PSYC week 2

Question 1

Define the basic elements of a statistical investigation.

Answer 1

1. Planning the study: ask testable questions and pick a way to collect data (quant or qual)
2. Examining data: appropriate ways to examine data, is the data reliability and validity
3. Inferring from the data: valid statistical methods for drawing inferences “beyond” the data you collected?
4. Drawing conclusions: does your conclusions apply to cause-and-effect

Question 2

Describe the role of p-values and confidence intervals in statistical inference.

Answer 2

A
The p-values are to determine the probability of obsession in a sample

the confidence interval is an inferential statistic - not a descriptive statistic. As such it should only be used if certain assumptions (random sampling and normal distribution) are met.

Question 3

Describe the role of random sampling in generalizing conclusions from a sample to a population.

Answer 3

Random sampling is a way to represent a population on equal terms so anyone has a chance to be picked.

It is being able to take a small group’s information and apply it on a bigger scale of the population.

Question 4

Describe the role of random assignment in drawing cause-and-effect conclusions.

Answer 4

Random assignment is a probability method to divide samples into treatment groups.

random assignment tends to balance out all the variables related to creativity we can think of, and even those we don’t think of in advance, between the two groups.

Everything is equal and fair (both me and women are split equally in two sides both having the same numbers of genders

Question 5

Critique statistical studies.

Answer 5

Whereas a statistical analysis can still “adjust” for other potential confounding variables, we are not yet convinced that researchers have identified them all or completely isolated why this decrease in death risk is evident

Question 6

Articulate the difference between correlational and experimental designs.

Answer 6

In an experimental design, you manipulate an independent variable and measure its effect on a dependent variable.

Other variables are controlled so they can’t impact the results.

In a correlational design, you measure variables without manipulating any of them.

Question 7

Understand how to interpret correlations.

Answer 7

Positive correlation = two variables going up and down together

Negative correlation =one of the two variables moving in opposite directions

A strong correlation the two variables
always, or almost always, go together.

Correlation does not mean causation

Question 8

Understand how experiments help us to infer causality.

Answer 8

they let you control your conditions

Question 9

Explain what a longitudinal study is.

Answer 9

It’s a study that tracks people over a period of time, which could be days, weeks, years, or decades.

It provides valid info for theories but takes a long time.

Question 10

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 10

looking at the experience as a whole, believe you processed it simultaneously (not bit by bit) so you shouldn’t break it down

Question 11

Probability value (p-value)

Answer 11

probability that results occurred by chance and are not correlated

Question 12

Objective

Answer 12

unbiased, fact

Question 13

Subjective

Answer 13

biased, opinionated

Question 14

List a strength and weaknesses of different research designs

Answer 14

Ablt to get validity and reality on your theories
The amount of time it takes and how ethics comes into play.

Question 15

Compare the strengths and limitations of “real-world” research and laboratory research

Answer 15

“Real-world” research- harder to establish causality, but more ecological validity because you found reflects real life and not a lab setting.
Laboratory research- easier to establish causality, but less ecological validity. What you find reflects lab settings, but sometimes not the real world.

Question 16

Summarize some of the studies about daily experience (virtual and in-person), behavior (virtual and in-person), and physiology that are described in the reading assignment.

Answer 16

Tracking positive and negative experiences before a respiratory infection, and they found that negative experiences peaked 4 days before the cold showed symptoms.
Tracking using smartphones showed that people are happier when they are focused on a task.
Using EAR, they studied how talkative people are. And found that although Americans rate themselves on average more talkative then Mexicans rate themselves, Mexicans on average talk more than Americans every day.
Using EAR, they found that men and women are not significantly more talkative than each other.
Using Ambulatory assessment to show that people respond more intensely to real life stress than to laboratory created stress.
Using Ambulatory assessment to show that emotions can negatively impact the hearts of those with heart conditions.
Looking at blog posts, and figuring out that people changed how they talked in the 2 weeks after 9/11, but that after 2 weeks went by, people began talking the same as they did before it occurred.
Looking at blog posts, and seeing that people were very engaged in the conversation surrounding 9/11 for the 2 weeks after it occurred, but by 6 weeks after, they were not engaged.
Showing that people who have an “I voted” sticker on Facebook actually influenced their friends to vote.

Question 17

Explain ways in which daily life research can further psychological science.

Answer 17

That way, researchers get a snapshot of what was going on in participants’ lives at the time at which they were asked to report.

Question 18

Understand how to interpret correlations.

Answer 18

A positive correlation is if they both go up or down together, the absolute value will be a bigger number the stronger it is
A negative correlation is when they go in the opposite direction

Question 19

Confounds

Answer 19

Factors that undermine the ability to draw causal inferences from an experiment.
“a third variable that was taken into account”

Question 20

Random sampling

Answer 20

randomly select people from the population

Question 21

Random assignment

Answer 21

Assigning participants to receive different conditions of an experiment by chance.

