~Intro Research Methods Flashcards
What makes Psychology a “hard” science?
When studying psychology, we are often dealing with fuzzy concepts that are hard to define and hard to measure. The things that make psych a soft science, are the things that make it a hard science
What are the “invisible” constructs Psychologists work with?
Emotion, Cognition, Perception, Aggression…
What is an Operational Definition?
Things defined in terms of observable, measurable, and agreed-upon criteria.
Psychology’s Measurement Tools (e.g., experimental tasks, questionnaires, defined behaviours, etc…) are designed to measure an underlying ___
Construct
When we talk about that underlying phenomenon, the term we use is that we are looking at a particular ___.
Construct
What is Structured Observation?
Observing behaviours in a controlled setting; often lab-based, where you as the researcher have a lot of say in these circumstances the child is experiencing
What is an example of a Structured Observation Experiment?
You want to study aggression in a lab setting, you come up with a design where kids are put in a frustrating situation, and you see how they respond to that situation. Do they get more aggressive after being put through this experience?
What is a benefit of Structured Observation?
You have a lot of control, you know that every kid in your study has the exact same experience before you started counting their behaviours. This lets you narrow in on exactly what might be going on, the “active ingredient” that might lead to increased levels of a behaviour
What is the downside of Structured Observation?
To get a lot of control, you often have to sacrifice real-world context, you have to make it a very narrow scope of experiences so that you can make a tight comparison. We’re not seeing how the phenomena we’re studying actually play out in the child’s real world.
Structured Observation cannot tell us everything about children’s ___
Real-world development
What is Naturalistic Observation?
Where you are watching and counting behaviours in a real-world setting
What two methods of collecting Data complement each other well?
Structured Observation and Naturalistic Observation
What is an example of a Naturalistic Observation Experiment?
Going to a school and watching them playing at recess, watch them in their everyday environment, and count the number of aggressive behaviours that they engage in that context.
What is the benefit of Naturalistic Observation?
You’re able to observe the behaviour in a real-world setting with real-world context
What is the downside of Naturalistic Observation?
You have far less control over the circumstances kids are experiencing while you’re counting behaviours
What is Self-Report Data?
Using questionnaires/surveys in which individuals report on their attitudes, behaviours, etc
What are examples of Self-Report Data?
You want to collect data on how aggressive you consider a child to be, so you ask kids to fill out a questionnaire asking them when they think it’s okay to perform a certain behaviour, like when is it okay to push a classmate in this circumstance.
What are the benefits of using Self-Report Data?
This type of research can be useful when the question you’re asking is about how kids view a certain situation, or view types of behaviour, do they think it’s acceptable or not
What are the downsides of using Self-Report Data?
Response Bias, people are generally reluctant to admit to things they are not proud of, or things that they know aren’t objectively good in some way
What are Standardized Tests?
Administered and scored uniformly; allows comparison against norms for a population): Tasks that are developed to tap into different skills and abilities that children might show.
What is an example of a Standardized Test?
A standardized test that is designed to measure children’s reading comprehension abilities. They are reading passages and answering questions about what they have read.
What is a benefit to using Standardized Tests?
They have been widely developed and tested on large numbers of people. Are really useful for finding broad patterns and interpreting things across different samples of people.
What is the downside to using Standardized Tests?
If we’re not mindful between the norm sample and our sample, we can draw inappropriate conclusions about their performance on that test
In Standardized Testing, the comparison between the norms and your sample children is only appropriate if the two groups are ___
Similar
What was the problem with the first version of the MMPI (Minnesota Multi-Basic Personality Inventory)?
It was standardized and normed on a group of very homogenous people from rural Minnesota, all from the same demographic background, and this was the comparison group that everyone else in the world was put up against
