Research Methods Flashcards
Why does research design matter?
Helps eliminate bias and avoids subjective impressions
Used for severe mental disorders, what is the disproven method of cutting fibres connecting the frontal lobe and the thalamus of the brain?
Prefrontal lobotomy
What is a representative heuristic?
An assumption of homogeneity, or that all members of a category are the same, e.g., stereotyping
What is a base rate?
How common a characteristic or behaviour is in the general population
What is the availability heuristic?
An assumption used to judge the frequency of events, based on how easily an example comes to mind
What is hindsight bias?
Turning vague statements into solid predictions after the fact, e.g. “I knew it all along”
What do we call the tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions?
Overconfidence bias
How can we avoid biases and heuristics?
Testing specific hypotheses derived from broader theories
What are the 4 major kinds of research done in psychology?
- Naturalistic observation
- Case studies
- Self report measures and surveys
- Correlational and experimental designs
How are naturalistic observations conducted?
Watching behaviour in real-world settings
What is the difference between external validity and internal validity?
External - the extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings
Internal - the extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study
What kind of study has high external validity but low internal validity?
Naturalistic observations
What do case studies study?
One or several people for an extended period of time, usually used for rare brain damage or mental illness
What kind of study is great for existence proofs, but can be misleading or anecdotal?
Case studies
What do self-report measures assess?
Characteristics such as personality or mental illness by asking for opinions or abilities
In order for self-report measures to be accurate, what must be done to follow protocol?
Random selection, validity, and reliability
What is the difference between reliability and validity?
Reliability - consistency of measurement
Validity - extend to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure
What are two types of reliability?
- Test-retest - similar scores over time
- Interrater - two raters should produce similar scores
What is the halo effect?
Tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to spill over and influence the ratings of other characteristics
What does a correlational design examine?
The extent to which two variables are associated
Causation can only be determined by what type of design?
Experimental design
How do participants in experiments need to be arranged?
Randomly into an experimental group that receives manipulation and a control group that does not
In experimental designs, what are confounds?
Differences between the experimental and control groups other than the independent variable
What is the placebo effect and what is the nocebo effect?
Placebo - improvement due to the expectation of improvement
Nocebo - harm resulting from the expectation of harm
Because of the placebo and nocebo effects, participants must be _____ .
Blind
What are demand characteristics and how can they be avoided?
Cues that participants pick up allowing them to guess the researchers’ hypothesis, can be avoided by disguising the study’s purpose
What is the experimenter expectancy effect?
Researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome, can be avoided by using double blind design
What was the name of the horrific, unethical study that evaluated men diagnosed with syphilis and never given treatment?
Tuskegee Study
What are the 3 required steps researchers must take when following the Research Ethics Board (REB)’s guidelines for experiements?
- Informed consent
- Justification of deception
- Debriefing of participants afterwards
About what % of research in psychology uses animals?
7-8%
What is the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics?
Descriptive - numerical characteristics of the nature of the data
Inferential - mathematical methods so we can generalize findings from our sample to the population
What do we call a group that tends to cluster on a graph?
Central tendency
Within 1 standard deviation, how much data fits inside? 2 SDs? 3 SDs?
1 SD - 68%
2 SD - 95%
3 SD - 99.7%
What is variability/dispersion?
How loosely or tightly bunched the scores are
What is standard deviation?
Accounts for how far each data point is from the mean
Which is less susceptible to extreme scores - ranges or standard deviations?
Standard deviations
What is a statistically significant finding?
A finding that would have occurred by chance less than 5% of the time
What is practical significance?
Real-world importance, not necessarily the result of something statistically significant
What is peer review?
A process used to help identify and correct flaws in research and its conclusions
