Research Design Flashcards
most research relies on what?
correlation or experiments
what do experiments allow researchers to do?
casual inferences
a psychologist can test research questions using?
longitudinal design and quasi-experimental designs
what factors determine the type of method researchers use?
practical constraint
who is Uri Geller?
a guy who convinced hundreds of thousands of people that he could bend spoons and slow watches using only his mind.
In what year did Uri Geller trick people?
1970s
science is the result of what?
systematic and intentional study of the natural world
who conducted an experiment on spending and happiness?
Professor Elizabeth Dunn
according to Professor Elizabeth Dunn’s experiment, happiness depends on what?
how the participants spends their money
who is the independent variable when it comes to an experiment?
the one under the experimenter’s control
after the experiment, who was happier? the one that spends the money on itself or the one who spends it on others?
the one who spends it on others
what is the power of random assignment?
random assignment is when we want to make it fair. Instead of picking people, we randomly assigned them.
what is confounds?
things that undermine your ability to draw causal inferences.
what can occur unintentionally?
placebo effects and participant demand
can experimenter expectations influence the outcome of a study?
yes
what can be done to make sure that the participants and experimenters cant have an influence on the project?
using a double-blind procedure. This is when the participants and the experimenter don’t know which condition the participants are in. Making it less likely to be influenced.
what is participant demand?
when participants are influenced by the researcher’s / experimenters’ expectations.
in correlational research, what pattern do we identify?
relationship pattern
in correlational research how many variables can you examine at a time?
two variables. no more and no less.
what happens when there are two variables with a positive correlation coefficient?
goes up and down together
what does the correlation coefficient provide?
information about the direction and strength of the association between two variables.
what is a negative correlation?
when the two variables move in opposite directions. meaning when one variable goes up, the other goes down.
what is an often phrase said among psychologists?
correlation doesn’t equal causation
what is Participant Observation?
it’s a methodology that involves creating groups in order to study the dynamics.
what are case studies?
is an intensive examination of specific individuals or specific contexts.
who was famous for using case studies?
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis
what is the current example of case studies?
involves brain injuries
what does narrative analysis focus on?
the study of stories and personal accounts of people, groups, or cultures.
what is quasi-experimental design?
it is similar to experimental research, except that random assignment to conditions is not used. We rely on existing groups. example: in an experimental design you randomly assign, while in quasi you will have to use what you have.
what are longitudinal studies?
they track the same people over time. (For example they tracked 20,000 germans for two whole decades) It provides valuable evidence for testing many theories in psychology. they might be quite costly to conduct especially if they follow many people for many years.
what is a survey?
It’s a way of gathering information using an old-fashioned questionnaire or the internet. Surveys can reach a large number of participants at a much lower cost. An experiment can be carried out by surveys as well.
which psychologist examined the smile intensity of women’s college yearbook photos?
LeeAnn Harker and Dacher Keltner
what was the experiment on Smile Intensity of Women’s college yearbook photos about?
that smiling in the photos was correlated with getting married in the next 10 years.
what is resource availability?
is asking ‘how much time and money do you have to invest in the research?’
for exploratory research what methods we should look for?
methods that are cheap and fast
in cases of brain injury or other neurological abnormalities, what will be unethical for researchers to do?
it will be unethical for researchers to inflict impairments on healthy participants.
what type of experiences will be useful in understanding the human mind but pose challenges to a true experimental design?
Experiences of war, long-term isolation, abusive parenting, or long term drug use.
what is a crucial factor in determining an appropriate research design?
ethical considerations
the strengths of scientific findings rely on what?
the strengths of its methodology.
what is a methodology?
a system of methods used in a particular area of study or activity
how to be a savvy consumer of research?
you need to understand the pros and cons of different methods and the distinctions among them.
by understanding how psychologists systematically go about answering research questions will help you in what?
to solve problems in your personal and professional life.
