Research Methods

Question 1

p-Value

Answer 1

• indicate significance

- indicate how likely something occurred due to chance (small value means not likely due to chance)

Question 2

What are the steps involved in designing an experiment?

Answer 2

1. selection of experimental and control groups
2. random sampling from population (ideally each individual in the population is equally likely to be sampled)
3. random assignment to groups (assignments should be double-blind)
4. control of extraneous variables (ex. age, gender, ethnicity, SES, education level, etc)

Question 3

What can be some flaws of experimental designs?

Answer 3

• Researchers didn’t do enough
• sampling that is not random
• unable to control for every single extraneous variable
• control group not selected carefully enough
• not double-blind

Question 4

Double-Blind

Answer 4

• neither the person placing people into groups nor the participants know which group is which
• good way to avoid the placebo effect

Question 5

Extraneous Variable

Answer 5

• variables that are not being intentionally studied in an experiment
• considered undesirable variables when they influence the outcome of the experiment
• these variables should try to be controlled for so that individuals are equally distributed among groups

Question 6

What is the main benefit of experimental designs?

Answer 6

these are the only designs that allow us to infer a casual relationship (ex. anti-depressants lead to better outcomes)

Question 7

Internal Validity

Answer 7

the extent to which we can say the change in the outcome variable (or depend variable) is due to the intervention

Question 8

List some common threats to internal validity

Answer 8

• impression management
• confounding variables
• lack of reliability (measurement tools do not measure what they purport to, lack consistency)
• sampling bias
• attrition effects

Question 9

Impression Management

Answer 9

• participants adapt their responses based on social norms or perceived research expectations
• Ex. self-fulfilling prophecy (occurs when participants can predict how the research thinks they should act so they act in this way), methodology is not double-blind, Hawthorne Effect

Question 10

Confounding Variables

Answer 10

• extraneous variables not accounted for in the study
• another variable that offers an alternative explanation
• an outside influence that changes the effect of a dependent variable and independent variable
• they can destroy the validity of an experiment by suggesting correlation when there is not any

Question 11

Sampling Bias

Answer 11

• occurs when selection criteria is not random

- population used for sample does not meet conditions for statistical test (Ex. population is not normally distributed)

Question 12

Attrition Effects

Answer 12

due to participant fatiguing during study or even dropping out of study

Question 13

External Validity

Answer 13

the extent to which the findings can be generalized to the real world

Question 14

List some common threats to external validity

Answer 14

• experiment doesn’t reflect the real world (lab set-ups that don’t translate to real world, lack of generalizability)
• selection criteria (can be too restrictive of inclusion/exclusion criteria for participants leading to a sample that is not representative)
• situational effects (presence of lab conditions change outcome)
• lack of statistical power (ex. sample groups have high variability, sample size is too small)

Question 15

Non-Experimental Designs

Answer 15

• variables not directly manipulated, lack a control group
• includes: observational studies, ethnographic studies, twin studies and heritability studies, archival and biographical studies, phenomenological studies , case studies, longitudinal studies

Question 16

Observational Studies

Answer 16

-studies in which the researcher does not interfere with, or manipulate, variables

Question 17

Ethnographic Studies

Answer 17

• type of observational study
• studies that take a deep-dive into a particular culture or subculture
• research immerses themself in the culture without influencing it in any way – act as a fly on the wall

Question 18

Twin Studies & Heritability Studies

Answer 18

• studies that attempt to establish the relative effects of nature and nurture on behavior
• use of twins allows us to see if certain traits or attributes are due to genes vs the environment

Question 19

Archival Studies & Biographical Studies

Answer 19

-studies that use the historical record to understand events (archival) and people (biographical)

Question 20

Phenomenological Studies

Answer 20

• studies that attempt to understand conscious experiences from a first-person perspective
• studies like this tend to have small sample sizes, are very direct (directly ask participants the questions they want answers to), and asked detailed questions

Question 21

Case Studies

Answer 21

• detailed exploration of one individual “case” or occurrence of a phenomenon
• much more detailed
• Ex. research does one in-depth study on someone with schizophrenia

Question 22

Longitudinal Studies

Answer 22

• can be experimental in nature but considered non-experimental
• long-term studies that take measurements at different time intervals
• tell us how certain behaviors or experiences evolve over time

Question 23

What can be some flaws of non-experimental designs?

Answer 23

• Researcher did too much
• researcher impacted results by being in the room during observational study
• researcher interacted too much with culture they were studying
• research interjected their own biases in their observation of archival/biographical records

Question 24

Independent Variable

Answer 24

• the treatment or intervention in a study that is manipulated by the researcher
• known as the “manipulated variable” or “controlled variable”
• the cause

Question 25

Dependent Variable

Answer 25

• the outcome variable that is measured and not directly manipulated by the researcher
• known as the “output variable” or the “measured variable”
• the effect

Question 26

Operational Definition

Answer 26

• formal definition used for research that can be measured by the experimenters
• allows for other researchers to replicate the experiment
• Ex. sympathetic arousal can be operationally defined by the specific measurements of HR, BP, respiration rate

Question 27

Correlation

Answer 27

• a measure of the relationship between two or more variables
• 0 is the weakest possible value, +/- 1 is the strongest
• if a value is +, it means that as one variable increases, the other variable increases
• if a value is -, it means that as one variable increases, the other variable decreases
• assigned R-values
• on a scatter plot of data, the stronger the correlation the closer the cluster of individual measurements (dots) on a line

Question 28

Correlation does not mean ___

Answer 28

causation

-Ex. eating more vegetables isn’t necessarily the cause of good heart health

Question 29

R-Value

Answer 29

• numerical value that tells the strength and direction of the correlation
• negative R value indicates a negative correlation
• positive R value indicates a positive correlation

Question 30

What does it mean if R=0.02?

Answer 30

• no correlation

- dots on a scatter plot do not exhibit any clear pattern/cluster