Topic 2 - Research Methods

Question 1

What are the limits of intuition and experience?

Answer 1

-Risk mistakes
-Don’t show all possibilities
-Overconfidence (bias blind spot)

Question 2

What is the scientific method?

Answer 2

Theory data cycle: does theory match collected data? Need replication!

Question 3

What kinds need variables are there?

Answer 3

Manipulated (independent) and measured (dependent)

Question 4

How do you operationalize a variable?

Answer 4

Create operational definition (ex. Self-report on a scale)

Question 5

What are the three types of surveys?

Answer 5

Descriptive, correlational, and experimental

Question 6

What is random sampling?

Answer 6

Sample selected from population of interest, non-biased, that can generalize

Question 7

What are naturalistic observations?

Answer 7

Observe everyday worlds without interfering (can use technology)

Question 8

What is a case study?

Answer 8

An in depth study of one person with a rare condition - can provide new insights

Question 9

What is a correlational study?

Answer 9

Understand relationship between two or more variables

Question 10

What does a scatter plot show?

Answer 10

The strength and association between two variables (range from -1 to 1)

Question 11

How to know if a relationship is causal?

Answer 11

Need to know which variable came first and to have no other explanation

Question 12

What is experimental research?

Answer 12

Supports causal statements by manipulating causal variable and seeing the effect on measured variable

Question 13

What are the three conditions of causality?

Answer 13

Covariance (correlation), temporal precedence, and internal validity

Question 14

What is the difference between random sampling and random assignment?

Answer 14

Sampling: equal chance of being selected for study
Assignment: level of independent variable assigned

Question 15

What questions are asked to confirm construct validity?

Answer 15

1. Variable operationalization?
2. Participants representative?
3. Rule out other explanations?

Question 16

How to assess external validity?

Answer 16

1. Who was included/ left out?
2. Can results from P.O.I generalize to another?
3. Replication in non WEIRD populations?

Question 17

What does WEIRD stand for?

Answer 17

Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic

Question 18

What is a confound?

Answer 18

When experimental groups vary in more than the independent variable

Question 19

What questions do we ask to evaluate claims in the media?

Answer 19

1. What am I being asked to believe?
2. What evidence is there?
3. How strong is the result (graphs)?
4. Causal claim?
5. Replication?

Question 20

What is the frequency distribution?

Answer 20

All possible scores (bar graph)

Question 21

What is central tendency?

Answer 21

The centre of score batch (mean, median, mode)

Question 22

What is standard deviation?

Answer 22

How much a batch of scores varies around the mean

Question 23

What is effect size, how is it observed?

Answer 23

Magnitude of relationship between variables (tight scatterplot = stronger). Quantified with correlation coefficient r (-1 to 1)

Question 24

What is d?

Answer 24

Effect size for experiments based on means. Strong effect size when not much variability

Question 25

What is statistical significance testing?

Answer 25

Estimating whether results came from a particular population

Question 26

What is the null hypothesis?

Answer 26

How likely is it that there is no relationship? Low p-value means significant result and data unlikely to occur under null hypothesis

Question 27

What are some reasons for replication failure?

Answer 27

• false positive
• small samples
• underreporting non significant effects

Question 28

What is HARKing?

Answer 28

Hypothesizing after results are known

Question 29

What is p-hacking?

Answer 29

Removing extreme scores (increases bias) or over analyzing

Question 30

What is open science and preregistration?

Answer 30

Available to other scientists (helps self- correct and progress). Statement of expected outcome before experiment

Question 31

What three ethical standards does the institutional review board check for?

Answer 31

Autonomy (informed consent), beneficence (risks/ benefits), justice (representation)

Question 32

What guidelines does animal welfare act set for ethical experiments with animals?

Answer 32

1. Replacement if possible
2. Refinement (modify to reduce stress)
3. Reduction (few subjects)

Question 33

What is a theory?

Answer 33

Idea designed to organize and explain existing facts and make predictions

Question 34

What is a journal?

Answer 34

A periodical containing peer-reviewed articles on academic discipline for a scholarly audience

Question 35

What are nominal, ordinal, and interval variables?

Answer 35

1. Categorical
2. Categorical with meaningful relative ranks
3. Numbers

Question 36

What is the third variable problem?

Answer 36

For a given relationship, there might be an additional variable that is associated with both

Question 37

Within- subjects vs. Between subjects

Answer 37

1. Same group does multiple conditions
2. Different groups do each condition

Question 38

What is inter-rarer reliability?

Answer 38

Do the research assistants agree on operational definitions?

Question 39

Hawthorne effect?

Answer 39

Telling subjects what researchers are doing/ measuring which changes behaviour

Question 40

Demand characteristics?

Answer 40

Cues from experimenter that tell participants how to behave

Question 41

What is included in informed consent?

Answer 41

Enough info, can opt out anytime with no penalty, can withhold responses, debriefed at the end