Labs - Beth Morling book

Question 1

What is an empiricist?

Answer 1

Basing one’s conclusions on systematic observations

Question 2

Difference between research producer and consumer?

Answer 2

Research producers – people who actually physically make the data
Research consumers – People who look and the data and apply it

Question 3

How scientists work: 5 steps

Answer 3

1. Act as empiricists
2. Test theories based on resulting data
3. Follow norms that prioritize objectivity and fairness
4. Take an empirical approach to research
5. Make their work public

Question 4

What is theory-data cycle?

Answer 4

Scientists collect data to test, change, or update their theories

Question 5

What is cupboard theory and contact comfort theory?

Answer 5

Cupboard Theory – Mother-infant attachment in based on a food source being present from the mother to the infant
Contact Comfort Theory – Babies are attached to their mothers because of the comfort of their warm, fuzzy fur
(Harlow’s experiment on monkeys – supported the contact comfort theory as they clung to the cloth mother for 12-18 hours a day)

Question 6

What is theory, hypothesis and data?

Answer 6

Theory – is a set of statements that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another
Hypothesis – is stated in terms of the study design and the predicted outcome
Data – are a set of observations that may support or challenge the theory

Question 7

What is preregistered hypotheses, replication and weight of evidence?

Answer 7

Preregistered hypotheses – the researcher states publicly what the study’s outcome is expected to be
Replication – means the study is conducted again to test whether the result is consistent
Weight of the evidence – the collection of studies, including replications, of the same theory

Question 8

What is falsifiability, universalism and communality?

Answer 8

Falsifiability – a feature of the scientific theory, in which it is possible to collect data that will indicate that the data is wrong
Universalism – scientific claims are evaluated, independent of the researcher’s reputation. The same preestablished criteria apply to all scientists and all research
Communality – scientific knowledge is created by a community and its findings belong to the community

Question 9

What is disinterestedness and organised skepticism?

Answer 9

Disinterestedness – scientists strive to discover the truth and they are not swayed by conviction, idealism, politics or profit
Organized skepticism – scientists question everything, including their own theories, widely accepted ideas and ‘ancient wisdom’

Question 10

Difference between applied, basic and translational research?

Answer 10

Applied research – is done with a practical problem in mind and the researchers conduct their work in real-life context
Basic research – is to enhance the general body of knowledge rather than to address a specific, practical problem
Translational research – is the use of lessons from basic research to develop and test applications to treatments

Question 11

Scientific Journal

Answer 11

• Goes through peer-review (Anonymous)
• Journalism – is a second hand report about the research written by journalists
• Mozart effect – misrepresent research findings and produce exaggerated reports

Question 12

What is a comparison group? and example

Answer 12

Comparison group: enables us to compare what would happen both with and without the thing we are interested in
- e.g. William Halsted in performing radical mastectomy to cure breast cancer (1700 women were tested and the results showed that the radical procedure didn’t lead to better outcomes)
- Basing conclusions on personal experience is problematic because daily life doesn’t include a comparison group

Question 13

What are confounds?

Answer 13

Confounds: a potential alternative explanation for a research finding and a threat to internal validity
- Isolate the variables (Bushman in variables affecting anger)

Question 14

The research versus your intuition –Difference between availability heuristic, present bias, conformation bias and bias blind spot?

Answer 14

Availability heuristic: a type of bias where people incorrectly estimate the frequency of something because they rely on instances that come easily to the mind, rather than using all possible evidence (e.g. being more concerned about cancer as more news stories about it)
Present bias: a type of bias where people incorrectly estimate the relationship between the event and the outcome as they fail to consider the evidence that is harder to notice
Confirmation bias: to consider evidence that only supports a hypothesis and asking questions that will lead to the expected answer
Bias blind spot: people think that they are less likely to engage in biased reasonings compared to others

• You are more likely to trust someone’s statement if that person is an authority figure

Question 15

Finding and reading the research - What are empirical journal articles and reviewing them

Answer 15

Empirical journal articles: an article that reports for the first time the results of a research study
Review journal articles: summarize and integrate all the published studies that have been done in one research area (could use a quantitative technique called meta-analysis)

