Exam 1 Flashcards
what are the 7 steps of the scientific method?
- identify the problem/question/idea
- read existing literature
- test hypothesis/experiment
- analyze results
- conclusion (do results agree with the hypothesis?)
- publication (review and evaluated by peers and editing)
- replicate or revisit hypothesis
reliable sources
peer reviewed journal articles
grey literature
not subject to peer review
e.g. chapters in edited books, full length books, book chapters, dissertations, theses
construct/concept
a singular complex idea that cannot be directly observed; abstract theoretical concept (e.g. friendship, success)
variable
a concrete, observable aspect of the construct or concept that is different across people or situations (e.g. construct: friendship; variable: pos relationship quality)
conceptual definition
the fields definition of the construct in question at a theoretical level (usually found in an article from literature research)
measure
the method of gathering data about the construct of interest (e.g. PN-SMD)
operational definition
the definition of the construct as it will be measured (e.g. PN-SMD is the measure; OD: pos quality rating of a platonic relationship)
qualitative variables
descriptions of behavior and mental processes that stay in narrative written form
pros: rich and personal info
cons: time consuming, difficult to replicate, has small samples
quantitative variables
descriptions of behavior and mental processes that turn into numerical form, scores, ratings, etc.
pros: replicable, has larger samples, can analyze with stats
cons: more restricted answers
how do you measure quantitative data
NOIR
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
categorical variables
places an individual into one of several groups or categories (e.g. gender: female, male, other)
continuous variables
obtained by measure or counting (e.g. test score, height/weight)
binary
for categorical variables, nominal (e.g. yes/no question)
ordinal (NOIR)
for categorical variables, groups have an order of hierarchy (e.g. grade in school)
nominal (NOIR)
for categorical variables, no order to the categories (e.g. ethnicity)
interval (NOIR)
for continuous variables, NO true zero, CAN be negative (e.g. temperature in fahrenheit)
ratio (NOIR)
for continuous variables, HAS a true zero, CANNOT be negative (e.g. age)
cross sectional study
observational study that analyzes data from a population at a single point in time
pros: less time consuming, larger samples, less resource intense
cons: almost only correlations possible
longitudal study
repeated measures study, more than one piece of data for a participant (e.g. Subject A is observed at age 5, 10, and 20)
pros: time effects, measure change
cons: time consuming, resource intensive, participant drop out
measured variable
observed/recorded as is (e.g. record the height of a plant as it grows)
manipulated variable
something is intentionally changed (e.g. record the height of a plant as it grows while giving it fertilizer, fertilizer is the manipulated variable)
sample
a group within the population
probability sampling
every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected for a study (e.g. simple random sampling: put every member’s name of the population in a pool and randomly select a number- number is associated to a person)
