research methods Flashcards
what is an operational definition?
a clear and specific description of how a variable will be measured, observed, or manipulated in a research study (ex: measuring someone’s fear through heart bpm or the number of times they have a fearful reaction)
what is random sampling?
everyone in the population has an equal chance of being in the sample. selecting people at random to participate (for example: using a random number generator on a computer to pick who will be in the sample group, getting a list of people in the population and picking names out of a hat)
what are positive and negative correlations?
in a positive correlation, variables change in the same direction. in a negative correlation, variables change in opposite directions.
does correlation indicate causation?
correlation does not cause causation. there could be a third variable which is causing the other two variables. a could cause b, b could cause a, c could cause a and b
what is random assignment?
method used to place participants into experimental condition in which participants have an equal chance of being in every condition (randomly being put into control group or treatment group)
what are IVs and DVs?
independent variable (IV) - manipulated by experimenter
dependent variable (DV) - outcome variable
(ex: the effects of studying on test scores
iv is studying dv is the test results)
what is experimental control?
researcher makes sure that no other factors are changing and thus could affect the DV
what is a confound (confounding variable)?
variable that is potentially responsible for the results, but is not the variable of interest (the IV) (ex: the treatment group sitting in a comfortable chair during the experiment vs not)
what is generalizability?
the measure of how useful the results of a study are for a larger group of people or situations (important cause the conclusions drawn from the research study should be able to be applied from the sample population to the general population at large)
what is a case study?
an in-depth analysis of one subject or small group over a long duration of time
what’s a survey?
asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions and recording their answers
what’s the observational method?
describing and measuring people’s and/or animals’ behavior systematically (ex: observing parents dropping off kids at daycare) non biased/not affected
what’s the correlational method?
examines strength and direction of relationship between two variables or more (ex: sat score correlates to the first college semester gpa)
what’s the experimental method?
manipulating one factor in a situation to determine its effect on another variable (is a specific type of study. not just a study yknow)
