Unit 2 Flashcards
Scientific research and information processing
How does good research begin?
with a good research question
What are the Steps for a good literature review?
- Define the objective
- Define the search statement
- Select where you are going to conduct your research
- Define the search strategy
- Execute the search and review the results
What is necessary before conducting any research project and what can help to clarify the concept?
having thorough knowledge of previous research findings
-> reviewing previous studies will help clarify concept
What are 3 points of a good research question?
- Informal observations
- Practical problems
- Previous research
What is the most common source of inspiration?
Previous Research
What are possible sources of literature?
Articles in professional journals and books
-> research literature in psychology is enormous
What are 2 types of articles?
Empirical research reports
Review articles
What are Empirical research reports?
they describe one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors
What is a review article?
they summarize previously published research on a topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the results
What do we call a review article that is devoted to present a new theory?
theoretical article
What do we call an article that provides statistical summary of all the previous results?
meta-analysis
What does the term double-blind peer review refer to?
researchers submit a manuscript to the editor. The article will be reviewed by two or three experts on the topic
How many sources are enough for your literature review?
average of sources cited per article was about 50
What is a literature review?
a comprehensive survey of scholarly sources on a specific topic
-> offers a detailed overview of the current state of knowledge (identify key theories, methodologies and gaps in the existing research)
What are Boolean operators?
simple words (AND, OR and NOT) which are used in search engines, databases, or information retrieval systems to refine and improve search results
What is the Function of “AND” in Boolean operators?
Narrows the search by requiring that all specified terms appear in the results.
What is the function of “OR” in Boolean Operators?
Broadens the search by retrieving results that contain any of the listed terms.
What is the function of “NOT” in Boolean operators?
Excludes specific terms from the search results, making the search more focused by filtering out unwanted results.
What improves the efficiency and precision of your search?
using advanced search techniques like truncation, quotation marks, wildcards, and nesting (parentheses)
What is Truncation useful for?
allows you to search for multiple forms of a word by shortening it to its root, followed by a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk )
-> useful for capturing variations of a word
e.g.: Educat (educator, education, educational)
What does Truncation do?
broadens a search to include different word endings
What are Quotation marks used for?
to search for an exact phrase or set of words in a specific order.
e.g.: “social media influence” - will return only results where the exact phrase appears
What do quotation marks do?
narrow the search to an exact phrase
What are Wildcards?
symbols used to replace a single character or multiple characters within a word. Often a question mark (?)
e.g.: wom?n will return both “woman” and “women”
What do Wildcards do?
allow flexibility in searching for different variations of a word
What are Nesting or parentheses?
Nesting uses parentheses to group search terms or control the order of operations in a complex search query. It organizes search queries with multiple operators (AND, OR, NOT) to ensure proper search logic is followed
e.g.: (anxiety OR stress) AND therapy
either anxiety or stress combined with therapy
What does the scientifically relevant literature in a source contest of?
the last studies in the field, established schools of thoughts, scholarly articles, and scientific journals.
What is literature search NOT about?
NOT about finding relevant papers, it is about reading relevant papers
What should we do before conducting research?
perform a thorough literature search
-> to ensure a strong foundation
What is important when we search for literature?
to expand the search beyond our immediate discipline by exploring related fields and using varied search keywords
What is important when we finalize our manuscript?
we should be sure to review the latest publications to ensure our work is up-to-date
What can science be understood as?
the integration of three essential elements
What are the three essential elements of science?
- A shared body of knowledge (comprising both: facts/data and theoretical framework)
- A systematic method for evaluating scientific theories by testing their predictions against observations and experiments
- A mindset of critical inquiry, grounded in the belief that all scientific knowledge is provisional and open to revision when new evidence arises
What is a scientific question?
a question that may lead to a hypothesis and allow the answering through observation or experimentation
What should a good scientific question have/be?
should have answers, be testable, leads to a hypothesis that is falsifiable
In the example of women and men and their differences in intelligence, what could be a possible scientific question on the basic level, advanced level and expert level?
Basic: Do women understand emotions better than men?
Advanced: Do women have a higher emotional intelligence than men?
Expert: Are there differences between men and women in emotional intelligence according to the modle of Mayer and Salovey?
What is a Theory?
a coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena. It can be untested, but it can also be extensively tested, well supported, and accepted as an accurate description of the world
What is a Hypothesis?
a specific prediction about a new phenomenon that should be observed if a particular theory is accurate
How are Hypotheses developed?
by considering existing evidence and using reasoning to infer that will happen in the specific context of interest
What are characteristics of a good hypothesis?
- testable
- falsifiable (it can be tested by experiments or observations that could potentially prove it wrong)
- logical
- hypothesis are more than just a random guess
What does psychological measurement often refer to? Name an example
Psychometrics
e.g.: a cognitive psychologist wants to measure a person’s working
memory capacity
What does a part of generating a hypothesis involve?
identifying the variable that you want to study
What is a variable?
a quantity of quality that varies across people or situations
-> aspect we are interested in studying in the research, can take different values or categories
What do Psychological Constructs mean?
