Methods and Statistics Flashcards
What are the three main steps in the scientific method?
Describing, Predicting, Explaining
Define what a theory is
A well-supported explanation of why or how some phenomenon occurs
Define what a hypothesis is
A prediction about what should occur in a specific context given a theory
What are the three limitations/caveats of the scientific method?
- General/idealized person - theories do not apply to a specific individual, instead, they are for the general or idealized person
- Fixed aspect - psychologists assume that there are at least some fixed aspects of our human nature that they can explain
- Observation and scientific testing - some parts of human nature can be studied through observation and scientific data
What is “The Problem of Fixedness”?
How much of human nature is fixed, biologically determined, and universal
- what are the potential influences of evolution, genes, culture AND
- if there are essential characteristics of human nature
What is “The Problem of Introspection
Do we truly know ourselves, and if we don’t, how could we hope to ever theorize about others
- questions on our individual selves, why we act first before explaining that particular action, and why we do not always know exactly what we want
What is “The Problem of Biology”?
How much we care about the biology of the brain and body in explaining human thinking and reasoning
- how neuroscience and psychology are alike/different, how we’re supposed to approach mental health like we do in heart disease or cancer
What are the controversies regarding psychology?
- Dominated by white, cis, male scientists and their Euro-centric ideals
- Attempts to prove differences in intelligence, personality, and motivation between people
- People outside of psychology only care about prediction and not the explanation
- Many major psychological findings have shown to not be replicable
What are the three sources of knowledge?
Intuition, Observation, and Authority
What is intuition?
Knowledge that you just know, and since it is internat (from your own self), it cannot be shared because people have different intuition
What is observation?
Knowledge that you have personally experienced, it is a bend of both intuition and authority
What is authority?
Knowledge that should almost automatically be accepted and is given to you by someone “credible”. This knowledge has the potential to be misused.
What are the four problems we can encounter with pure observation?
It is not always possible, reliable, true, and people do not always agree on what they are experiencing
How do you deal with impossibility of observation (pure observation)?
By making use of tools that specifically are made to measure behaviour and cross-checking them to see that they are functioning properly
How do you deal with biases and differences in opinions (pure observation)?
- Scientists must have scientific skepticim - not to overly trust or get attached to any theory or observation
- Scientific findings must go through peer review to ensure that no biases sneak in
- Studies must be replicaple to advance theories - to disconfirm or confirm hypotheses
How do you deal with the reliability of observation (pure observation)?
- Openness - data and measurements should be available for anyone to use in order for them to evaluate and check the reliability (of data and measurements)
- Falsifiable hypotheses - there must be inflexible predictions that are observable (not too fluid)
- Participant and person getting the data should not be aware of the hypothesis (double-blind experiments)
What are exploratory studies?
They seek to describe some phenomena by collecting data (description to prediction)
What are confirmatory studies?
Derive a falsibfiable hypothesis from some theorized explanation of the world, and then seek to find data that either confirms or diconfirms it
What is an operational definition?
It is a description of a psychological property in concrete and measurable terms
What is an instrument in psychology?
It is anything that can provide a measurement of the operational definition
Define the three properties of a good instrument
- Valid - instrument measures what it claims to measure
- Reliable - instrument gives similar measurements each time it is used (replicability)
- Power/Sensitivity - instrument detects even very small differences in the measure
What is data?
Collection of measurements
What is descriptive statistics?
Mathematical tools used to summarize data into more useful ways of understanding
What is inferential statistics?
Mathematical tools used to help decide if data confirm or disconfirm some hypothesis (what can you infer from the data?)
How do psychologists report their collected and analyzed data?
They present it to their peers (in conferences or academic journals) to get feedback on their work (peer review)
What are the main tasks of a peer reviewer?
- Be highly skeptical of the claims - to identify alternative explanations
- Assess if the instruments used are considered good instruments (valid, reliable, sensitive/powerful)
- Double-check if statistics were properly carried out
Most importantly, replicability of the study must be assessed as it is very important
What are study design/methods?
A set of guidelines for how data is collected for a study, each one will have its own set of applications, benefits, and limitations
What is a Naturalistic Observation method? What are its pros and cons?
Observing participant in their “natural habitat” and writing down their behavious in response to various everyday situations. Its pros are that it removes demand characteristics and maximizes external validity. Its cons are that there is no way to tell what caused the observed behaviours, and that there is high possibility of experimenter bias since they choose what to record as data
What is a Case Studies method? What are its pros and cons?
Observing and measuring the behaviour of a single, usually unique participant, over an extended period of time by giving them many different tests. Its pros include detecting and working with rare and unique cases (otherwise it would be washed out in averaging data). Its cons is that we cannot be truly certain of what caused the behaviour observed.
What is a Correlational Studies method?
Measures the relationship/prediction between two variables/data sets. It does not mean that one variable caused the other.
How do you carry out a correlational study?
- Choose two variables
- Measure the two variables quantitatively in as many people as possible
- Graph the relationship on the axes
- Estimate the direction and strength of the correlation
What is the Directionality Problem in a Correlational Studies method?
For any correlation, you can never determine whether Variable A caused Variable B or vice versa
What is the Third Variable Problem in a Correlational Studies method?
For any correlation, there is an infinite number of what we call “third variable”, which is an unmeasured variable that may be affecting both variables A and B.
What is an Experiment method made up of?
- Independent variable - manipulated
- Dependent variable - measured
- Random Assignment - participant is randomly put into an experimental group
- Random Selection - participants are randomly chosen to represent the population better
How do you solve directionality in an experiment?
Choose which variable you manipulate and which you measure to control the direction (“temporal precedence”)
How do you solve third variables?
By doing random selection and assignment to guarantee that the two groups are, on average, identical in ever way except the variable you manipulate
What is Descriptive Statistics?
Gives a general sense of what data looks like
What is Central Tendency (Descriptive Statistics)?
Describes the data’s typical value. Examples would be the mean, median, and mode
What is Variability (Descriptive Statistics)?
How different the data points are from one another. Examples are range and standard deviation.
What are the two mistakes that can be made when interpreting data?
- False Alarm: accepting an event that occured by chance as meaningful
- Miss: rejecting a real effect and attributing it to chance
What is Inferential Statistics?
Helps decide what to conclude with the data while balancing false alarms (accepting chance) and misses (rejecting real effects). It helps us specify what performance is expected by chance alone.
What is Statistical Significance (Inferential)?
The critical boundary at which we decide that the event we observed is unlikely to have come from chance alone, and that therefore something else must be at play
