Scientific Investigation Flashcards
5 Steps of scientific investigation (Kazdin, 2003)
OSCAR
- Originate (formulate) a testable hypothesis
- Select a research method and design the study
- Collect the data
- Analyze the data
- Report the findings
O: Originate (formulate a testable hypothesis)
- hypothesis
- null hypothesis
- alternative hypothesis
- IV
- DV
hypothesis
a tentative statement about the relationship between variables
Null hypothesis (Ho)
hypothesis that specifies that there is NO difference between conditions or groups in the experiment on the dependent measures of interest
Alternative hypothesis (Ha)
hypothesis that specifies that there IS a difference between conditions or groups in the experiment on the dependent measures of interest
IV
variable (construct, experimental manipulation, intervention, factor) that is manipulated in the study
DV
the measure designed to reflect the impact of the IV, experimental manipulation, or intervention
S: Select a research method and design the study
- true experiment
- quasi experiment
true experiment
– must meet conditions (Kazdin, 2003):
random assignment of participants to conditions
maximum control of IVs/condition of interest
investigator can include alternate conditions (i.e., treatment and control conditions)
investigator can control possible sources of bias within the experiment that permit the comparison of interest
i.e., randomized control trial is a good way to see if an intervention is effective
quasi-experimental
conditions of the experiment are approximated; restrictions are placed on some aspect of the design (Kazdin, 2003):
e. g., can’t use random assignment to groups e. g., convenience sample
statistical significance
- The criterion is used to evaluate the extent to which the results of a study (e.g., differences between groups or changes within groups) are likely to be due to genuine rather than chance effects.
- The level that demarks statistical significant (called alpha and designated with a Greek letter α) is completely under the control of the researcher
- Norms for different fields exist
- For example, .05 is generally used in educational/psychological research.
What does .05 mean?
- The level of statistical significance is the level of risk that the researcher is willing to accept that the decision to reject the null hypothesis may be wrong by misattributing a difference to the hypothesized factor, when no difference exists.
- In other words, the level of statistical significance is the level of risk associated with rejecting the null hypothesis.
Selecting α = .05 indicates that the researcher
is willing to risk being wrong in the decision to reject the null hypothesis 5 times out of 100, or 1 time out of 20.
Type I error
Decision: Reject the null hypothesis
Reality: there is no significant effect
*probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true (α)
False Positive
Type II error
Decision: Fail to reject the null hypothesis
Reality: there is a significant effect
*probably of accepting the null hypothesis when it is false (beta)
False Negative