Lecture 12- Exploratory Research

Question 1

What are the four basic approaches to research?

Answer 1

• Authority approach= Seek knowledge from sources thought to be valid + reliable. Takes advantage of previous knowledge.
• Analogy approach= Draw comparisons between new and old event that is more understandable.
• Rule approach= Establish rules and laws that cover a variety of different observations e.g. a statistical method. This saves time and effort.
• Empirical approach= testing ideas against actual events. In psychology this involves making observations about people’s behaviour in order to test hypotheses.

Question 2

What is a disadvantage of both the authority and rule approach to understanding?

Answer 2

Following blindly:

• In authority need to think critically about what sources are reliable.
• In rule following blindly can halt progress/ advancement.

Question 3

What’s the problem with the analogy approach?

Answer 3

Too open to interpretation. Different people can come to different conclusions based on the same info.

Question 4

What approach to understanding do we mainly use in psychology? Where can some of the other methods be useful in writing a lab report?

Answer 4

• Empirical
• Intro= authority approach by using preexisting knowledge. Analogy can be used to explain ideas to lay person in an easy to understand way.

Question 5

What are the four steps in the scientific method?

Answer 5

• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control

Question 6

How do the two types of research differ between what parts of the scientific method they utilize?

Answer 6

• Exploratory= Describe + explain

- Confirmatory= Predict + control

Question 7

Why is exploratory research labelled as inductive/bottom up? Where do we swap into confirmatory research?

Answer 7

• Start with observation and build on it by discovering patterns. From here you can propose a tentative hypothesis and come up with a theory.
• Once you have specific theories for why your observation occurred the line into confirmatory research can be crossed by coming up with an experiment to test your theory.

Question 8

What’s the difference between descriptive and inferential stats?

Answer 8

• Descriptive= using means + modes + SDs to summarize the data
• Inferential= using T-tests + ANOVAs to determine whether the difference is due to your manipulation of the IV or if its due to chance

Question 9

What is the reason we have to use inferential stats?

Answer 9

Because, we can’t test a whole population we have to work at the sample level

Question 10

What does a P value of less than 0.5 mean?

Answer 10

Results are significant (not due to chance)

Question 11

What is the assumption of the central limit theory?

Answer 11

Different samples from same population have different means and this results in sampling error (random variation)

Question 12

What is the difference between a null and alternative hypothesis?

Answer 12

• Null= There is no real difference between the average mask removal times of the two conditions
• Alternative= There is a real difference between the average mask removal times of the two conditions

Question 13

What are the two types of variation? What do we want?

Answer 13

• Random error= Sampling error. Other stuff over which we have NO CONTROL.
• Systematic error= Possible conformity effect – which we DO CONTROL with our independent variable!

-Inferential stats separates the two. We want systematic.

Question 14

What are outliers and can you get rid of them?

Answer 14

• Individual data points that differ a lot from most of the others
• Can if you describe them and explain why you want to lose them (skew mean)