Research Design, Statistics, Tests, and Measurements Flashcards
tentative and testable explanation of the relationship between two or more variables
Hypothesis
characteristic or property that varies in amount or kind, and can be measured
Variable
state how the researcher will measure the variables
Operational definitions
Independent variable
variable whose effect is being studied and the variable that the experimenter manipulates
Dependent variable
the response that is expected to vary with differences in the independent variable
Correlational study
IV is not manipulated
Naturalistic observation
researcher does not intervene; measures behavior as it naturally occurs
Quasi-experiment
IV manipulated but subjects not randomly assigned to groups
True experiment
IV manipulated and subjects randomly assigned to groups
the group to which the researcher wishes to generalize their results
Population
subset of the population
Sample
Random selection
each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for the sample
Stratified random sampling
each subgroup of the population is randomly sampled in proportion to its size
Representative sample
the sample matches as many characteristics as possible of the population as a whole
each subject is exposed to only one level of each independent variable
Between-sample design
match subjects on the basis of the variable that they want to control
Matched-subjects design
using the same subjects in both groups
Within-subjects (repeated-measures) design
all subjects will experience both levels, just in different orders
Counterbalancing
Confounding variables
unintended independent variables that could differently affect the dependent variable
treating both groups equally in all respects except for one variable
Control group design
control group is not necessarily similar to the experimental group since the researcher doesn’t use random assignment
Nonequivalent-group design
due to their expectations, the experimenter might inadvertently treat groups of subjects differently
Experimenter bias
neither the researcher who interacts with the subjects nor the subjects themselves know which groups received the IV or which level of the IV
Double-blinding
Demand characteristics
any cues that suggest to subjects what the researcher expects from them
Hawthorne effect
tendency of people to behave differently if they know that they are being observed
External validity
how generalizable the results are
Descriptive Statistics
Organizing, describing, quantifying, and summarizing a collection of actual observations
Frequency Distributions
Graphic representation of how often each value occurs
value of the most frequent observation in a set of scores
Mode
two values are tied for being the most frequently occurring observation
Bimodal
middle value when observations are ordered from least to greatest, or from greatest to least
Median
arithmetic average
Mean