Research methods Flashcards
What is confirmation bias?
tendency to seek out and believe evidence that supports our pre-existing beliefs
Why is love hard to study?
many things in love are abstract psychological constructs. We can only really measure their operationalizations.
What is measurement validity?
the extent to which an operational definition accurately captures the psychological construct of interest: measure needs to make sense, be well-grounded, and should relate to otehr concepts
What is self-report?
asking participants about what they feel, think, behave, etc
Types of self-report?
-fixed response questionnaire (ex. love scale)
-Qualitative research (ex. content analysis)
-open-ended questions (participant gives any answers that come to mind)
What are pros and cons of self report?
PROS
- inexpensive and easy to administer
- more participants
CONS
- difficulties wirh self-awareness and recall like social deisrability bias
- participants may interpret questions wrong
What is social desirability bias?
we want to be seen in a positive light (less likely to report infidelity or other ‘negative’ behaviours)
What is sentiment override?
global beliefs about the partner/relationship may colour the perception and memory of specific interactions
Behavioural observation
Gather data about relationship events without having to ask people who are experiencing those events directly
What are pros and cons of behavioural observation?
PROS
-directly assess behaviours of interest
-don’t have to rely on faulty memories
- avoid social desirability
CONS
- expensive
time and labour intensive
-reavtivity
Interrater reliability
extent to which coders agree on whether specific behaviour has or has not occurred
What is reactivity?
change in behaviour due to knowing you are being observed
What are indirect measures?
designed to avoid biases for example reaction time
What are implicit attitudes?
the automatic tendency to associate a given stimulus with positive or negative emotions
Explain the newly-wed game study:
Flashed an image of the partner then a neutral slide and then a positive or negative word. The participant then has to indicate if the word was positive or negative. By comparing how quickly one responds to positive vs negative words, we can see if one views his partner generally more or less positively.
- LONGER time = more positive attitude toward partner because he has to switch from a positive to a negative mindset (due to a negative word).
They found that newly weds aren’t good at predicting satisifaction in marriage explicitly but implicit attitudes were more accurate.
Pros and Cons of indirect measures
PROS
- avoid social desirability and reactivity problems
- good for sensitive topics
CONS
- big gap between the construct of interest and operationalization
Physiological measures
body’s reaction to various experiences/stimuli
- autonomic nervous system activity
-hormone changes
-immune system changes
-brain activity
Pros and Cons of physiological responses
PROS
- interesting in their own right
- outside of participants control (not susceptible to bias)
CONS
-very expensive
-ambiguity in interpretation
-could be more invasive
What is archival data?
data collected by others for other purposes
Pros and cons of archival
PROS
- typically economical
-can examine historical trends
CONS
-limited by type and quality of original data
What are types of study designs?
correlational design
cross-sectional design
longitudinal design
experimental design
Correlational design
Examine naturally occurring associations between variables
- strength of correlation captured by a correlation coefficent
- CANNOT draw conclusions about causation
What are the three criteria that must be met to conclude causation:
- Two variables must be correlated
- One variable must precede the other
- There must be no reasonable alternative explanations for the pattern of correlation
Cross-sectional data
data collected at one single point in time
Longitudinal data
data collected from the same participants on multiple occasions
types of longitudinal research
daily diary studies: participants provide data every day at about the same time
Experience sampling:
data is gathered throughout the day
What is attrition bias?
the sample you start with may not be the sample you end with
- people who drop out may systematically differ from those remaining in the study
-ex. U shaped pattern of marriage satisfaction, but could be artifact of unsatisfied couple dropping out of study
pros and cons of longitudinal research
PROS
- captures changes over time
-can examine processes that would be impossible/unethical to cause (can’t assign people to get married)
- less subject to retrospective bias
CONS
- expensive and time and labour intensive
- attrition bias
- still not causation
what are confounds?
alternate explanations for relationship between two variables
Random assignment
every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to an experimental or control group
What is internal validity?
can we rule out alternate explanations in the experiment
What are longitudinal-experimental studies?
Studies where participants are exposed to an experimental condition and then tracking them over time.
PROS and cons of longitudinal-experimental
PROS
- allows CAUSAL claims
CONS
- attrition bias
-lower external validity
External validity
extent to which results obtained in a given context generalize to other contexts
What is a population?`
All the people we are interested in
What is a sample?
A subset of that population that is representative of the population
What are convenience samples? Pros, cons
anyone who is readily available
- PRO: easier to get
-CON: often not representative
W.E.I.R.D. participants
Western Educated Industrialized RIch and Democratic countries
- a common type of participant that is NOT representative
What is volunteer bias?
The people who volunteer for these studies differ intensely from those who don’t
Dyadic
relating to the relationship between two people
What is the Actor-partner interdependence model?
A framework for analyzing how people influence each other in interpersonal relationships
