January 19, 2016

Question 1

Three main ways to gather information

Answer 1

1) Introspection: self reflection
2) observation of others: but hard to KNOW a person
3) case studies

Question 2

Define Murray’s personology

Answer 2

• that you have to study in depth whole person
• this is where the case study came about
• “ecological validity” BUT impossible to do everyone
• AND people act different when being watched

Question 3

What are the two key methods to empirical research?

Answer 3

Experimental and Correlational

Question 4

preference to be done

• IV and DV manipulate/measure
• Random assignment: spread random error across groups accounting for error.
• can draw cause and effect conclusions

Answer 4

Experimental method

Question 5

what are multi-factor studies? (experimental method)

Answer 5

DV influenced by multiple factors (IV) BUT harder to control for error.
-makes you able to look at 2 effects

Question 6

what is the difference between main effects and interaction effects (experimental method)

Answer 6

main effects: not affected by other factors (ex. doesn’t matter if you have a french accent or canadian, when speaking fast you’ll be perceived as smarter)

interaction effects: IS affected by other factors

Question 7

Naturally occurring changes
positive: +/+ and -/-
Negative: +/- and -/+

Sometimes you can’t vary what you want to vary so you use the…

Answer 7

correlational method

Question 8

What is the correlation coefficient and when is it most strong?

Answer 8

r: +1.00 to -1.00

the closer it is to 1.00 the stronger the correlation

Question 9

What is the third variable problem ? (correlational method)

Answer 9

seems like there is a correlation but really there is just a third variable : “spurious correlations”

Question 10

What is the importance of replication?

Answer 10

fraud, and using multiple methods, making sure it’s right.

Question 11

Takes every study and establishes size of relation and the direction of that relationship. Equates all the studies and will give a statistical estimate of how strong the relation is and in what direction.

Answer 11

Meta-analysis

Question 12

Concerns for rights of individuals in psych

Answer 12

• Deception: so people won’t change their behaviour
• Informed consent: tell them they won’t know everything until the debrief
• Debrief: afterwards, tell them everything

Question 13

Name 5 sources of Information

Answer 13

1) Self reporting
2) Observer ratings
3) Interviews
4) Physiological measurements
5) Responses in laboratory situations

Question 14

Explain the difference between subjective and objective measurement

Answer 14

Objective: requires no interpretation
Subjective: you have to interpret an action (or something) as something else (ex. a certain tone of voice as arrogance.. but might be confidence, etc.)

Question 15

Define Reliability

Answer 15

repeatability or consistency of a measure over time.

Question 16

the agreement among responses made to items of a measure.

• the average correlation between each pair of items separately.
• split-half reliability: make two subsets of test and correlate person’s score on each test (ex. even and odd on test numbers)

Answer 16

Internal reliability (internal consistency)

Question 17

correlating one judge’s rating with that of another judge

Answer 17

inter-rater reliability

Question 18

correlating person’s score on measure at time 1 with score at time 2

Answer 18

test-retest reliability

Question 19

refers to all split (half) reliability ways

it splits it in every way possible

Answer 19

Co-efficient Alpha

Question 20

to have good reliability you need a score of at least..

Answer 20

r = 0.80

Question 21

What are three threats to reliability?

Answer 21

1) clarity of items: how a person interprets a question can vary over time, situations, etc. has to be clear
2) motivation of test-taker: they have to be paying attention and relatively invested (lie scales)
3) Number of items: super short tests are not very thorough, the more items you have - less of a big deal if you miss/mess up on a question or two.

Question 22

Define Validity

Answer 22

degree to which a measure actually measures what it is supposed to measure

Question 23

degree to which a measure appears to measure what it is supposed to measure

Answer 23

face-validity

Question 24

degree to which a measure adequately covers the domain it’s supposed to cover

Answer 24

content-validity

Question 25

degree to which a measure accurately reflects the conceptual quality of the phenomenon of interest

Answer 25

construct-validity

Question 26

degree to which a measure relates to other characteristics conceptually similar to what it is supposed to assess

Answer 26

convergent validity

Question 27

degree to which a measure does not measure what it is not supposed to measure

Answer 27

discriminant validity

Question 28

degree to which a measure correlates with a separate measure (usually behavioral) of the concept

Answer 28

criterion validity

predictive validity

Question 29

What are some threats to validity (specifically for self-report measures)

Answer 29

1) extremity tendency: go from 0 to 100 on tests, answering only in 1s and 10s
2) middle-of-the-road tendency: putting everything as a 5
3) acquiescence: tend to agree upon given opinion
4) nay-sayers: opposite of 3)
5) social desirability: tend to make self appear better to the researcher