Midterms: 2nd part Flashcards
Science of behavior
Psychology
Research about the psychological processes underlying behavior
Psychological Science
What we know such as the facts we learn
Science: Content
An activity that includes the systematic ways in which we go about gathering data, noting relationships, and offering explanations
Science: Process
Scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate psychological data
Methodology
Facts and figures gathered in research studies
Data
Experimental Psychology started in
1892
Father of Experimental Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
Kind of everyday nonscientific data gathering that shapes our expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior toward others
Commonsense Psychology
Once we believe we know something, we tend to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs and we seek, instead, confirmatory instances of behavior
Confirmation bias
Make believe concepts which is culturally structured
Myths and Superstitions
Came up from data from our own experiences
Commonsense Assumptions
Nonscientific interference
Perceiving others by their traits
Stereotyping
Overconfidence bias
A phenomenon wherein we compound our inferential shortcomings
Our predictions, guesses, explanations tend to feel much more correct that they actually are, and the more data we have available, the more confidence we have in our judgements about behavior
Overconfidence bias
Steps scientists take to gather and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate this information answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate this information to others.
Scientific Method
The psychologist’s goal of prediction rests on an assumption: Behavior must follow a natural order; therefore, it can be predicted
Coined by Alfred North Whitehead
Scientific Mentality
Research psychologists share the belief that there are specifiable causes for the way people behave and that these causes can be discovered through research
Determinism
Data are observable or experienced in ____
Gathering Empirical Data
Principle that have the generality to apply to all situations
Laws
Devising and testing an interim explanation
Theory
Testable prediction
Hypothesis
Research that is designed to solve real-world problems
Applied Research
Research designed to test theories or to explain psychological phenomena in humans and animals
Basic Research
It is the systematic noting and recording of events.
Observation
It is the assignment of numerical values to objects or events or their characteristics according to conventional rules
Measurement
Numbers are assigned to represent different features of an observation
Quantitative Research
Describe their observation using words instead of numbers
Qualitative Research
Research participants
Subjects
The process undertaken to test a hypothesis that particular behavioral events will occur reliably in certain, specifiable situations
Experimentation
Circumstances that come before the event or behavior that we want to explain
Antecedents
Specific sets of antecedent conditions
Treatments
Controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects
Psychology Experiment
An experimental design in which subjects receive only one kind of treatment
Between-subjects design
Another way in which systematic differences in subjects might be ruled out is to present all treatments to each subject and measure the effect of each treatment after it is presented
Within-subjects design
Cause and effect relationship we establish through experiments because a time difference occurs in the relationship
Temporal Relationships
Two other types of relationships that people use
Spatial and logical
Included the study of consciousness and mental process and was based on the premise that the human mind begin as a blank slate, gaining knowledge of the world through sensory experiences
Mental Philosophy
Reporting your own thoughts and feelings
Phenomenology
Assessing traits and dispositions by measuring the size and location of bumps on the skull
Phrenology
Use facial features, particularly the appearance of the eyes, nose, chin, and forehead, to evaluate traits, mental capacity and skills
Physiognomy
Fluids in the body ebbed and flowed by magnetic principles and that both physical and mental illness could be cured by realigning these fluids using magnets, electrodes, or his hands passed across the patient’s body
Mesmerism
Purported contact with ghosts and spirits of the dead
Spiritualism
Refers to the correct rules of conduct necessary when carrying out research
Ethics
Ethical Issues in Psychology
Informed Consent
Debrief
Protection of Participants
Deception
Confidentiality
Withdrawal
A subject’s voluntary agreement to participate in a research project after the nature and purpose of the study have been explained
Informed Consent
After the research is over the participant should be able to discuss the procedure and the findings with the psychologist. They must be given a general idea of what the researcher was investigating and why, and their part in the research should be explained
Debrief
Researchers must ensure that those taking part in research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and mental harm. This means you must not embarrass, frighten, offend, or harm participants
Protection of Participants
This is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aims of the research
Deception
Participants and the data gained from them must be kept anonymous unless they give their full consent. No names must be used in a lab report
Confidentiality
Participants should be able to leave a study at any time if they feel uncomfortable. They should also be allowed to withdraw their data. They should be told at the start of the study that they have the right to withdraw
Withdrawal from an Investigation
The unethical practice of falsifying or fabricating data; plagiarism is also a form of it
Fraud
The representation of someone else’s ideas, words, or written work as one’s own; a serious breach of ethics that can result in legal action
Plagiarism
The concept that all sensate species that feel paint are of equal value and have rights.
