research methods exam 1 Flashcards
research producer
someone who conducts scientific research, including students
research consumer
anyone and everyone (ex: researchers, teachers, doctors, customers)
theory data cycle
theory- research q- research design to test hypothesis- hypothesis is preregistered ideally- data- leads to either supporting data or nonsupporting data
theory (theory-data cycle)
set of statements describing general principles about how variables relate to one another. Develops from observation
def. of research question & hypothesis (theory-data cycle)
testable prediction, predicts the outcomes of your research based on theory
journal vs journalism
journal: A monthly or quarterly periodical containing peer-reviewed articles on a specific academic discipline or subdiscipline, written for a scholarly audience, AKA scientific journal
journalism: news and commentary published or broadcast in the popular media and produced for a general audience
basic, applied, and translational research
basic: goal is to enhance the general body of knowledge
applied: goal is to find solutions to a practical problem, with a local real world context (in labs)
translational: uses lessons from basic research to test in real world situations
research is better than experience
-experience has no comparison group (we need to be able to compare in order to prove)
-experience is confounded (there could be an extraneous variable that is causing change)
-research is probabilistic (findings are not expected to explain all the cases all the time, but do explain some cases)
swayed by a good story
accepting a conclusion just because it makes sense or feels natural. We tend to believe good stories—even ones that are false
availability heuristic
incorrectly estimate the frequency of something, relying predominantly on instances that easily come to mind rather than using all possible evidence in evaluating a conclusion
present-present bias
incorrectly estimate the relationship between an event and its outcome, focusing on times the event and outcome are present, while failing to consider evidence that is absent and harder to notice
confirmation bias
tendency to consider only the evidence that supports a hypothesis, including asking only the questions that will lead to the expected answer
bias blind spot
tendency for people to think that compared to others, they themselves are less likely to engage in biased reasoning
trusting authorities
we should base our beliefs on research, not authorities, because they can be wrong/using intuition or experience
sections of research articles
-abstract: concise summary of the article, briefly describes the study’s hypotheses, method, and major results
-introduction: first section of regular text, first paragraphs typically explain the topic of the study, middle paragraphs lay out the background for the research & the final paragraph states the specific research questions, goals, or hypotheses for the current study
-method: explains in detail how the researchers conducted their study, typically contains subsections such as Participants, Materials, Procedure, and Apparatus, ideal Method section gives enough detail that if you wanted to repeat the study, you could do so without having to ask the authors any questions
-results: describes the quantitative and qualitative results of the study, including the statistical tests used to analyze the data, provides tables and figures that summarize key results
-discussion: generally summarizes the study’s research question and methods and indicates how well the results of the study supported the hypotheses, usually discuss the study’s importance, authors may discuss alternative explanations for their data and pose interesting questions raised by the research
-references: contains a full bibliographic listing of all the sources the authors cited in writing their article
construct
abstract idea/concept that cannot be observed/measured directly
variable
Some behavior or experience that can observably vary or change, must have at least two levels (values)
conceptual definitions
a careful, theoretical definition of the construct
ex: “a person’s cognitive evaluation of her/his life”
operational definition
how the construct is measured or manipulated in an actual study
ex: five questionnaire items on the Satisfaction with Life scale, answered on a scale of 1 to 5
measured vs manipulated variables
measured variable is observed and recorded
manipulated variable is controlled
some variables can be only be measured, not manipulated and some can be both
levels of a variable
variables can have different levels depending on a specific study
ex: no perfume, some perfume, lot of perfume
-this is 3 levels of the variable “amount of perfume”
frequency claims
Describe a particular rate or degree of a single variable
-1 variable
-typically a percentage, but not always
-other keywords: majority, most
association claim
how 2 variables are related
- one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular
level of another variable
-keywords: links/linked to, associated, related
causal claim
A claim arguing that a specific change in one variable is responsible for
influencing the value of another variable
-keywords: may lead to, causes, affects
causal claims must be:
1) covariant
2) temporal precedence
3) internal validity
construct validity
How well the variable is measured or manipulated, how well the operational definition matches the conceptual definition
Clear operational definitions, uniform measurement, clear study directions
external validity
How generalizable is the claim? Does the study sample represent the population?
ensure external validity by having large, broad samples and replicating studies