Question 16

What is effect size? and google scholar used for

Answer 16

Effect size: the strength of the relationship between two or more variables
PsycINFO/ Google Scholar: tools for sorting through psychological research

Question 17

Components of an empirical journal article: 6 features

Answer 17

1. Abstract (summary of the article’s hypothesis , methods and major results)
2. Introduction
3. Method
4. Results
5. Discussion
6. References

Question 18

Avoiding disinformation: 3 ways

Answer 18

• Motives of disinformation
• Types of disinformation
• Read critically but not cynically

Question 19

Difference between variables and constant

Answer 19

Variables: Something that varies
Constant: Something that could potentially vary but that has only one level in the study

Question 20

Types of variables: 4 types

Answer 20

Measured Variable: levels that are simply observed and recorded
Manipulated variable: a variable a researcher controls
Construct variable: name of the concept being studied
Operational variable: how the construct is measured or manipulated in an actual study

Question 21

Types of claims? 3 types

Answer 21

Frequency claims: describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable
Association claims: argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable (correlate) can be positive, negative or zero
Casual claim: one variable is responsible for changing the other

Question 22

Types of validity? 4 types

Answer 22

Construct validity: refers to how well a conceptual variable is operationalized
External validity: how well the results of a study generalise to people besides the original study
Statistical validity: is the extent to which a study’s statistical conclusions are precise, reasonable and replicable
Internal validity: the extent to which a variable, rather than an external cause, is responsible for changes to the other variable

Question 23

What is covariance and temporal precedence?

Answer 23

Covariance: the extent to which two variables are observed to go together
Temporal precedence: the study’s method ensures that A comes first in times, before B

Question 24

What is operational definition?

Answer 24

Operational definition: represents a researcher’s specific decision about how to measure or manipulate the conceptual variable

Question 25

Types of measure: 3 types

Answer 25

Self-report measure: recording people’s answers to questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview
Observational measure: recording observable behaviours or physical traces of behaviour
Physiological measure: recording biological data

Question 26

What are categorical and quantitative variables?

Answer 26

Categorical variables: are categories
Quantitative variables: are coded with meaningful numbers

Question 27

3 types of scale: and examples

Answer 27

1. Ordinal scale – when the numbers represent a ranked order (top 10 best-selling books)
2. Interval scale – numbers that meet two conditions (Body temperature)
3. Ratio scale – numbers have equal intervals (Height)

Question 28

3 ways to test reliability

Answer 28

1. Test-retest – participant will get pretty much the same score each time they are measured with it
2. Interrater – consistent scores are obtained no matter who measures the variable
3. Internal – participant gives consistent pattern of answers, no matter how the researchers phrase the question
   - Correlation coefficient of r

Question 29

What is face, content and criterion validity?

Answer 29

1. Face – It looks like what you want to measure
2. Content – The measure contains all the parts that your theory says it should contain
3. Criterion – evaluates whether the measure under consideration is associated with a concrete behavioural outcome

Question 30

What do convergent and discriminant validity both require?

Answer 30

• Convergent and discriminant validity require collecting data to show a measure is correlated more strongly with measures of similar constructs than with measures of dissimilar constructs

Question 31

What is an experiment? and three types of variables

Answer 31

Experiment: the researcher manipulate at least one variables and measured another
Manipulated variable: a variable that is controlled (independent)
Measured variable: records of behaviour or attitudes (dependent)
Control variable: variable that stays constant

Question 32

Why experiments support casual claims? 3 reasons

Answer 32

1. Covariance (uses control groups to show covariance)
2. Temporal precedence (manipulated IV to ensure that it came first in time)
3. Internal validity (reduce confounds)

Question 33

What are design confounds and selection effects?

