PSY10005 Research Methods

Question 1

Methods of Acquiring Knowledge

Answer 1

Intuition
Authority
Rationalism - knowledge from reasoning
Empiricism - experience

Question 2

Induction

Answer 2

specific to general reasoning
Obs > Hypothesis > Theory

Question 3

Deduction

Answer 3

general to specific reasoning
theory > hypothesis > obs > confirmation/disconfirmation

Question 4

Role of scientist in psych research

Answer 4

curiosity, patience, objectivity, change

Question 5

Falsification position

Answer 5

confirmation and disconfirmation are equally important (Karl Popper)

Question 6

mediating variable

Answer 6

intervening
occurs between two other variables in a causal chain

Question 7

moderating variable

Answer 7

qualify a causal relationship as dependent on another variable

Question 8

criteria for identifying a causal relationship

Answer 8

1. IV must be related to DV (relationship condition)
2. Changes in Iv must precede changes in DV (temporal order condition)
3. no other plausible explanation must exist for the effect

Question 9

basic vs applied research

Answer 9

basic - designed to advance knowledge and propose/test theory where the audience is the scientific community
applied - designed to offer practical solutions to the real world and address needs of practitioners

Question 10

psychology’s WEIRD problem

Answer 10

Western
Educated
Industrialised (prioritise urban areas)
Rich (poor people often excluded from research)
Democratic

Question 11

research ethics

Answer 11

1. issues related to the relationship between science and society (e.g. gov funding, corporate, conflict of interest)
2. research misconduct (e.g. fabrication, plagiarism, falsification)
3. p-hacking (manipulate data collection to produce a stat sig relationship after data has been collected)
4. treatment of research participants

Question 12

APA Ethical principals of Psychologists and Code of Conduct - 5 general moral principals

Answer 12

1. Beneficence & nonmaleficence
2. fidelity & responsibility
3. Integrity
4. Justice
5. Respect for people’s rights and dignity

Question 13

Ethical considerations

Answer 13

Informed Consent (active & passive)
Deception (active and passive)
Debriefing (dehoaxing & desensitising)
Coercion and freedom
Confidentiality, anonymity & the concept of privacy

Question 14

interval scale

Answer 14

equal distances between adjacent numbers e.g. temp on celsius scale

Question 15

ratio scale

Answer 15

same as interval but has absolute zero point

Question 16

test-retest reliability

Answer 16

consistency of indiv scores over time

Question 17

equivalent-forms reliability

Answer 17

consistency of scores on two versions of test

Question 18

internal consistency reliability

Answer 18

consistency with which items on a test measure a single construct.

Question 19

interrater reliability

Answer 19

degree if agreements between two or more observers e.g. percentage of agreement/disagreement (nominal/ord) or correlation coefficient (interval or ratio)

Question 20

content validity

Answer 20

do items appear to measure construct of interest, assessed by experts

Question 21

internal structure validity

Answer 21

how well to individual items relate to the overall test score or other items on the test

Question 22

factor analysis validity

Answer 22

statistical procedure use to determine the number of dimensions present in a set of items

Question 23

homogeneity validity

Answer 23

two measures:
- item to total correlation
- coefficient alpha

Question 24

criterion-related validity

Answer 24

criterion - standard or benchmark that you want to correlate with or predict accurately
predictive validity - using scores obtained at one time to predict the scores on a criterion at a later time
concurrent validity - degree to which scores obtained at one time correctly relates to the scores on a known criterion obtained at the same time

Question 25

construct validity

Answer 25

convergent validity - extent to which test scores related to other measures of the same construct
discriminant validity - the extent to which your test scores do not related to other test scores measuring different constructs

Question 26

statistic vs paremeter

Answer 26

statistic - sample data
parameter - population data

Question 27

EPSEM

Answer 27

Equal probability method of selection method
each individual element has an equal probability of selection into the sample

Question 28

sampling error

Answer 28

diff b/w value of sample stat and pop paremeter

Question 29

simple random sampling

Answer 29

EPSEM preferably without replacement