Exam 1 Flashcards
Scientific Method
Means of gathering information, making conclusions and testing those conclusions
Types of questions: descriptions
what happens
Types of questions: prediction
when does it happen
Types of questions: explanation
why does it happen
Theory
- general explanation
- must be falsifiable
Hypothesis
specific testable prediction
Operalization
Specific concrete way of thinking about a psychological construct
(there are many ways to operationalize the same psychological construct
Construct validity
the degree to which the operalization used to reflect the psychological construct of interest
Types of measures
Self reports
Observational
Psychological
Archival
Self reports
- Could be an open-ended or a fixed response
- must watch out for social desirability concerns
- sentiment override
Observational measures
inter-rater reliability is key
Sample
People from whom data are collected
Population
group about which the researcher wants to draw conclusions from
Obtaining participants
Convenience sample
Representative sample
Correlation is necessary for (but does not imply) causation meaning
X may cause Y
Y may cause X
OR some other variable may cause X and Y
Longitudanal design
- correlation
- daily diary
- experience sampling
experimental design requirements
Dependent variable
independent variable
control
random assignment
External Validity
-Extent to which results can be generalized
Internal validity
extent to which it is possible to draw conlusions about the hypotheses from the data
Extraneous variable
variable capable of explaining findings
Threats to internal validity
- social desirability
- demand characteristics
- organismic variables
- selective or distorted memory
Invalid operational definitions
Item overlap problem
Item overlap problem (content contamination)
In psychology constructs of depression anxiety and neuroticism covary
Item overlap problem (content contamination) : depression
Sadness
- i don’t feel sad
- i feel sad much of the time
- i feel sad all of the time