Answer 33

Design confound: is an experimenter’s mistake in designing the independent variable
Selection effects: when the kinds of pp’s in one level of the IV are systematically different from those in the other

Question 34

Difference between post-test only and pretest designs

Answer 34

1. Posttest- only design – randomly assigned to IV groups and are tested on the DV once
2. Pretest design – randomly assigned to at least two groups and are tested on the key DV twice
   (random assignment or matched pairs can help establish internal validity in independent-groups designs by minimizing selection effects)

Question 35

What is repeated measures and concurrent measures design ?

Answer 35

Repeated measures design:
(pp’s are measured on a DV more than once, after exposure to each level of the IV)
Concurrent-measures design:
(pp’s are exposed to all the levels of an IV at roughly the same time)

Question 36

Pros and cons of within group designs

Answer 36

Pro’s of within-group designs:
- Ensures all the pp’s in the two groups will be equivalent
- Requires fewer pp’s overall
Con’s of within-group designs:
- Have the potential for order effects
- Might not be possible/practical
- Threat of demand characteristics

Question 37

Interrogating casual claims with the four validities

Answer 37

1. Construct validity – evaluating whether the variables were manipulated and measured in ways consistent with the theory behind the experiment (manipulation checks, pilot studies)
2. External validity – asking whether the experiment’s results can be generalized to other people/situations/settings (random sampling, replications)
3. Statistical validity – precision of the estimate as assessed by the 95% CI (effect size, replications)
4. Internal validity – used techniques such as random assignment (looking for confounds, counterbalancing)

Question 38

Threats to internal validity: 6 threats

Answer 38

(design confounds, selection effects & order effects)
1. Maturation threats (a change in behaviour that emerges more or less spontaneously over time) – prevented by using a comparison group
2. History threats (external factors that systematically effect most members of the treatment group at the same time of the treatment itself, making it unclear whether the change is caused by the treatment received) – prevented by using a comparison group
3. Regression threats (occurs only when a group is measured twice, and only when the group has an extreme score at pretest) – prevented using a comparison group and careful inspection of the pattern of results
4. Attrition threats (when a certain kind of participant drops out) – prevented by removing that participants scores from the pretest
5. Testing threats (a change in the participants as a results of talking a test more than once) – prevented by using a posttest-only design
6. Instrumentation threats (occurs when a measuring instrument changes over time) – prevented by using a posttest-only design

Question 39

What is observer bias, demand characteristics and placebo effect?

Answer 39

Observer bias: occurs when a researcher’s expectations influence their interpretation of the results
Demand characteristics: when the pp’s guess what the study is supposed to be about and change their behaviour in the expected direction
Placebo effect: occurs when people receive a treatment and really improve because they think they are receiving a valid treatment

Question 40

Interrogating null effects – (obscuring factors): 2 effects

Answer 40

1. Ceiling effects: all the scores are squeezed together at the high end
   Floor effects: all the scores cluster at the low end
2. Measurement error: a human factor that can randomly inflate or deflate a person’s
   true score on the DV
   Situation noise
   Irrelevant individual differences
   - Can be counteracted by using multiple measurements, more precise measurements, within-groups design, large samples and very controlled experimental environments

Question 41

Types of replication: 3 types

Answer 41

1. Direct replication – researchers repeat an original study as closely as they can to see whether the effect is the same in the newly collected data
2. Conceptual replication – researchers explore the same research question nut use different procedures
3. Replication-plus-extension – researchers replicate their original experiment and add variables to test additional questions

Question 42

Replication projects: 2 types

Answer 42

• One study, many labs: multiple groups if scientist work together to conduct replication studies
• Many labs, many studies: other replication projects coordinate many labs around the world to replicate a variety of studies

Question 43

Research transparency and credibility

Answer 43

• Psychologists have identified questionable research practices that include:
• 1. Underreporting null results
• 2. P-hacking
• 3. HARKING
     (Scientists now promote open data, open materials, and preregistration to strengthen the verifiability and replicability of studies

Question 44

Must a study have external validity?

Answer 44

• Theory-testing mode – researchers design studies that test a theory, leaving the generalization step for later
• Generalization mode – researchers focus on whether their samples are representative (frequency claims are always in generalization mode)
• Psychological discoveries are not always applicable cross-culturally (only collect data from WEIRD)