Lecture 1 Flashcards
What is a hypothesis ?
A prediction regarding the outcome of a study
What is a variable ?
An event or behaviour that has at least 2 values or anything that can change
What is a discrete variable ?
Takes on a single value; always a whole number
What is a continuous variable ?
Can be assigned many numbers
What is a subject/participant variable ?
A chracteristic inherent in the participants that cannot be changed
i.e: ethnicity, age
What is a control variable ?
Things you want to make sure are the same between groups
What is a constant ?
Something that doesn’t and cannot change; one value
What is a theory ?
An organized system of assumptions and principles that attempt to explain certain phenomena and how they are related
What are the 3 parts of a theory ?
- Parsimony - use a few statements as possible to explain results
- Testable
- Percise - use words that are operationally defined
What are the 3 goals of science ?
- Description
- Prediction
- Explanation
What is a operational definition ?
Define something in terms of observable behaviour
What does description allow ?
Allows us to learn about behaviour when it occurs and to observe that 2 event are systematically related to one another
What are the 3 types of descriptive methods ?
- Oberservational
- Case study
- Survey
What is observational research ?
- making observations of human or other animals behaviour
- Naturalistic: oberserve people and animals in their natural setting; usually looking for a particular behaviour
What is a problem with observational research ?
Reactivity: people act differently when they’re being observed
What is case-study research ?
in-depth study of one or more individuals or an event
What is the survey method ?
- questioning individuals on a topic(s) and describing their responses
- qualitative
What does prediction allow ?
Allows us to identify the factors that indicate when an event(s) will occur
What methods are under prediction (relational) ?
- Correlational
- Quasi-experimental
What is correlational research ?
The association between two variables
What is a positive correlation ?
as one variable increases, the other also increases
What is a negative correlation ?
As one variable increases, the other decreases
What is the symbol used to depict a correlation ?
Pearson’s correlation = r
What does the sign of a correlation indicate ?
The direction of the correlation
What is the range for a correlation ?
0-1.00
What is a perfect predictor ?
When you can make a perfect prediction. This is when r= +1.00
What are the numbers for how good a predictor is ?
- 0-0.4: poor accuracy predictor
- 0.5-0.7: moderate accuracy predictor
- 0.8-1.0: good accuracy predictor
What is quasi-experimental ?
Allows us to compare naturally occuring groups of individuals
What does explanation allow ?
Allows us to identify the causes that determine when and why a behaviour occurs
What are the 2 branches of statistics ?
- Descriptive: describe people, event, animals, etc (behaviour or performance)
- Inferrential: infer behaviour of larger groups by using a small group and can predict future events
What are the 4 steps for conducting research ?
- Design - research question
- Collect data
- Analyze data
- Interpret data - explain what data means (theoretical and general interpretation)
What is the basis of all statistics ?
Random sampling: every member of the parent population has an equal probability in being in the sample
What are the 4 properties of measurement ?
- Identity: objects that are different recieve different scores
- Magnitude: when the ordering of the numbers reflects the ordering of the variable
- Equal unit size: when a difference of 1 is the some amount throughout the entire scale
- Absolute zero: assigning a score of 0 indicates an absence of the variable being measured
What are the 4 scales of measurement ?
- Nominal
- Ordinal
- Interval
- Ratio
What is a nominal scale ?
Categorical or qualitative data; Name type data
i.e: children vs adults, gender, ethnicity
What is a ordinal scale ?
- Numbers that are usually ranked
- has the properties of identity and magnitude
What is the interval scale ?
- Number based, but the distance between the numbers mean something
- has the properties of mag., idenitity, and equal unit
What is a ratio scale ?
- Is number based, but has a true zero, where ZERO has a meaning
- has all 4 properties
What is inductive research ?
Collect data, look at data, then come up with a theory to explain the data
What is deductive research ?
develop a theory, and then look for theoretical support
