Module 2 (Chapter 2) Flashcards
Scientific Research
A crictal tool to understand this complex world - Science is an approach to asking and answering questions
Intuition
Gut-instincts, relying on your emotions and instincts
Authority
accepting new ideas because an authority figure (parent;teacher…) said they are true
Hindsight Bias
Finding that something has happened makes it inevitable but related past events can be explained in many creative and contradictory ways
Emiricism
Learning information through observation and expirence; limited to what we can observe and experience, and our senses can deceive us
Skepticism
to inquire and test any ideas (show your evidence)
Facts
obersevable realities
Opinions
personal judgements, conclusions, or attitudes that may or may not be true
Scientific method
empirical method for acquiring knowledge, characterized the advances in science
Deductive Reasoning
ideas are tested against the empirical world (general knowledge to logical conclusion) (living things need energy to live, ducks are living, ducks need energy to live)
Inductive reasoning
empirical observation that leads to new ideas - empirical observation to general knowledge (ducks have gone to my pond in the past, therefore this summer they will go to my pond.)
Theory
well-developed set of ideas, that proposes explanation for phenomena
Hypothesis
A testable prediction about how the world will behave if we are correct (if then statement)
Case Study
focus on one individual over time or a few characters that share a rare condition - no cause-effect - no generalization
Naturalistic Observation
Observing behaviour in it’s natural context - no cause-effect - no generalization - observer bias
Generalizability
A measure of how useful the results of a study are to the broader group of people or situations
Structured observation
people are observed while engaging in specific task
Observer bias
tendency to not observe what is there but what they expect or want to be
Inter-rater reliability
measure of consistency used to evaluate the extent to which different judges agree on their assement desicions
Surveys
A way to collect information from a larger portion of people - a list of questions answered by participants
Archival Research
using past records or data sets to look for interesting patterns or relationships
Longitudinal Research
Monitor how people change over time; data gathering repeatedly over time
Cross-sectional Research
moniter how people change over time - compares multiple segments of the population at the same time
Correlational Research
examines relationship between two variables
Causation
one thing is the reason why something else happens
Confounding Variable
two variables are intertwined in such a way that they can’t be differentiated
Illusory Correlation
perceiving a relationship between variables when there isn’t one
Correlational Coefficient
statistical measure of strength of linear relationship between relationship
Experiemental hypothesis
predicts what changes will take place in the dependant variable when the independent variable is manipulated
Experimental Group
the group that receives the variable/treatment being tested
Control Group
Doesn’t receieve the variable/treatment being tested to add a comparative component
Variables
any factor, trait or condition that can vary
Operational Definition
defines a variable in terms of the specific procedure used to produce/measure it
Experimental design
carrying out research in an objective and controlled fashion; between groups data, and random assignment
Single VS Double-blind
Single - the participants aren’t told of the treatment assignment
Double-Blind - the participants and researchers aren’t told of the treatment assignement
Independant Variable
manipulated or controlled by the expirmenter; difference between experiment and control groups
Dependant Variable
what the researcher measures to see how much independent variable effects it
Population
set of individuals of interest in particular study
Sample
set of individuals from population to represent it in particular study
Random Sampling
Each sample has an equal probability of being chosen, but still random
Random Assignment
Each individual has an equal opportunity to be either group
Statistical Analysis
collecting and analysizing data to see patterns and trends, remove bias and inform decision making
Peer-Review articles
evaluation of work by one or more peers
Reliability
ability to consistently produce given results; any tools/instruments used in consistent way
Validity
how accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure
Research Ethic
guidelines for responsible conducted research
Informed Consent
participant must have suffienct information and understanding of study before deciding to participate
Deception
gives false information/intentionally misleads participants about key aspects of experiment - only if no other options.
Explain how psychological scientific research addresses questions about behaviour and cognitive process
Identify question, gather information and form hypothesis, test, analyze, and build body of knowledge
Describe the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning
Deductive is when you take general knowledge to logically come up with a specific conclusion - general knowledge - logical reasoning - specific conclusion
Inductive is when you take an empirical observation and find a new general idea - specific observation, pattern recognition, the general conclusion
Describe the different research methods used by psychologist and their relative strengths and weaknesses
(Correlational Research) - no cause and effect,
-Survey
-Naturalistic Observation
-Case Studies
-Archival Research
-Longitudinal
-Cross-sectional
-Correlational
-Experiments
Descibe differences between longitudinal and cross-sectional reseaches
Longitudinal - study one or few individuals with rare characteristic over long period of time
Cross-Sectional - Study’s different individuals across the population at the same-time
Explain what a correlation coefficent tells us about the relationship between variables
This measures the strength of the relationship between variables - positive coefficient means that higher scores on one variable are associated with high scores on the other. Negative Coefficent means when one variable has higher score the other has a lower score
scatterplots show the correlation between two variables
Describe difference between population and sample
The population is a large group of individuals that has characteristics a study is interested in
A sample is a smaller representative set of individuals from a population
Explain random sampling and assignment of participants into experimental and control groups
Random sampling is where the population has a porportionaly equality of being chosen to participate and random assignment means the individuals have an equal chance of being put into the experiment or control group
Identify independent and dependant variables
(ex. You are measuring how the amount of sunlight affects the growth of a type of plant)
The independent variable is the variable that is manipulated to affect the dependant variable. The dependant variable is the variable measured. (Ex. Independ = amount of sunlight; dependant = growth)
Define Reliability and Validity
Reliability is the degree the consistency of a measurements results. Validity - the degree to which a test measures what it was designed to measure
Summarize the process of informed consent and debreiving
Informed consent is when a participant is debreived about the what the study consists of, the risks, benefits and possible outcomes prior to consenting. Debreiving is when the researcher and participant have an interview about the study.
