PSY 102 Research Methods in Psychology Chapter 2

Question 1

what is parsimony

Answer 1

identifying the simplest and most accurate explanation for brain processes and human behaviors.

Question 2

what is falsifiability

Answer 2

falsifiability is the ability to test a theory where the results could be consistent or inconsistent with the hypothesis

Question 3

why is falsifiability important in science

Answer 3

because without the capacity to test hypothesis you can never know if it is right or wrong

Question 4

explain how new ideas in science are generally connected to old ideas

Answer 4

it is common to test a hypothesis that has been suggested previously. New research builds on existing research, replicating it and extending it

Question 5

why must new ideas be supported by converging evidence

Answer 5

scientists look for converging evidence, from replications using the same method and studies using different methods that support the same hypothesis

Question 6

what is an “operational definition”

Answer 6

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example anxiety would be measured as # of times withdrawn from situation

Question 7

how do you generate your own operational definition

Answer 7

1. observation
2. self-report (survey)
3. standardized testing

Question 8

what are the pros of observing behaviour

Answer 8

the researchers are able to observe themselves

Question 9

what are some cons of observing behaviour

Answer 9

reactivity- when an individuals behaviour changes, as a reaction to being observed

Question 10

what is external validity

Answer 10

how representative of ‘real life’ your observations are.

are the findings unique to the participants we studied or could they apply to other groups?

Question 11

what is internal validity

Answer 11

the extent to which we can be sure that our manipulation of the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable in an experiment

Question 12

pros of survey data

Answer 12

useful way of gathering a lot of data, easy to anonymize, reducing the chance of reactivity

Question 13

cons of survey data

Answer 13

rely on self-support, may not answer correctly (memory is not perfect),
subjective judgement (answers based on the opinions of other people)

recall bias

Question 14

pros of standardized testing

Answer 14

easy to compare different people, work has showed test are reliable

Question 15

cons of standardized testing

Answer 15

expensive, time-consuming to construct. do not exist for every concept we be interested in. their validity is often debated

Question 16

what is an IQ test/ Wechsler adult intelligence scale (WAIS)

Answer 16

contains a large amount of questions that progressively get harder and ends once too many questions are answered incorrectly

Question 17

what is an achievement test

Answer 17

assess the current level of knowledge of competence in a particular subject (reading, writing, mathematical)

Question 18

what is aptitude tests

Answer 18

measures a person’s potential for success in a given profession or subject or study

Question 19

what is a neuropsychological tests

Answer 19

assess the effect of various kinds of brain damage on cognitive performance

Question 20

define what a correlation is and when a study is correlational

Answer 20

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

Question 21

describe the key issues regarding generalizing the results of an experiment

Answer 21

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

Question 22

what is a confounding variable

Answer 22

something that you may know or not know about that may influence or affect the results that is possibility related to both variables

Question 23

what is expectations

Answer 23

the strong belief that something will happen or be the case

Question 24

what are biases

Answer 24

the tendency to make decisions or take action in an unknowingly irrational way

Question 25

discuss how correlations can be used to help us predict things

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

explain what an r value tells us

Answer 26

Perfect positive correlation= r of one
Perfect negative correlation= r of negative one

No correlation between two variables = r of zero

Question 27

explain why correlations cannot be used to explain things ( why correlation is Not causation)

Answer 27

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.

Question 28

what is the direction-of-causality problem

Answer 28

an issue of not knowing which factor causes the other

Question 29

what is the third variable problem

Answer 29

when there a unknown variable that could be the cause of the outcome

Question 30

what is an independent variable

Answer 30

what is changed or different between the two or however many groups

Question 31

what is a dependent variable

Answer 31

the result or the outcome what is being measured