Research Methods Flashcards
Most people think about human abilities in one of two ways:
-Fixed mindset
-Growth mindset
Fixed mindset
Human abilities and attributes,
such as intelligence or personality, are fixed
and cannot be changed
Growth Mindset
Abilities are malleable and can
be developed—through practice, feedback, and effort
Fixed Mindset
Our genes give us
different strengths and weaknesses
Growth Mindset
Our brains are highly
adaptable and can change
When people have a fixed mindset:
-Lower effort and willingness to approach
challenges
(believe if one is not smart and have to work hard, how smart can you really be (mindset))
-Negative responses to setbacks
(believe one can never improve)
-Worse academic performance
When people have a growth mindset:
-Higher effort and challenge seeking (believe one can grow and learn)
-Persistence in the face of obstacles and
failures (learning from mistakes)
-process errors more deeply at a
neurological level
-Better academic performance
True or false:
1.To change people’s behaviour toward members of other racial groups, we must first change their attitudes.
- The best way to ensure that a desired behaviour will persist is to reward the behaviour every time it occurs.
- Fortunately for babies, human beings have a strong maternal instinct.
- By giving a young baby lots of extra stimulation (e.g., mobiles and musical toys), we can markedly increase its
intelligence. - In love and friendship, more often than not, opposites attract one another
All false!
Hindsight Bias and Overconfidence
-The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
- “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon
Examples:
-Monday morning quarterbacking
-Predicting tragedies
-Reviewing multiple choice tests
-We become overconfident in our power of deduction – intuition
-Looking at things scientifically can help separate reality from
illusion
The Scientific Method
-Observations
-Development of theories
-generate hypothesis
-design a research study
-collect evidence (data)
Theory
Set of principles that explain, organize, and predict events
− What is known about this behaviour already?
Theory of
Catharsis
-Negative feelings build up
and create pressure if not
vented
-If this tension continues to
build, people will ’explode’
-Releasing emotions
decreases the pressure or
tension
Hypothesis
A testable prediction that is based on (derived from) your theory
-What evidence would confirm my theory? Disprove it?
People who express their
anger will behave less
aggressively than those
who do not express their
anger is an example of a
hypothesis
Operational definitions
A clear statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables in a study
-Describes how we will measure our variables
Operational Definitions Example
Variable: Express anger
Operational definition: Punch a punching bag
(or other physical actions or increased volume)
Operational Definitions Example:
Which one is the variable and the operational definition?
-aggression
-intensity of noise blasts
Variable: aggression
Operational definition: intensity of noise blasts
(or aggressiveness, tone of voice)
Descriptive approaches (3 types)
(describes the characteristics of something)
-Surveys / Questionnaires (self-report)
-Naturalistic Observation
-Case Studies
These methods describe behaviour - they cannot explain it
Naturalistic observation
-Observe and record behavior as it naturally occurs
-No attempt to control the situation
-e.g. observing a couple fight instead of asking them how they fight
-Observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
-Issues?
Case studies
(an in depth exploration of one person to draw conclusions about them)
-issue is that things often cannot be generalized
Correlational research
-Measuring the degree to which two variables are related or predict one another (co-related)
⎻ Positive correlation: The variables tend to occur together
⎻ Negative correlation: The variables tend to occur at opposite times
e.g., Number of hours of sleep and number of arguments with romantic partner
is an example of
correlational research
Correlational research
The variables tend to occur together
Positive correlation (high levels of one correlates with high levels of the other)
Correlational research
The variables tend to occur at opposite times
Negative correlation (high levels of one are correlated with low levels of the other)