Animal Rights
The human e care and treatment of animals
Animal welfare
The likelihood of a subject being harmed in some way because of the nature of the research
At risk
The principle of full disclosure at the end of an experiment; that is, explaining to the subject the nature and purpose of the study
Debriefing
An institutional committee that reviews proposed research to safeguard the welfare of animal subjects
Institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC)
An institutional committee that reviews proposed research to safeguard the safety and rights of human participants
Institutional review board (IRB)
The subject’s odds of being harmed are not increased by the research
Minimal risk
A determination, made by an IRB, that any risks to the individual are outweighed by potential benefits or the importance of the knowledge to be gained
Risk/benefit analysis
The description of an individual’s immediate experience
Phenomenology
A descriptive record of a single individual’s experiences, or behaviors, or both, kept by an outside observer
Case studies
___ are nonexperimental approaches used in the field or in real-life settings
Field studies
The technique of observing behaviors as they occur spontaneously in natural settings
Naturalistic observation
Here the researcher actually becomes part of the group being studied
Sometimes this is the only method that can be used to study a group – particularly if the group would not reasonably be expected to cooperate voluntarily with a research investigation
Participant-Observer studies
The science that concerns itself with the division of mankind into races and their origin, distribution, relations, and characteristics
Ethnography
A descriptive research method in which already existing records are reexamined for a new purpose
Archival Study
It is a design involves selecting groups, upon which a variable is tested, without any random pre-selection processes
Quasi-Experiment
Relies on words rather than numbers for the data being collected; it focuses on self-reports, personal narratives, and expression of ideas, memories, feelings, and thoughts
Used to study phenomena that are contextual, meaning they cannot be understood without the context in which they appear. These phenomena deserve to be studied within a rich background or unique environment
Qualitative Research
The set of attitudes, values, beliefs, methods, and procedures that are generally accepted within a particular discipline at a certain point of time
Paradigm
Emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques
Quantitative Methods
Created from a solid database of empirical observations
Inductive Theories
Can be precisely stated and tested. Hypothesis are created as tentative answers to problems
Deductive Theories
Fundamental or core assumptions of a theory that are taken as self-evidently true
Postulates
General relational statements that may be true or false, not tested directly but used to derive hypothesis
Propositions
Concepts in the hypotheses are defined precisely so that accurate measures of the concepts can be devised
Conceptual Definitions
Procedures used to define particular constructs
Operational Definition
Duplication or repetition of an experiment or study to determine whether or not the original findings are reliable
Replication
A descriptive method in which already existing records are reexamined for a new purpose
Archival Study
A descriptive record of an individual’s experiences, behaviors, or both kept by an outside observer
Case Study
A form of case study in which deviant individuals are compared with those who are not to identify the significant differences between them
Deviant case analysis
Contemporary phenomenology that relies on the researcher’s own experience, experiential data provided by study participants, or other available sources such as literature or popular media; a qualitative approach
Empirical Phenomenology
How well the findings of an experiment generalize or apply to people and settings that were not tested directly
External validity
A nonexperimental research method used in the field or in a real-life setting, typically employing a variety of techniques, including naturalistic observation and unobtrusive measures or survey tools, such as questionnaires and interviews
Field study
A nonexperimental method of gathering data by attending to and describing one’s own immediate experience
Phenomenology
Research that relies on words rather than numbers for the data being collected; it focuses on self-reports, personal narrative, and expression of ideas, memories, feelings, and thoughts
Qualitative Research
A type of group interview; it is an organized discussion session with a small group of people, usually led by a trained facilitator
Focus group
The certainty that the changes in behavior observed across treatment conditions were actually caused by differences in treatments
Internal Validity
A descriptive, nonexperimental method of observing behaviors as they occur spontaneously in natural settings
Naturalistic observation
The set of attitudes, values, beliefs, methods, and procedures that are generally accepted within a particular discipline at a certain point in time
Paradigm
A special kind of field observation in which the researcher actually becomes part of the group being studied
