Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is a theory?
An organized set of principles that can be used to explain observed phenomena and form a hypothesis.
What are the elements that contribute to commitment?
Satisfaction, quality alternatives, and investment.
What does satisfaction refer to in the context of commitment?
How satisfying is your relationship with your partner.
What does quality alternatives refer to in the context of commitment?
Whether you would be better off leaving your partner to be single or with someone else.
What does investment refer to in the context of commitment?
How much effort you have put in and what you stand to lose.
What is a hypothesis?
A testable statement or idea about the relation between two or more variables.
What is the perspective that science is an iterative process of disproving a theory?
Science can be a deductive process where theories are used to inform hypotheses that are tested with quantitative data
If the hypothesis is confirmed, we can be more confident in the theory
If it is not confirmed, the theory must be modified or rejected
What is the perspective of science as generative inductive process?
Not all theories come from pre-existing theories
Theories are often developed inductively by recognizing patterns or association within observations & then speculation about why those patterns occur
What are the 3 major research designs used in relationships research?
Descriptive designs, correlation designs, & experimental designs
What are descriptive designs?
Goal is to describe what a specific group of people, behavior, or content of media is like. Usually not suitable for testing hypotheses because it cannot be used to document the relationship between variables. Survey/observe people or media and systematically record their behavior and/or characteristics. Observer involvement can vary for different studies
What are correlational research designs?
goal is to systematically measure & assess the association between one variable & another variable, goes beyond documenting a behavior, and allows you test hypotheses. Correlation does not equal causation
What are experimental research designs?
goal is to determine causal relations between two or more variables. You MUST manipulate the independent variable(s), control extraneous variables (ex. Hold constant any variables that might yield a spurious association) and observe the effect if the independent variable(s) on the dependent variable(s)
Can more than one study include more than one research design?
Yes
What is a representative sample?
An important but rarely accomplished aspect of research sampling.
What is random sampling?
The ideal sampling method that is difficult to achieve in social sciences.
What is quota sampling?
A sampling method that seems to be gaining in popularity.
What is convenience sampling?
The most common sampling method, often involving WEIRD samples (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich & Democratic), not the end of the worldprovided that you demonstrate replicability across diverse samples
What is volunteer bias?
A problem in research where certain personality traits affect participant recruitment such as criminality, health status, relationship quality in longitudinal research or extraversion in in-person vs online research
What is an operational definition?
How a variable is measured and manipulated
What would be an operational definition of closeness?
how close people choose to stand next to each other
How could closeness be manipulated in a study?
excluding someone from a study
What is an experiment?
a variable MUST be manipulated
What is an experiment & study?
a study where a variable has been manipulated
What is a spurious correlation?
When the relation between Variables A and B can be explained by a third variable.
What is self-report?
Methods where participants tell us about their experiences and behavior from their own perspectives.
What are the pros of self-report methods?
They provide access to non-observable phenomena and can be online
What are the cons of self-report methods?
They require participant recruitment, can be affected by biases, interpretations of questions, difficulty with recall or awareness, and social desirability bias
What is direct observation?
Monitoring and recording data of participants either directly or indirectly such as live observation, recording, eye-tracking, etc.
What are the pros of direct observation?
It avoids some problems found in self-report methods
What are the cons of direct observation?
It lacks participant perceptions, can be costly, ethically limitations of what can be observed
What is archival research?
Mining or analyzing previously collected data such as pictures, diaries, government records, social media posts
What are the pros of archival research?
It is often cheap, often doesn’t need ethics reviews and does not require participant recruitment.
What are the cons of archival research?
It is limited to existing data that may not align with research goals.
What is interrater reliability?
The level of agreement between different coders, increasing the trustworthiness of data
What are in-lab experiments?
Experiments where participants are brought to a lab and randomly assigned to conditions.
What are the pros of in-lab experiments?
They allow for studying causality, potential for direct observation & psychophysiological measurement and tight control over conditions.
What are the cons of in-lab experiments?
They can be expensive, time-consuming, small samples & require space
What are online experiments?
Experiments conducted online where participants are randomly assigned to conditions.
What are the pros of online experiments?
They can study causality and involve larger samples at a lower cost.
What are the cons of online experiments?
They face issues with bots, psychophysiological measures are limited and lack environmental control.
What are field experiments?
Experiments conducted in the real world with randomly assigned conditions.
What are the pros of field experiments?
They have high external validity as participants may not know they are being studied.
What are the cons of field experiments?
They lack of environmental control.
What is the essence of relationships in research?
Capturing the interdependence of relationships requires data from more than one person.
What are the statistical implications of interdependence?
Analyzing data from intact relationships requires specific statistical techniques because the nature of the data violates assumptions for the most widely used statistical techniques
What are the potential influences for dyads?
influence of partner A, influence of partner B, & unique influence of the combination of partner A with partner B
