Mod 3 Flashcards
the scientific method is the process of testing our ideas about the world by:
setting up situations that ..
making careful, organized …
analyzing whether the data fit with …
if the data doesn’t fit our ideas, then we … and .. again
test our ideas; observations; our ideas; modify our ideas; test
some research findings revealed by the scientific method: ‘
the brain can recover from massive early childhood …
sleepwalkers are not acting out …
our brains do not have accurate … locked inside like video files.
there is no “.. and … 90 percent” of our brain
people often change their … to fit their …
brain damage; dreams; memories; hidden; unused; opinions; actions
scientific method: tools and goals
the basics:
…, …, … definitions, …
theory; hypothesis; operational; replication
scientific method research goals/types:
…, …, …, …, …
description; correlation; prediction; causation; experiments
a theory in the language of science is a set of …, built on … and other verifiable facts, that explains some phenomenon and predicts its …
principles; observations; future behavior
a hypothesis is a testable … consistent with our …
prediction; theory
“testable” means that the hypothesis is stated in a way that we could make … to find out if it is true
observations
danger when testing hypothesis: theories can ... our observations we might select only the data, or the interpretations of the data, that support what we ... there are safeguards against this: - hypotheses designed to ... - ... definitions
bias; already believe; disconfirm; operational
the next/final step in the scientific method: … research means trying it again using the same .. of the … and …
replicating; operational definitions; concepts; procedures
descriptive research is a …, … observation of people. the goal is to provide a clear, accurate picture of people’s …, …, and …
systematic; objective; behaviors; thoughts; attributes
strategies for descriptive research:
…: observing and gathering information to compile an in-depth study of …
… observation: gathering data about …; watching but not …
… and …: having other people report on their own … and ..
case study; one individual; naturalistic; behavior; intervening; surveys; interviews; attitudes; behavior
case study:
benefit- can be a source of ideas about …
danger- … from one example
human nature in general; overgeneralization
naturalistic observation:
observing natural behavior means … (and …) and not trying to change anything. this method can be used to study more than one individual, and to find truths that apply to a …
just watching; taking notes; broader population
the survey: a method of gathering information about many people’s … or … through … rather than …
keys to getting useful information: be careful about the … of questions
only question … people
thoughts; behaviors; self-report; observation; wording; randomly sampled
surveying:
wording effects-the results you get from a survey can be changed by your
word selection
why take a sample?
sampling saves …
random sampling is a technique for making sure that every individual in a population has an … of being in your sample–> random means that your selection of participants is driven only by …, not by any …
time; equal chance; chance; characteristic
a possible result of many descriptive studies: discovering a …
correlation
correlation
general def: an observation that two traits or observations are … to each other
scientific def: a measure of how closely two factors …, or how well you can predict a change in one from observing a … in the other
related; vary together; change
the correlation coefficient is a number representing the … and … of correlation
strength; direction
the strength of the relationship refers to how close the dots are to …, which means one variable changes … as the other one does; this number varies from … to …
a straight line; exactly; 0,00; +/- 1.00
the direction of the correlation can be … (both variables … together) or … (as one goes up, the other goes …)
positive; increase; negative; down
correlation is not …
causation
so how do we find out about causation? by …
experimentation
experimentation: manipulating one … (…) in a situation to determine its … (…)
factor; independent; effect; dependent
an experiment is a type of research in which the research carefully manipulates a limited number of … (..) and measures the impact on … (..)
factors; IVs; other factors; DVs
in psychology, you would be looking at the effect of the experimental change (IV) on a … or … (DV)
experimental change; behavior; mental process
random sampling is how you get a … of … that represents the population you’re trying to learn about
random assignment of participants to … or … groups is how you control all… except the one you’re manipulating.
first you …, then you … (…)
pool; research participants; control; experimental; variables; sample; sort; assign
placebo effect: experimental effects that are caused by … about the …
expectations; intervention
working with the placebo effect:
control groups may be given a … - an inactive substance or other fake treatment in place of the experimental treatment
the control group is ideally .. to whether they are getting real or fake treatment
placebo; blind
many studies are double-blind: neither … nor … knows which participants are in the experimental or control groups (prevents …)
participants; research staff; placebo effect
if we manipulate a variable in an experimental group of people, and then we see an effect, how do we know the change wouldn’t have happened anyway? we solve this problem by comparing this group to a … group, a group that is the same in every way except the one … we are changing
control; variable
how do we make sure the control group is really identical in every way to the experimental group?
by using …: randomly selecting some study participants to be assigned to the control group or experimental group
random assignment
the variable we are able to manipulate independently of what the other variables are doing is called the …
the variable we expect to experience a change which depends on the manipulation we’re doing is called the …
the other variables that might have an effect on the dependent variable are …
independent variable; dependent variable; confounding variables
ruling out confounding variables: experiment with
random assignment
descriptive research:
basic purpose- to observe and record …
conducted through …, …, or … observations
what is manipulated- …
weaknesses- no control of …; single cases may be …
behavior; case studies; surveys; naturalistic; nothing; variables; misleading
correlational research:
basic purpose- to detect naturally occurring …; to assess how well one variable … another
conducted through computing .. asocation, sometimes among .. responses
what is manipulated- …
weaknesses- does not specify …; one variable … another but this does not mean one … the other
relationships; predicts; statistical; survey; nothing; cause-effect; predicts; causes
experimental research:
basic purpose- to explore …
conducted by manipulating … or more ..; randomly assign some to …
what is manipulated- the …
weaknesses- sometimes not possible for … or … reasons; results may not … to other contexts
cause-effect; one; factors; control group; independent variable(s); practical; ethical; generalize
from data to insight: statistics
we can use statistics, which are tools for …, …, …,a nd … data
organizing; presenting; analyzing; interpreting
the need for statistical reasoning: a first glance at our observations might give a … picture
value of statistics:
1. to present a more … picture of our data than we would see otherwise
2. to help us reach … from our data; statistics are a crucial … tool
misleading; accurate; valid conclusions; critical thinking;
measures of central tendency:
…, …, and …
mode; mean; median
mode: the most … level/number/score
mean (…): the … of the scores, divided by the … of scores
median (… person’s score, or …): the number/level that .. of people scored above and … of them below
common; arithmetic average; sum; number; middle; 50th percentile; half; half
