Topic 2 - Studying Behaviour Flashcards
This deck contains all material from Topic 2 - Studying Behaviour in Ben Dyson's PSYCO 104 class. This deck has an emphasis on material overlap between textbook and lecture.
What steps must be taken to undergo psychological research?
- Generate a question
- Gather information
- Formulate and test
- Analyze, interpret, and report
- Build knowledge body
What is an independent variable?
What we use to manipulate the environment.
What is a dependent variable?
What we use to measure behaviour.
What is the aim of data collection?
To gather enough evidence to formulate a theory.
What four things do good theories do?
- Consolidate previous observations
- Generate future hypotheses
- Must be testable
- Conform to Occam’s Razor
What are the three types of study?
- Descriptive
- Correlational
- Experimental
What does descriptive research do?
Gives a detailed description of behaviour.
What are three types of descriptive study?
- Case study
- Observation
- Self-report
What does correlational research do?
Looks at the relationship between two variables without intervention.
What does experimental research do?
Examines the effects of independent variables on dependent variables. If done well, it may also establish cause and effect.
What does observation do?
Examine real-world behaviour.
What is external validity?
The ability of the research to generalize among populations.
What is internal validity?
The amount to which research supports clear causal conclusions.
What is reactivity?
The act of observation changes behaviour.
What is observer bias?
There may be preconceptions regarding behaviour that influence the observation.
What is the experimenter expectancy effect?
Experimenters may be biased in their observations.
What is self-report?
Collecting data from large samples through surveys.
What are some benefits of self-report?
- Easy to administer
- Cost-efficient
- Relatively fast
What is an important consideration for self-report?
We are only as good as the questions we ask.
What do correlations do?
Specify the relationship between two variables (x and y).
What are the two components of correlation?
- Direction
- Size
When is a correlation positive?
When the variables both increase or decrease.
When is a correlation negative?
When one variable increases and the other decreases.
When is a correlation perfect?
If the value is either +1 or -1.
At what value are psychologists happy in a correlation.
+0.4 or -0.4.
Why do we need correlational design?
Because there are some things we cannot ethically control.
What is the third variable problem?
The possibility that a third variable (z) may be affecting variables x and y, rather than x and y affecting each other.
What are extraneous variables?
Other variables we can control.
What are the two fundamental characteristics of between-participant experiments?
- Manipulation of an independent variable
- Random assignment of participants to groups
What is an operational definition?
A definition of a term for measurement.
What do operational definitions do?
Clear up conceptual vagueness.
What does reliability refer to?
The consistency of the measurement.
What does validity refer to?
The meaningfulness of the measurement.
What is convergent validity?
The idea that multiple measures that tap the same thing should yield similar results.
What is the measure of central tendency?
The value around which most scores tend to cluster.
What is the mean?
The arithmetic average of all scores.
What is the mode?
The most frequent score.
What is the median?
The score in the middle.
What are measures of variance?
The extent to which the scores differ.
What is the range?
The measure of scores from largest to smallest.
What is the standard deviation?
The average variation from the mean.
How must the measures of central tendency and variance be interpreted.
With respect to each other.
What four ethical elements do all psychological studies require?
- Privacy
- Informed consent
- Participation risk
- Data access
