Methods Flashcards by Jennifer Betts

Operational Definitions

How the researcher defines the variables in the experiment so that the variables are measurable

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Sample

subset of a population

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Stratified random sampling

Each subgroup of the population is randomly sampled in proportion to its size

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Counterbalancing

Fixes a problem for within-subjects design (like testing effect).
Switches the order of exposure of levels

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Nonequivalent group design

the control and experimental groups are not necessarily similar because random assignment was not used
Ex: education research

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What confound does double-blinding deal with?

Experimenter bias: experimenters might inadvertently treat groups of subjects differently due to their own expectations

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Demand Characteristics

any cues that suggest to subjects what the researcher expects from them
Deception might help remedy this

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External validity

How generalizable the results of the experiment are to the rest of the population

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Types of Descriptive Statistics

Frequency distribution
Central tendency: mean, median, mode
Variability/standard deviation
Distribution/percentiles/z-scores
Corrlations

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z-score

standardizes across different distributions - how many SD your score is from the mean
** If every score in a distribution is converted to a z-score, the mean of the distribution = 0, and the SD=1.

score - mean
___________
SD

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T-score

mean = 50, SD = 10

Test score interpretation

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Skewed Distribution

Positive = more lower numbers (mean pushed to the left)
Negative = more higher numbers (mean pushed to the right)

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Alpha level

usually .05, .01, .001
criterion of significance
The probability of making a Type I error

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Type I Error

Incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis, your research hypothesis is actually wrong

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Type II Error

Incorrectly rejecting your research hypothesis when it is actually right and accepting the null

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Beta level

The probability of making a Type II error

ANOVA/F ratio

between-group variance estimate/within-group variance estimate
lower F ratio = less of an effect

Interaction

When the effects of one independent variable are not consistent for all levels of the other independent variables

Norm-referenced testing

assessing performance of an individual in comparison to others
Ex: Percentiles - 90th means she performed as well or better than 90% of other test-takers
Problem: the population in comparison changes and the original standardization is no longer representative

Domain-Referenced testing

aka criterion referenced testing
What does the test-taker know about a specified content domain
Ex: driver’s license test

Reliability

dependable
reproducible
consistent

Ways to test reliability

standard error of measurement (smaller is better)
test-retest method
alternate-form method
split-half reliability

Types of validity

Translation validity
- content: measures what you want
- face: appears to measure what you want
Criterion validity
- concurrent: ability to distinguish between groups
- predictive: predicting performance
- cross: test criterion validity on a second sample
- construct: truth on conclusion
- convergent: is it similar to other similar measures?
- discriminant: performance is not correlated with other variables

Ratio IQ

mental age/chronological age x 100

Deviation IQ

Indicates how well a person performed on an IQ test relative to her/his same-age peers Sanford-Binet Test

Personality inventory

self-rating device usually consisting of 100-500 statements. Reliable but not valid

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

550 statements, T/F/cannot say 10 clinical scales: MDD, schizo, masculine/feminine, careless, faking, misrepresenting, distorting intentionally or unintentionally Help assessment of various clinical disorders

California Psychological Inventory

Personality inventory that is based on the MMPI, used with normal populations 13+ (esp high school/college) dominance, sociability, self-control, femininity

Rorschach Inkblot Test

10 cards that a reproductions of inkblots Presented in a specific order with specific instructions to describe that they remind the subject of. Interpretation is based on clinical experience

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Morgan and Murray 20 pictures depicting scenes with ambiguous meanings. Asked to tell a story about what is happening and provide and ending. No standardized scoring, qualitative only

Blacky pictures

Projective test for children 12 cartoons with a dog (Blacky) Each pictures is related to a stage of psychosexual development. tell stories

Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank

projective, sentence-completion test 40 sentence stems and need to complete them fill them in with whatever is on their mind

Barnum Effect

tendency of people to accept and approve of the interpretation of their personality that you give them. Psuedovalidation

Interest testing

assess an individual's interest in different lines of work Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory Uses Holland's model of occupational themes (RIASEC): realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, conventional

Observer Bias

systematic errors in observation that occur because of an observer's expectations

Third variable problem

When the experimenter cannot directly manipulate the independent variable and therefore cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable in not the actual cause of differences in the dependent variable

Selection Bias

When participants in different groups in an experiment differ systematically

Reactivity

When the knowledge that one is being observed alters the behavior being observed

Response Performance

reaction time, response accuracy, stimulus judgements Ex: Stroop, Go No Go