Module 2 Methods Flashcards
A medical procedure to remove or otherwise destroy tissue
Ablation
the tendency for participants to agree or respond “yes” to all questions regardless of their actual opinions
Acquiescent response bias
A person’s affirmative permission to take part in a research study. In cases of decisional impairment, assent must be obtained in addition to informed consent
assent
A concept of research ethics whereby researchers strive to do ‘good’ in a research study
Beneficence
An unfair or unequal representation of a person or thing
Bias
An in-depth analysis of a unique circumstance or individual
Case study
A person who is acting as a participant, but in reality, is another researcher
Confederate
Other variables that may influence one or both variables that we are measuring, thereby influencing the correlation coefficient
Confounding variable
A measure (denoted as r) that captures the direction and strength of a relationship between variables
Correlation
A numerical representation of the strength of the relationship between variables (denoted as r)
Correlation coefficient
Facts or information collected, examined, and considered for decision-making processes
Data
Information provided to participants about what the researcher was investigating and how their participation will contribute to the research question
Debriefing
The act of withholding information about the purpose and procedures of the study during the informed consent process
Deception
Instances that diminish a potential participant’s capacity to provide informed consent
Decisional impairment
Any means to capture, record, or otherwise, describe a group. These methods are concerned with identifying ‘what is’ rather than ‘why it is.’
descriptive methods
The extent to which research findings in the lab can be generalized to the real world
Ecological validity
The combination of inclusion and exclusion criteria to create a set of characteristics shared by all participants that ensure that those participating will meaningfully help to address the research question.
Eligibility criteria
A part of the cerebral cortex found on the ventral part of the temporal lobes and known to play a role in behavior and memory
Entorhinal cortex
Memories whose contents pertain to specific events (“episodes”)
Episodic memory
An attribute of a person that would prevent them from participating research study
Exclusion criteria
The ethical principle of developing trusting relationships between researchers and participants
Fidelity
An experiment that takes place in ‘real-world’ settings in which a researcher manipulates and controls the conditions of the behavior under observation
field experiments
A part of the cerebral cortex known to play a role in the transference of certain types of memories into long-term memory stores
Hippocampus
Educated prediction about the outcome of an experiment
Hypothesis
The tendency to describe our own behavior as better than average
illusory superiority
An attribute of participants that is necessary to be a part of a research study
Inclusion criterion
The process by which research participants learn about and understand the purpose, benefits, and potential risks of participating in a research study
Informed consent
A committee of independent people who review and assess whether a research project will be carried out in a way that is consistent with general ethical principles
Institutional review board (IRB)
An ethical principle that psychologists should engage in accurate, honest, and non-biased practices in the science, teaching, and practice of psychology
Integrity
An ethical principle in research whereby those people who participate in the research process should also be the same people who stand to benefit from the research outcomes
Justice
A straight line on a scatterplot showing the general relationship of data points
Line of best fit
The act of doing harm
Maleficence
Observation of behavior as it happens, without an attempt to manipulate or control the subjects’ natural environment
Naturalistic observation
Variables that change in the opposite direction. An increase in one variable leads to a decrease in the other
Negative correlation
A research method in which a researcher becomes part of the group under investigation
Participant observation
All members of a group
population
When variables change in the same direction; as one variable increases, the other variable increases, or as one variable decreases, the other variable decreases
Positive correlation
Memories whose contents pertain to how something is done, such as the motor skills involved in walking and riding a bicycle
Procedural memories
The belief or theory that reason is the key source of knowledge
Rationalism
A term referring to a ‘do-over’ of a study using the same methods, but different subjects and investigators
Replication
A set of principles or standards of behavior for psychologists to follow in research
Research ethics
The tendency for people to answer the question the way they feel they are expected to answer or in systematic ways that are otherwise inaccurate
Response bias
A subset (or portion) of a population
Sample
A sample that deviates from a true representation of a population
Sampling error
A type of graph that has one variable on the x-axis (the horizontal axis) and the other variable on the y-axis (the vertical axis) and provides a visual representation of relationships between variables
Scatterplot
A six-step method of acquiring knowledge and methodologically answering questions
Scientific method
Rational explanations to describe and predict future behavior
Scientific theories
Memories whose contents relate to specific facts and pieces of meaningful information not based on personal experience
Semantic memories
When the freedom of ‘choice’ to participate in research is compromised as a result of undue influence from another source
Situational vulnerability
Participants respond to questions in ways that would be seen as acceptable by others
Socially desirable bias
A method using questions to collect information on how people think or act
Survey
Any group of individuals who may not be able to provide free and informed consent to participate in research
Vulnerable populations
A bias whereby only a motivated fraction of a population responds to a survey or participate in research
Volunteer bias
The influence of language, or wording, on people’s responses to survey questions
Wording effects
Two variables that exhibit no apparent relationship
Zero correlation
