Final Exam Flashcards
Research producer
someone who produces research and codes behaviors, assigns participants, enters data, and writes reports.
Research consumer
an individual who reads about research and criticizes its legibility, and analyzes high quality research.
Evidence based treatment
a psychotherapy technique whose effectiveness has been supported by empirical research.
Empiricism
Conclusions are not based on intuition or casual experience
The Theory Data Cycle
Theory, research questions, research design, hypothesis, preregistered, data
Theory
a set of statements that describes general principles about variables relating to another. Theories are not proven but instead supported by data.
Hypothesis
stated in terms of the study design; the observed outcome if the theory is accurate. Usually pre registered
Data
the set of observations that can either support or challenge a theory.
Replication
the study is conducted again to test if the result is consistent.
Weight of Evidence
a conclusion drawn from reviewing scientific literature and considering the proportion of studies consistent with a theory.
Contact Comfort Theory
babies are attached to their mothers from the comfort they bring; Harry Harlow provided support for this theory with the monkey experiment
Scientific Norms
Universalism, communality, disinterestedness, organized skepticism
Universalism
scientific claims are evaluated according to their merit, their credentials or reputation does not matter. Used to evaluate all claims without bias.
Communality
scientific knowledge is created by a community and its findings belong to the community; results are to be shared with scientists and the public.
Disinterestedness
scientists strive to discover the truth regardless of conviction, profit, idealism, or politics. Accepting what the data states regardless of bias.
Organized skepticism
scientists question anything and everything, their own theories, accepted ideas, etc. They ask for evidence.
Applied Research
research with the goal of finding a solution to a real world problem; done with practicality and conducted in real world context
Basic Research
research with the goal of enhancing a general body of knowledge instead of a specific problem.
Translational Research
research with the goal of using lessons from basic research and developing and testing applications to healthcare/ treatment and intervention.
Bridge between basic and applied research
Comparison Group
IV is different from those in the treatment group; enables us to compare what would happen with and without the thing we are interested in.
Confound
potential alternative explanation for a research finding.
Preventing confound
Controlled systematic comparisons prevent the presence of confounds
Probabilistic
(empirically speaking) science is intended to explain a percentage, preferably high, of cases but not all cases.
Swayed By a Good Story
Bias can be accepting a conclusion because it feels natural to us. Ex: scared straight programs. Empirical evidence contradicts common sense
Availability heuristic
things that pop up easily in our mind can guide our thinking; such as events or memories that can cause us to overestimate.
present/present bias
people incorrectly estimating a relationship between an event and its outcome, focusing only on times they are both present instead of when they are not.
Confirmation bias
tendency to consider only evidence that supports a hypothesis and asking questions that will lead to a desired outcome.
Bias blind spot
the belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to other biases.;stating we are objective and someone else is biased
Empirical journal articles
details about studies method, tests used, and results
Review journal articles
summarize and integrate published studies done in one research area
Meta-analysis
combines the result of many studies and gives a number that summarizes the magnitude; valued by psychologists bc it does not allow cherry picking.
Variables
something that varies and has at least two levels or values
Constant
something that could potentially vary but that has only one level in the study in question
Measured Variable
one whose levels are simply observed and recorded; gender, IQ, hair color, height
Manipulated Variable
a variable a researcher controls by assigning study participant to different levels of the variable
Construct
a variable of interest usually defined as part of a formal statement or part of a psychological theory
Conceptual Variable
a variable of interest stated an abstract level; satisfaction of life
Operationalize
turn a conceptual definition of a variable into a specific measured/ manipulated variable to conduct a research study.
Claim
an argument someone is trying to make; could be based on experience, observation, rhetoric, textual evidence, and researchers and journalists.
Frequency claim
claim describing a particular rate or degree of a single variable; measured not manipulated; “15% of Americans”
Association claim
claim that argues the one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable; covariance and related. Used to make predictions/ use words such as link, associate, correlate
Positive association
high levels of one variable go with high levels of another variable
Negative/ Inverse association
high levels with low levels or vice versa
Causal claim
claim arguing that one of the variables is responsible for changing another, goes further than an association claim and questions two variable covarying; using language such as cause, enhance, decrease, change
Validity
appropriateness of a conclusion or decision, and is in general reasonable.
Construct validity
how well a conceptual variable is operationalized
External Validity
how well the results of a study generalize or represent people or context besides those in the original studies; generalizability
Statistical validity
the extent to which a study’s statistical conclusions are precise, reasonable, and replicable. The value from one study is not entirely subjective
Point estimate
a single estimate of some population based on a population value
