exam 2 Flashcards
applied research
intended to answer practical questions or solve practical problems.
basic research
intended to answer theoretical questions or gather knowledge simply for the sake of new knowledge are classified
casual observation
watching others behaviors
primary source
firsthand report of observations or research results written by individuals who actually conducted the research and made the observations
secondary source
is a description or summary of another person’s work.
-is written by someone who did not participate in the research or observations being discussed
literature search
find a set of published research reports that define the current state of knowledge in an area and to identify an unanswered question
initial factor for determining wether a specific article is relevant to your research question
the title
-secondary is abstract
introduction
discusses previous research that forms the foundation for the current research study and presents a clear statement of the problem being investigated
method section
presents details concerning the participants and the procedures used in the study
results section
presents details of the statistical analysis and usually is not important for generation new research idea
reference section
lists complete references for all items cited in the report
good hypothesis is
testable, refutable, postive
testable hypothesis
is one for which all of the variables, events, and individuals can be defined and observed
refutable hypothesis
is one that can be demonstrated to be false. That is, it is possible for the outcome to be different from the prediction
positive hypothesis
must make a positive statement about the existence of something
-usually the existence of a relationship, the existence of a difference
theory
a set of statements about the mechanisms underlying a particular behavior
-good theory generates predictions about the behavior
constructs
hypothetical attributes or mechanisms that help explain and predict behavior in a theory
-rewards can affect motivation which then affect performance
operational definition
procedure for indirectly measuring and defining a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly
-specifies a measurement procedure for measuring an external observable behavior.
a primary limitation of an operational definition
that there is not a one-on-one relationship between the variable that is being measured and the actual measurements produced by the operational definition.
what term is used for a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly but is useful for describing and explaining behavior
construct
goal of an operational definition
provide a definition and a method for measuring a hypothetical construct
first criteria for evaluating a measurement procedure is
validity
validity
is the degree to which the measurement process measures the variable that it claims to measure
face validity
the simplest and least scientific definition of validity
-the purpose of the measurement is obvious
concurrent validity
establishes consistency between two different procedures for measuring the same variable, suggesting that the two measurement procedures are measuring the same thing
predictive validity
demonstrated when scores obtained from a measure accurately predict behavior according to a theory
construct validity
requires that the scores obtained from a measurement procedure behave exactly the same as the variable itself.
-based on many research studies that use the same measurement procedure and grows gradually as each new study contributes more evidence.
convergent validity
is demonstrated by a strong relationship between the scores obtained from two or more different methods of measuring the same construct
divergent validity
demonstrated by showing little or relationship between the measurements of two different constructs
second criteria for evaluating the quality of a measurement procedure is
reliability
reliability
is the stability or consistency of the measurement
-variable is stable/constant
sources of error
observer error, environmental changes (time,temp,) , participant changes
test-retest reliability
is established by comparing the scores obtained from two successive measurements of the same individuals and calculating a correlation between the two sets of scores
inter-rater reliability
the degree of agreement between two observers who simultaneously record measurements of the behaviors