Exam 1 Flashcards
What is a theory?
An organized set of principles that describes, predicts, and explains a phenomenon
What are the characteristics of a good theory?
Falsifiable, Generative, Precise, Coherent, Parsimonious, and Unique
What are the types of descriptive research?
Ethnography, Case Study, Archival Analysis
What are the major advantages of descriptive research?
Real and rare
What are the major disadvantages of descriptive research?
Limited sample, observer bias, observer effects, no causality, no understanding of process
What is internal validity?
The extent to which you know changing the IV changed the DV
What is observer bias?
Seeing the results that you want to see
How can a researcher maximize internal validity of a study?
Random selection, random assignment, double blind, tightly controlled
What is external validity?
The extent to which your findings are generalizable
What is a population?
Those you’re learning bout (e.g. all white men, all black women)
What is a sample?
The participants you are using that are part of your population
What is the difference between longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies?
Longitudinal studies analyze the same sample over a period of time
Cross-Sectional studies analyze a sample once
What information should be included in informed consent?
Purpose of study, risks, confidentially, able to withdraw
When can researchers employ deception in their research?
When it is necessary a participant believes a situation is real
What is a debriefing and what should be included?
Explaining to the participant at the end of the experiment the true purpose of the study and what exactly happened
What is the field of psychometrics?
Measurements of invisible constructs or variables
What are objective measures?
Direct answers that are not interpreted by the researcher (true/false)
What are subjective measures?
The researcher interprets the participant’s response (inkblot)
What is validity with respect to psychometrics?
Measures what it is supposed to measure
What is reliability with respect to psychometrics?
Gives consistent results
What is item discrimination?
How well an item indicates who is high and who is low on a measure
What are the two modes, or types, of thinking people can engage in?
Controlled and automatic
Kelley (1950)
Students had a substitute professor for a day and were given previous info about him. The students favored the professor when they were previously told he was warm.
IV: Good info, bad info
DV: students’ rating of professor
What is a schema?
Learned cognitive representations of the real world
Correll et al (2002)
Participants were told to shoot when their target had a gun. Black targets were mistakenly shot more when unarmed. White targets were mistakenly shot less when armed.
IV1: Black or white target
IV2: Gun or not gun
DV: Reaction time and errors
Bargh, Chen, and Burrows (1996)
Ex1: Participants were given a scrambled sentence test (IV1) then were told to go talk to the researcher. Rude priming interrupted their conversation faster, and polite interrupted slower.
IV1: Rude priming, polite priming, neutral priming
DV1: Time taken to interrupt confederate and researcher
Ex2: Participants were given a scrambled sentence test (IV2). They then left, and their walking speed was timed. Elderly priming had a slower pace.
IV2: elderly priming, neutral priming
DV2: Walking time
Ex3: Participants were subliminally shown IV3 and had to complete a long test. At the end, the data was “deleted” and participants were told they had to retake it. Those primed with black faces reacted more hostile.
IV3: Exposed to black or white faces
DV3: Reaction
What are hot cognitions?
Cognitions motivated by emotions that we want
What are cold cognitions?
Cognitions independent of emotions
Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid (1977)
Men were shown either an attractive or unattractive picture of a woman (IV). They then were told to get to know the woman via telephone. The men rated the attractive woman’s call to be more sexually warm.
IV: attractive or unattractive picture
DV: Rating of woman after phone call