PSY 102 Research Methods in Psychology Chapter 2 Flashcards
what is parsimony
identifying the simplest and most accurate explanation for brain processes and human behaviors.
what is falsifiability
falsifiability is the ability to test a theory where the results could be consistent or inconsistent with the hypothesis
why is falsifiability important in science
because without the capacity to test hypothesis you can never know if it is right or wrong
explain how new ideas in science are generally connected to old ideas
it is common to test a hypothesis that has been suggested previously. New research builds on existing research, replicating it and extending it
why must new ideas be supported by converging evidence
scientists look for converging evidence, from replications using the same method and studies using different methods that support the same hypothesis
what is an “operational definition”
a description of something in terms of the operations (procedures, actions, or processes) by which it could be observed and measured
example anxiety would be measured as # of times withdrawn from situation
how do you generate your own operational definition
- observation
- self-report (survey)
- standardized testing
what are the pros of observing behaviour
the researchers are able to observe themselves
what are some cons of observing behaviour
reactivity- when an individuals behaviour changes, as a reaction to being observed
what is external validity
how representative of ‘real life’ your observations are.
are the findings unique to the participants we studied or could they apply to other groups?
what is internal validity
the extent to which we can be sure that our manipulation of the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable in an experiment
pros of survey data
useful way of gathering a lot of data, easy to anonymize, reducing the chance of reactivity
cons of survey data
rely on self-support, may not answer correctly (memory is not perfect), subjective judgement (answers based on the opinions of other people)
recall bias
pros of standardized testing
easy to compare different people, work has showed test are reliable
cons of standardized testing
expensive, time-consuming to construct. do not exist for every concept we be interested in. their validity is often debated
what is an IQ test/ Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS)
contains a large amount of questions that progressively get harder and ends once too many questions are answered incorrectly
what is an achievement test
assess the current level of knowledge of competence in a particular subject (reading, writing, mathematical)
what is aptitude tests
measures a person’s potential for success in a given profession or subject or study
what is a neuropsychological tests
assess the effect of various kinds of brain damage on cognitive performance
define what a correlation is and when a study is correlational
a particular statistical technique that allows us to assess the degree of relationship between any two variables. Tells us if two things that were measured are related
describe the key issues regarding generalizing the results of an experiment
Excluding expectations and setting things up so that only the independent variable differs between the experimental and control groups often requires us to create ‘unusual’ situations which threaten the experiment’s external validity
what is a confounding variable
something that you may know or not know about that may influence or affect the results that is possibility related to both variables
what is expectations
the strong belief that something will happen or be the case
what are biases
the tendency to make decisions or take action in an unknowingly irrational way
discuss how correlations can be used to help us predict things
If all we know about a person is how tall they are, we can predict so some degree how much they weight because the two are correlated. So, the closer the correlation is to 1, the more accurate our prediction will be.
explain what an r value tells us
Perfect positive correlation= r of one
Perfect negative correlation= r of negative one
No correlation between two variables = r of zero
explain why correlations cannot be used to explain things ( why correlation is Not causation)
Correlation can tell you whether or not two variables go together in a predictable way. But thy actually tell you nothing about why those two variables goes together. Statistically related but no whether they are casually related.
what is the direction-of-causality problem
an issue of not knowing which factor causes the other
what is the third variable problem
when there a unknown variable that could be the cause of the outcome
what is an independent variable
what is changed or different between the two or however many groups
what is a dependent variable
the result or the outcome what is being measured
