful numbers
Quantitative Variable
A scale whose levels represent ranked order in which it is unclear the distance between levels
Example: Handing in exams in a pile- can determine order but not time between each
Ordinal Scale
A scale which has no true zero and numbers represent equal intervals
Example: IQ - difference between numbers are equal but you can’t have zero intelligence
Interval scale
A scale whose numerals have equal intervals but the value of zero really means nothing
Examples: How many time someone sneezes
Ratio scale
How consistent a measure is at measuring what its supposed to measure
Reliability
The consistency in results every time a measure is used
Test-Retest Reliability
The degree to which two or more observers give consistent ratings
Interrater Reliability
The consistency in answers no matter how a question is phrased
Internal Reliability
A measures accuracy in measuring what its supposed to
Validity
The extent to which a measure is subjectively considered valid due to how it appears
Face Validity
The extent to which a measure captures all parts of a defined construct
Content Validity
The extent to which a measure is correlated with a behaviour or concrete outcome it should be related to
Criterion Validity
Extent to which a measure is associated with other measures of a theoretically similar construct
Convergent Validity
Extent to which a measure does not associate strongly with measures of theoretically different constructs
Discriminant Validity
Degree to which the causal variable is related to the effect
Covariance
Degree to which the causal variable comes before the effect variable in time
Temporal Precedence
Alternative explanations
Confounds
Participants in one levels are systematically different than those in the other
Selection effects
