Test 2 (pg 242-243) Flashcards
______ is the extent to which the results of an experiment can be generalized beyond the subjects used in the experiment and beyond the laboratory in which the experiment was conducted.
external validity
Generalization to the population being studied can be accomplished by ___________ subjects from the population.
randomly sampling
How is the study of college student problematic?
It is believed that college students may not be a good representation of the population.
The external validity problem that comes from the use of so many college students in research is called the _________, which means that most conclusions are based on studies of young people with a late adolescent mentality who are still developing self-identities and attitudes.
college sophomore problem
Give three arguments against the college sophomore problem?
1) using college sophomores as subjects in a study does not negate the findings of the study. It simply means that the study needs to be replicated with subjects from other populations to aid in overcoming this problem.
2) For the research conducted in many areas of psychology, (such as sensory research), the college sophomore problem is not an issue. The auditory and visual systems of college sophomores, for example, function in the same manner as do those of the rest of the population.
3) The population of college students today is varied. They come from different socioeconomic backgrounds and geographic areas. They have a varied family history and educational experiences.
Conducting research in a ________ setting allows us to maximize control.
laboratory
Maximum control has many advantages, but it also has the potential disadvantage of creating an _________.
artificial environment
We need to exercise some caution when generalizing from the laboratory setting to the real world. This problem is often referred to in psychology as the ___________..
artificiality criticism.
How can we address artificiality criticism and the generalization issue?
replication of the experiment to demonstrate the result is reliable.
_________ is repeating a study using the same means of manipulating and measuring the variables as in the original study.
exact replication
A ________ is a study based on another study that uses different methods, a different manipulation, or a different measure. Basically, it tests the same concepts in a different way.
conceptual replication
How might we use a different method to get conceptual replication? (to determine generalizability)
We could conduct an observational study in addition to a true experiment to assess the generalizability of a finding.
A _________ study systematically changes one thing at a time and observes the effect, if any, on the results. It is a study that varies from the original study in one systematic way.
systematic replication
What are three things a researcher could do in a systematic replication study?
They could use a different number or type of subject, a different setting, or more levels of the independent variable.
Bivariate means?
2 variables
We studied 223 patients admitted with left-sided infective endocarditis between 1996 and 2006 and found the relationship between treatment (medical/surgical) and mortality.
Medical = “0” Surgical = “1” is an example of ________.
What correlation coefficient do we use?
dummy coding
Pearson’s r
The statistical removal of unwanted variable is called the _________ and it is a solution to ________.
Partial correlation
Third-variable problem
Directionality Problem Solution: _________.
Cross-Lagged Correlation
__________ is the variability in the DV that occurs as a result of (or is caused by) the influence of the IV
Primary Variance
_________ is unexplained variance. Variability due to true chance happenings such as moment-to-moment fluctuations in your subject’s attention or fluctuations in your ability to accurately measure your DV due to chance variations in accuracy of equipment.
Error variance
_________ is variance in the DV that occurs as a result of the influence of secondary variables.
Secondary Variance:
As the experimenter, you want to ______ primary variance and _______ error variance and _____ secondary variance.
maximize
minimize
control
Example #1: The Effects of viewing a violent stimulus on future aggressive tendencies.
S enters E office for instructions about the experimental task. On E’s desk is either: a gun (violent stimulus) or a tennis racket (neutral stimulus). The E instructs S to go down the hall to room ___ where they will be given a questionnaire to complete. The the S is given a known reliable and valid paper/pencil test for aggressive tendencies.
The E has access to HS students at two schools: Thomas Edison Technical School and St. Mary’s HS. He decides it will be easier to keep track of the procedure and results if he uses one school for the gun condition and the other for the tennis racket condition. He chooses to run the gun condition at Thomas Edison Tech and the tennis racket at St. Mary’s HS. As he predicted, he finds the students exposed to the gun condition show higher levels of aggressive tendencies. He concludes that exposure to violent stimuli causes an increase in aggression.
What alternative explanation might there be for this result?
This is an example of a threat of ______
“Selection”
Selection: occurs when participants/subjects in one level of the IV differ initially from participants/subjects in another level of the IV, due to systematic selection differences. This is usually the result of the use of “intact groups” or lack of random assignment of subjects to groups. It is a “between-subject” or independent group type issue.
Regression towards the mean is a potential problem in a _________ type design.
repeated-measures