Question 22

Dependent variable

Answer 22

The variable the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiment.

Question 23

Independent variable

Answer 23

The variable the researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment.

Question 24

List the characteristics of experimental (i.e., true experimental and quasi-experimental) and correlational/non-experimental (i.e., surveys, interviews, focus groups, qualitative) designs, and then compare the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Answer 24

Experimental- researchers actively make changes in one variable and see how it affects a second variable. Allows researchers to make causal inferences, but takes more planning than observational studies. Can have multiple independent variables.
Quasi-experiment- for some reason in the experiment you can’t do random assignment (ex. you want to study depression in middle schoolers and high schoolers, you can’t assign groups), so experimenter has less control over independent variable

Correlational/Observational- researches measure variables as they naturally occur in people, and compute the degree to which the variables go together. Easier to perform, and take less planning than experiments, but do not lead to causal inferences. Cannot experiment on more than 1 variable.

Question 25

Daily Diary method

Answer 25

A methodology where participants complete a questionnaire about their thoughts, feelings, and behavior of the day at the end of the day.

Question 26

Day reconstruction method (DRM)

Answer 26

A methodology where participants describe their experiences and behavior of a given day retrospectively upon a systematic reconstruction on the following daily

Question 27

Generalizability (or generalize)

Answer 27

A
Generalizing, in science, refers to the ability to arrive at broad conclusions based on a smaller sample of observations. For these conclusions to be true the sample should accurately represent the larger population from which it is drawn.

Question 28

Ecological validity

Answer 28

The degree to which a study finding has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life.

Question 29

Electronically activated recorder, or EAR

Answer 29

A methodology where participants wear a small, portable audio recorder that intermittently records snippets of ambient sounds around them.

Question 30

Full-cycle psychology

Answer 30

A scientific approach whereby researchers start with an observational field study to identify an effect in the real world, follow up with laboratory experimentation to verify the effect and isolate the causal mechanisms, and return to field research to corroborate their experimental findings.

Question 31

Internal validity

Answer 31

The degree to which a cause-effect relationship between two variables has been unambiguously established.

Question 32

White coat hypertension

Answer 32

A phenomenon in which patients exhibit elevated blood pressure in the hospital or doctor’s office but not in their everyday lives.

Question 33

Explain how methods, such as momentary self-reports, electronically activated radar (EAR), day reconstruction method (DRM), daily diary method, and ambulatory assessment, are used to collect data from study participants in their normal environments, and list the distinguishing features of each method .

Answer 33

Momentary self-reports- People have to frequently reply to questionnaires on a set schedule throughout their daily lives. Gathers lots of information, but intrusive, and you can’t be sure people filled them out on time.
EAR is when participants wear a small recording device that intermittently records sounds throughout their day.
DRM is when the participants describe their day retrospectively.
Daily diary method is when participants answer a questionnaire about their thoughts and feelings at the end of the day.

Question 34

Linguistic inquiry and word count

Answer 34

A quantitative text analysis methodology that automatically extracts grammatical and psychological information from a text by counting word frequencies.

Question 35

Describe why a participant’s self-reported data sometimes differs from what researchers observe.

Answer 35

Because sometimes people can’t or don’t want to accurately report stuff about themselves, sometimes can be subconsciously

Question 36

Explain the process for testing the scientific validity of a claim. Include the following terms in your description: correlation, null-hypothesis significance testing, null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, p-value, and type I and type II errors.

Answer 36

To study a claim, we must look at the correlation between the variables in the claim. You use null-hypothesis significance testing. First, get a null hypothesis, and its connected alternative hypothesis. Then, gather all data, and get a p-value, and make a claim based upon the size of your p-value. If you have a false positive, you have made a type 1 error. If you have a false negative, you have made a type 2 error.

Question 37

Explain why falsifiability is so important in scientific study.

Answer 37

For many sciences, the idea of falsifiability is a useful tool for generating theories that are testable and realistic. Testability is a crucial starting point around which to design solid experiments that have a chance of telling us something useful about the phenomena in question.

Question 38

Explain Karl Popper’s great contribution to science.

Answer 38

Science can be distinguished from everyday science because it can be falsifiable

Question 39

Compare and contrast the term “theory” when used in scientific and everyday contexts.

Answer 39

everyday contexts- theory is an “educated guess”
scientific contexts- theory is an explanation of observed phenomena that is empirically well-supported

Question 40

Identify some limitations in the study of psychology, and explain why there has been skepticism about psychology as a science

Answer 40

To some degree this doubt stems from the fact that many psychological phenomena such as depression, intelligence, and prejudice do not seem to be directly observable in the same way that we can observe the changes in ocean tides or the speed of light.