Participant-observer study
The tendency of subjects to alter their behavior or responses when they are aware of the presence of an observer
Reactivity
Data collected in the present based on recollections of past events; apt to be inaccurate because of faulty memory, bias, mood, and situation
Retrospective data
A system for recording observations; each observation is recorded using specific rules or guidelines, so observations are more objective
Systematic observation
A procedure used to assess subjects’ behavior without their knowledge; used to obtain more objective data
Unobtrusive measure
A useful way of obtaining information about people’s opinion, attitudes, preferences and behaviors simply by asking
Survey research
Involves conducting survey research over a continuum of time and spread across years and decades
Longitudinal survey research
Researchers conduct a ________ to collect insights from a target audience at a particular time interval
Cross-sectional survey research
A system of quantifying open ended questions
Similar to coding behaviors using systematic observational techniques
Content Analysis
Levels of Measurement
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio
Classifies response items into two or more distinct categories on the basis of some common feature
Nominal scale
Is a rank ordering of response items
Ordinal scale
Measure magnitude or quatitative size using measures with equal intervals between values. However it has no true zero point
Interval scale
It has an equal intervals between all values and true zero point
Ratio scale
Are tendencies to respond to questions or test items in specific ways, regardless of the content
Response styles
Response Acquiscence
Yea saying
Response Deviation
Nay saying
Method of selection
Decision and selection of subjects who will participate in the study
Sampling
Consist of all people, animals or subjects or objects that have at least one, characteristic in common
Population
A group that is a subset of population of interest
Sample of Subjects
Involves selecting subjects in a way that the odds of their being in the study are known or can be calculated
Probability Sampling
Unbiased methods of choosing
Random Sampling
Kinds of Probability Sampling
Simple random
Systematic random
Stratified
Cluster
Kinds of Nonprobability Sampling
Quota
Convenience
Purposive
Snowball
____ is represented by scatterplot/scattergram
Correlation
Correlation does not imply ____
Causation
Innate aggressiveness results in more exposure to TV violence but at the same time, the more exposure a person has, the more aggressive he or she becomes. This is known as ____
Bidirectional causation
Some third agent may actually be causing two behaviors to appear to be related
Third variable problem
Denotes by r squared (r^2)
Estimates the amount of variability in scores on one variable that can be explained by the other variable
An estimate of the strength of relationship between them
Coefficient of Determination
According to Cohen r^2 which is greater than or equal to ___ can be considered as strong association
0.25
A measured behavior can be predicted by a number of other measured behaviors rather than a single predictor
Multiple Correlation
Use to predict the score on one behavior from scores on the others
Multiple Regression
A correlation based research method that can be used when subjects are measured on several related behaviors
Path Analysis
Uses relationship measured over time to suggest the causal path
Subjects are measured at two separate points in time on the same pair of related behavior or characteristics
Cross-Lagged Panel Design
Use to predict scores on one variable from scores on a correlated variable
Linear Regression Analysis
Use to explore the effects of different treatments on preexisting group of subjects or to investigate the same kind of naturally occurring events, characteristics and behaviors that we measure in correlational studies
Quasi-Experimental
Researcher systematically examines the effects of subject characteristics but without actually manipulating them
Ex Post Facto Studies
Compares the effects of different treatment conditions on preexisting group of participants
Nonequivalent Design
Measuring behavior of the same subjects at different point in time
Longitudinal Design
Just like longitudinal design but instead of tracking the same group over a long period of time, subjects who are already at different stages are compared at a single point in time
Cross-sectional studies
Measuring peoples’ behavior before and after the event and compared these levels
Pretest/ Post test
An educated guess
It is more than speculation, a guess or a hunch
Hypothesis
Hypothesis that can be either true or false
Synthetic Statements
Hypothesis must always be subject to disapproval
Falsifiable Statements
Hypothesis must always be written as simple as possible
Parsimonious Statements
Hypothesis must lead to formulation of new studies
Fruitful Statements
The process of reasoning from specific cases to more general principles
Inductive Model
The process of reasoning from general principles to predictions about specific instances
Deductive Model
Using findings of previously made research as basis of your hypothesis
Prior research
The knack of findings things that are not being sought
Serendipity
