Research Methods Vocab 2: Ethics, Reliability, and Validity Flashcards
Define “Ethical Considerations”
Required guidelines for conduct that must be followed when doing psychological research.
Define “Ethical Review Boards”
National or local governmental groups that review research proposals. They assess the potential risks and ensure they are justified by the gains in understanding.
Define “Informed Consent”
The researcher must explain what is happening in the study. Participants should be aware of the purpose, procedures, and potential risks. Agreement must be voluntary. Participants 16 and under need parental consent.
Define “Debriefing”
After the research is over, participants must understand the purpose and the results of the study. They must be told if they have been deceived and given explanations why. Any questions should be answered as fully as possible,
Define “No Deception”
This is when researchers lie to or mislead participants and it is strongly discouraged. However, sometimes deception is necessary to get valid results. If it is to be used, it must be justified and the understanding gained must be worth any potential risk.
Example: In drug research, participants may get a placebo but believe they are getting the real medication. However, telling them the truth ruins the results of the research.
Define “Protection from Mental and Physical Harm”
Research should not cause participants any type of distress. This includes physical injury, as well as mental stress, such as embarrassment, fright, or offence.
Sometimes long-term effects of research can be unknown (ie drug research). This must be fully explained to participants in advance.
Define “Right to Withdraw”
Participants must be able to leave a study at any time if they are uncomfortable. Even if they finish the study they must also be able to withdraw their data. Participants should not feel pressured in ANY way.
Example: If they are getting paid or receive credit to participate, they must still get the benefits even if they withdraw.
Define “Confidentiality”
Participants, and the data gained from them, must be kept anonymous unless they give their full consent. No names must be used in a research report.
Researchers often refer to participants by numbers, letters, or initials to protect confidentiality.
Define “Peer Review”
Researchers write reports about their studies and submit them to psychological journals. Editors and other experts in the fields review the work to ensure scientific methods and valid results. If it meets criteria, the research is then published, allowing other researchers to replicate or reference it in future work.
ex: Canadian Journal of
Experimental Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, International Journal of Stress Management
Define “Reliability”
In Psychology, reliability means ‘consistency’, replication is the key to reliability.
For example: if a person taking an IQ test gets a different score each time there is low reliability. If a psychology experiment gives different results each time, there is a reliability problem.
Define “Replication”
This refers to repeating research. Replication is how reliability is built. Replication can occur with the same researcher and participants at different times or with different researchers and participants altogether.
Generally, if the results cannot be replicated, the conclusions are not accepted.
Define “Test-Retest”
Having the same participants and the same test/experiment at different times. The results should be similar.
For example: if you take a personality test now and in 6 months, the results should be the same. If not, there is low reliability.
Define “Validity”
Research has validity if it actually measures what it claims to measure.
Validity is the overarching category. There are many types of validity.
Define “Internal Validity”
Refers to whether research results are actually due to the variables the researcher was testing and not other variables.
For example: if I give an English language learner a written test to see if they know Psychology, my method has low internal validity because the test is really measuring their knowledge of writing English, not their knowledge of psychology.
Define “Ecological Validity”
A type of external validity. Refers to whether a test or method measures behaviour that represents naturally occurring behaviour.
For example: if I am conducting a study on how accurate memory is in a scary situation, a test where participants watch a video of a robbery and try to recall details has low ecological validity, because their response in a real robbery (naturally occurring) would probably be very different.
