Lecture 1 - Foundations: Modern Psychology Research

Question 1

What are the main types of Research Settings?

Answer 1

Field Study
Laboratory Study

Question 2

What are the main types of data collection?

Answer 2

Self-report
Observation

Question 3

What are the different types of research design?

Answer 3

Descriptive Study
Correlational Study
Experiment

Question 4

What is a Field Study?

Answer 4

Natural environment; hard to control; high ecological validity.

Question 5

What is a Laboratory Study?

Answer 5

Unnatural environment; easier to control; observer may bias results.

Question 6

What is Self-report data?

Answer 6

People describe their own behaviour through questionnaires or interviews.

Question 7

What are the limitations of Self-report data?

Answer 7

People may not give accurate responses.

Question 8

What is Observation in research?

Answer 8

Researchers record behaviour, often through naturalistic observation.

Question 9

What is measurement validity?

Answer 9

Is the way of measuring accurately measuring the construct?

Question 10

What is a Descriptive Study?

Answer 10

Observing and Describing Behaviour

Question 11

Give an example of a popular descriptive study.

Answer 11

Jane Goodall’s observation of chimpanzees using tools.
Previous belief: only man uses tools.
Observation: chimp took twig, stripped of leaves and used it to “fish” for termites to eat

Question 12

What is a Correlational Study?

Answer 12

Experimenter measures relationship between two variables; correlation ≠ causation.

Question 13

What does a correlation value indicate?

Answer 13

Strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.

Question 14

What is an Experiment in psychology?

Answer 14

Manipulate one variable and measure the other to infer causality.

Question 15

What is the independent variable (IV)?

Answer 15

Variable manipulated by the researcher.

Question 16

What is the dependent variable (DV)?

Answer 16

Variable that is being measured.

Question 17

What is the placebo effect?

Answer 17

Participant’s expectations can affect their performance in an experiment.

Question 18

What is a ‘measure’?

Answer 18

A means by which to determine the value of a psychological construct

Question 19

What are confounding variables?

Answer 19

Anything that could influence the DV, that is not the IV.

Question 20

What does reliability in measurement refer to?

Answer 20

Produces consistent measurements.

Question 21

What is test-retest reliability?

Answer 21

Does a test give similar values if the same participant takes it multiple times?

Question 22

What is inter-rater reliability?

Answer 22

Does a test give similar values if administered by different experimenters?

Question 23

What is validity in measurement?

Answer 23

Does the measurement accurately predict the construct of interest (what it is supposed to predict)?

Question 24

What is criterion validity?

Answer 24

Measurement related to other measurements as expected (aka external validity).

Question 25

What is ecological validity?

Answer 25

Measurement taken in a lab generalizes to real-world settings.

Question 26

What is generalizability in research?

Answer 26

The extent to which findings can be applied to the larger population.

Question 27

What is a common limitation of experimental research?

Answer 27

problems with ecological validity

Question 28

What is a population?

Answer 28

all potential subjects in an experiment

Question 29

What is a sample?

Answer 29

A subset of the population tested. It is often impractical to study an entire population so we study a sample.

Question 30

What is a representative sample?

Answer 30

A subset of the population that reflects the overall population as accurately as possible

Question 31

What is hypothesis testing?

Answer 31

Determining the likelihood that one interpretation of data is correct.

Question 32

What is statistical significance?

Answer 32

How likely it is that a result is due to chance.

Question 33

What factors influence statistical significance?

Answer 33

Effect size, variability of measurements, number of measurements.

Question 34

How does effect size influence statistical significance?

Answer 34

Bigger effect size = more significant

Question 35

How does variability of measurements influence statistical significance?

Answer 35

More variability = less significant

Question 36

How does the number of measurements influence statistical significance?

Answer 36

More measurements = more significant

Question 37

What are the two types of experimental blinds?

Answer 37

Blind: Don't tell subjects Double-blind: Don't tell experimenter either

Question 38

What was the independent variable in the Mozart Effect study?

Answer 38

Listening condition (Mozart, relaxation tape, silence).

Question 39

What was the dependent variable in the Mozart Effect study?

Answer 39

Immediately after listening condition subjects performed a spatial reasoning test

Question 40

What is the spatial reasoning test students completed during the Mozart test?

Answer 40

Visuospatial component of Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test

Question 41

What were the findings of the Mozart Effect study?

Answer 41

Group that listened to Mozart performed better. No statistical significance between relaxation group and silence group

Question 42

How was the Mozart Effect test replicated?

Answer 42

16 additional experiments No sig differences in IQ

Question 43

What were the problems with the Mozart test?

Answer 43

Effect was not reliable - Could not be replicated by 16 other studies - May have been one of those studies where the results were simply due to chance Effect was not as valid as media claimed - Do results from college students generalise to the whole world? - Does listening to 10 mins generalise to frequently listening to classical music? -Does an improvement in subscale of IQ test generalise to real world intelligence?

Question 44

Fill in the blank: The construct 'illness' can be defined as the _______.

Answer 44

number of times a participant visits a clinic.

Question 45

Fill in the blank: The construct 'hunger' can be defined in terms of how long a subject has gone without _______.

Answer 45

food.

Question 46

What does it mean if a measurement is valid?

Answer 46

It predicts what it is supposed to predict.

Question 47

What is the meaning of 'effect size'?

Answer 47

Difference between two measurements; larger difference indicates more significance.

Question 48

What is the role of replication in science?

Answer 48

To verify the reliability and validity of findings.