- Psychological variables that are not obvious, that cannot be observed directly.
- We cannot assess people’s level of intelligence by looking at them
What does Identification of variables mean?
to clearly and precisely define what is meant by a certain variable and each of its values
What kind of process is measure?
the process by which numbers are assigned to the different values of a variable
What can variables be?
quantitative and categorial (qualitative)
What does Quantitative mean?
is a quantity, such as height, that is typically measured by assigning a number to each individual
What does Categorical (qualitative) mean?
is a quality, such as chosen major, and is typically measured by assigning a category label to each individual
What 2 categories can Qualitative and Quantitative variables each be separated in?
Qualitative: Nominal and Ordinal
Quantitative: Discrete and Continuous
What does Nominal, Ordinal, Discrete and Continuous each mean?
Nominal: Unordered categories
Ordinal: Ordered categories
Discrete: Whole numerical value such as counts
Continuous: Can take any values at any point within a range
What is an operational definition?
a definition of the variable in terms of precisely how it is to be measured
- clear, precise and measurable definition of a variable or concept (allowing it to be observed and measured consistently
What can Depression be operationally defined as?
as people’s scores on a paper-and-pencil depression scare such as Beck Depression Inventory
What are Self-Report measures?
In self-report methods, participants themselves respond to questions or prompts, typically through surveys, questionnaires or interviews
What are behavioral measures?
participants behavior is observed and recorded
e.g.: Albert Bandura: physical aggression
What are Physiological measures?
those that involve recording any of a wide variety of physiological processes, including heart rate and blood pressure, hormone levels
What is a representative sample and how is it selected?
- Representative Sample: A sample that accurately reflects the population.
- Simple Random Sampling: Every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected, minimizing bias.
What is a common alternative to random sampling and what does it consist of?
convenience sampling
-> consists of individuals who happen to be nearby and are willing to participate (Straßenumfrage)
What does Reliability refer to? How many types are there?
the consistency of a measure
-> three types of consistency
What are the three types of consistency?
- over time
- across items
- across different researchers
How do we call the over time type of consistency? What is it?
test-retest reliability
-> when researchers measure a construct that they assume to be consistent across time, then the scores they obtain should also be consistent across time
- consistent measures for a construct across time
How do we call the across items type of consistency? What is it?
internal consistency
-> it is the consistency of peoples responses across the items on a multiple-item measure
- consistency of people’s responses across items on a multiple-item measure
What are in general all the items on an Internal consistency measure supposed to do?
to reflect the same underlying construct, so people’s scores on those items should be correlated with each other
What does Internal consistency check?
wether the different items (questions or parts) of a test measure the same concept and provide consistent results
How do we call the across different researchers type of consistency? What is it?
inter-rater reliability
-> it is the extend to which different observers are consistent in their judgements
- different observers are consistent in their judgements
When do we consider a behavioral measure reliable?
if it consistently produces repeatable results when the behavior is measured again
When is a behavioral measure valid?
if it measures what it has been intentionally designed to measure
What are the 4 different types of validity?
Content validity
Face validity
Criterion validity
Discriminant validity
What is content validity?
the extent to which a measure “covers” the construct of interest
-> refers to how well a test or measurement tool covers the entire range of the concept it is intended to measure
What is Face validity?
the extent to which a measurement method appears “on its face” to measure the construct of interest
What is Criterion validity?
refers to how well one measure predicts an outcome based on another established measure (the “criterion”)
-> It checks whether a test is associated with a concrete outcome or criterion.
What is Discriminant validity?
the extent to which scores on a measure are not correlated with measures of variables that are conceptually distinct
-> ensures that the test does not correlate too strongly with measures of different, unrelated constructs. It shows that the test is unique and not simply measuring something else.
Why is reliability important for a measure to be of any value?
because it enables to have enough confidence to say that the measure is close to the true measure
Why is Validity important for a measure to be of any value?
important for knowing that the measure actually measures what it is supposed to measure, and not something else
What is the independent variable?
The variable the experimenter manipulates (the presumed cause)
What is the dependent variable?
The variable the experimenter measures (the presumed effect)
What are Extraneous (external) variables?
any variable other than the dependent variable
What are the variables from this study?
How do three counseling techniques—rational-emotive, gestalt, and no-counseling—differ in their effectiveness in decreasing test anxiety in high school juniors?
Independent Variable (IV): Type of counseling technique (rational-emotive, gestalt, no-counseling) Type: Qualitative (Categorical)
Scale: Nominal (The counseling types are distinct categories with no inherent order)
Dependent Variable (DV): Effectiveness in decreasing test anxiety
Type: Quantitative
Scale: Continuous (Test anxiety can be measured on a scale, e.g., using an anxiety inventory score)
