Research Methods In Psychology Flashcards
List the 7 Stages of Scientific Research
- Construct a theory
- Generate hypothesis
- Choose research method
- Collect data
- Analyze data
- Report findings
- Revise existing theories
Anecdotal Evidence
Evidence gathered from others or self experience.
(Insufficient to draw scientific conclusions)
Within-Subject Design
Testing the same subjects repeatedly with different levels of manipulation.
Within-Subject Design
Testing different groups, each group receiving different levels of manipulation.
Descriptive Statistics
Presentation of information at a glance.
Frequency Distribution
Illustrates the distribution of how frequently values appear in a data set.
Normal Distribution
Distribution with bell-curve shape, containing a single peak.
Standard Deviation
Measure of the average between each data point from the mean.
T-Test
Statistical test that considers each data point from both groups to calculate the probability that two samples were drawn from the same population.
P-Value
Probability of the difference in results occurring even without manipulation of the independent variable.
Statistical Significant
When difference in results between two groups is due to true differences and not simply due to random variation.
What P-Value is required for results to be considered statistically significant?
P-Value must be less than 0.05
Observational Research
Observation of effects due to variables without explicit manipulation.
Correlation Coefficient
Indication of strength and direction of correlation. Indicated by the value (r)
What does correlation coefficient of r = 1 indicate?
Perfect positive correlation: as one variable increase, the other increases as well.
What does correlation coefficient of r = -1 indicate?
Perfect negative correlation: as one variable increases, the other decreases.
What does correlation coefficient of r = 0 indicate?
No correlation.
Is correlation always meaningful?
No. Correlation does not indicate causation. Two variables may be correlated, but this may be due to separate correlations to the same cause.
What are negative effects of the within subject design
Improved performance over the course of an experiment due to becoming more experienced
Why is it important to use random sampling
it reduces the chance that the selection might be biased towards a
specific group
