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Psychology 1B > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the 3 main goals of the scientific approach?

A
  1. Describe behaviour and mental processes
  2. Make accurate predictions about these processes
  3. Understand how and why these processes occur
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2
Q

What are the 5 steps of the scientific method?

A
  1. Identify question of interest
  2. Hypothesise
  3. Test hypothesis through research
  4. Analyse data, draw tentative conclusions, and report findings
  5. Build a body of knowledge, ask further questions, conduct more research, and test theories
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3
Q

What are the 4 characteristics of a good theory?

A
  1. Organises information
  2. Testable: generates new hypothesis
  3. Supported by new research
  4. Simple is better
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4
Q

What term is used to describe a system of statements that explain observations?

A

Theory

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5
Q

What are the 4 attributes of empirical research?

A
  1. Theoretical framework
  2. Standardised procedure
  3. Generalisability
  4. Objective measurement
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6
Q

Any phenomenon that can take on more than one value is called a…

A

Variable

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7
Q

What is the difference between a continuous variable and categorical variable?

A

Continuous: has a continuum of possible values and varies across this
Categorical: can only take on fixed values

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8
Q

What are the 6 ways to define and measure variables?

A
  1. Self-report measures
  2. Reports made by others
  3. Measurement of overt behaviours
  4. Archival methods
  5. Psychological tests
  6. Physiological measures
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9
Q

What are the 3 types of reliability in research?

A
  1. Test-retest reliability
  2. Internal consistency: different items that measure the same variable should produce similar answers
  3. Inter-rater reliability: two testers who rate the same person on the same variable should give similar ratings
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10
Q

What are the 2 types of sampling?

A
  1. Random: every member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen
  2. Stratified random sampling: population is divided into sub-groups - participants chosen to correspond with population percentages
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11
Q

What are the 3 types of mixed-method research?

A

Descriptive, correlational, and experimental

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12
Q

The … variable is manipulated by the experimenter, and the … variable is measured by the experimenter.

A

Independent
Dependent

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13
Q

What does the between-group design measure?

A

The differences on a given variable between groups.

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14
Q

The group that receives a zero level of the independent variable is called…

A

Control group

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15
Q

Which experiment design exposes every participant to each variation of a given variable?

A

Within-group design

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16
Q

When two variables are interconnected, we cannot determine which one has influenced a dependent variable. This is called…

A

Confounding variables

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17
Q

What are the 3 main threats to internal validity?

A
  1. Confounding variables
  2. Placebo effect
  3. Experimenter expectancy effect
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18
Q

Case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys are methods of which type of research?

A

Descriptive research

19
Q

What are the 3 main limitations of case studies?

A
  1. Cannot determine cause-effect relationship
  2. Difficult to generalise due to small sample
  3. Researcher bias
20
Q

What are the 2 main limitations of naturalistic observation?

A
  1. Cannot establish causal relationship
  2. Observation can alter behaviour
21
Q

What are the 4 main limitations of survey research?

A
  1. Unrepresentative samples produce distorted results
  2. Cannot indicate causation
  3. Social desirability bias
  4. Wording of questions
22
Q

What does the correlational coefficient indicate?

A

The direction and strength of the relation ship between two variables. (r) value ranges from -1 to 1.

23
Q

In correlational coefficients, what does 1, 0, and -1 mean?

A

1 is a perfect positive relationship: as one thing increases, the other also increases
0 is no relationship: changes in one thing don’t affect the other
-1 is a perfect negative relationship: as one thing increases, the other decreases

24
Q

Which research method shows the correlation between two variables, including the direction and strength of relationship?

A

Scatterplot

25
Q

Which is stronger: r = -.7 OR r =.3?

A

r = -.7 is stronger

26
Q

What are the 4 main advantages of correlational research?

A
  1. Generalisation
  2. Generate ideas for further lab study
  3. Study variables that are not practical or ethical in the lab
  4. Allows researchers to make predictions
27
Q

What are the 5 different methods in quantitative research?

A
  1. Experimental
  2. Descriptive case study
  3. Naturalistic observation
  4. Survey research
  5. Correlational
28
Q

What is a frequency distribution in descriptive statistics?

A

A method of organising data to show how often participants received each of the possible scores.

29
Q

What is the most common example of frequency distribution?

A

Histogram: a chart that plots the distribution of a numeric variable’s values as a series of bars.

30
Q

What are the 3 measures of central tendency?

A

Mode: most frequently occurring score
Median: middle value in a set of numbers when arranged in order
Mean: arithmetic average/central point of a data set

31
Q

What are the 2 measures of variability?

A
  1. Range
  2. Standard deviation
32
Q

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is measured by…

A

Range

33
Q

How much each score in a distribution differs from the mean is measured by…

A

Standard deviation

34
Q

Bell shaped frequency distribution occurs when…

A

Scores of most participants fall in the middle and progressively fewer scores fall at the extreme.

35
Q

What does p-value mean?

A

The probability of there not being a difference.

36
Q

What does a low p-value (≤ 0.05) indicate about your results?

A

A low p-value suggests that your results are unlikely to happen by chance, meaning your findings are statistically significant.

37
Q

When a low p-value appears, you should…

A

Reject the idea that there is no effect (null hypothesis)

38
Q

When a high p-value appears, you should…

A

Keep the idea that there is no effect (null hypothesis)

39
Q

What does a high p-value (> 0.05) indicate about your results?

A

Your results could easily happen by chance, meaning your findings are not statistically significant.

40
Q

What is the Cohen’s d?

A

A measure used in statistics to indicate the size of the difference between two groups.

41
Q

What does a Cohen’s d value of 0.2 indicate?

A

Small effect

42
Q

What does a Cohen’s d value of 0.5 indicate?

A

Medium effect

43
Q

What does a Cohen’s d value of 0.8 indicate?

A

Large effect

44
Q

The statistical procedure for combining the results of different studies that examine the same topic is called…

A

Meta analysis

Psychology 1B (8 decks)

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