W1: Scientific Methods + Describing and Measuring Flashcards
Definition: Psychological Science
is discovering how and why peolpe think, feel and behave through systematic accumulation of evidnce.
what is Epistemology
- its a philosophy
- not one way to do things but is a strating point.
- framework to find if something is scientific
Definition of Sciencem- Western
creating testable theoris that are able to be proven false
- develope more complex questions and get more detailed answers.
Defintion of scince - Matauranga Maori
knowing purposes and meanings in the wolrd around us
* scinticis are responsible for sharing and nurturing knowledge
three layers of science
- epistemology
- theory
- method
Definition: Theory
systematic way to oragise data, rsults info t explain a phenomenon
Defintion: Method
the process of how we test predictions
Two Methodological Processes
- deductive process
- inductive process
Deductive process
steps:
1. theory
2. hypothesis
3. data
data is found last
Inductive process
steps:
1. data
2. pattern identification/ generalisation
3. theory
induce the theory through data
goals of psyc science
decsribing
predicting
explaining
controlling
western ep view
when do we reject the null hypothesis
when we are correct about what we think is true.
key point about proving a theory
- we never prove a thing is actully works we just prove that it is very unlikely not to work.
Operationalization
how do we turn a concept into something we can design and measure
Categorical/Nominal
groups or categories that have lables
Pros: Categorical/Nominal
- options to choose from
- decsriptive
cons: Categorical/Norminal
- not very helpful other then categoriesing data
- only allows you to see amounts but not compare diffrenecs
Ordinal/Ranked
data that incraese/decrease in order without mathematically meaningful distances bewteen each point.
pros: Ordinal/Ranked
looks like a scale and sort of compares diffrent things
cons: Ordinal/Ranked
- theres no mathematcila meaning or consistanct between items
- donts really tell you anothing significant
Interval
equally-size distances between measurement points, there is no meaningful zero point
pros: Interval
- equal distance between points
cons: Interval
- Zero has no meaning/does not exist
- all more or less not twice or three times as much - no mulipilying
Ratio
equally-sized distances between measurement points, the zero point measn “absence of X”
pros: ratio
- can multiply (double or half)
- time or age is common for ratio scales
which measuemnt scale uses Mode?
Categorical
what measurement scale uses Median and sometimes Mode
Ordinal
what measurement Scale uses Mean
Interval and Ratio
which measurement scales are continuous
Interval and ratio
what is the Mode
most common responce
what is the Median
the midpoint response (50% of smaples on either side)
what is the Mean
a measure of the arithmetic average
what is the standard deviation/ variance
a measure of the diffrence of your measurements from the mean
how spread out is your sample
Definition of the Central Limit Theorem
the Means of samples from a population will have a normal distribution even if measurements in that population are not normally distributed
bigger sampeles are better - minimum 30
quanitative analyses assume what?
normality of the measured variables
definition of Reliability
the extent to which your measuremenr is consistent
Item Reliabilty
does each itm on a scale measure the same thing?
Test-Retest Reliability
do repeated measurements mesure the same thing?
Observer/Rater Reliability
do peolpe make consistent ratings with one another?
The Four Measurements Validities
Construct
Internal
External
Statistical
Construct Validity
does the measurement match up to the theory?
Internal Validity
is this the best design to answer the question?
External Validity
Does it asociate with things it should in the world?
