week 1 Flashcards
introduction to research design
what is research
the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings
objectives of psychological research
describe
explain
predict
approaches to psychological research
inductive methods
deductive methods
what is the aim of inductive methods
aim to generate new theories/ideas
eg. by observing or looking for patterns in the things around us
what is the aim of deductive methods
aim to test theories, and establish whether they are valid or not
what do deductive methods have the potential to do
disprove a particular postulate or proposition
what is a theory
a broad statement about reality
(a statement on cause and effect)
what is the independent variable
the causes in our theory
what is the dependent variable
the effects in our theory
how do we test a theory
you cant so therefore you test a hypothesis that should be true if the theory was true
what does a good theory help to generate
hypotheses
criteria for good research problems
variables should express a clear relationship
stated in question form
capable of empirical testing
what is operationalisation
turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations
what is a variable
something that varies/ takes on different values or categories
eg. gender, anxiety levels, IQ scores, on/off
what are categorical variables
varies by type or kind
eg. gender, religion, university course etc.
what type of measurement are categorical variables
nominal
what is a continuous variable
varies by degree or amount
eg. reaction time, height, age, anxiety level
what type of measurement is a continuous variable
interval/ration measurement
common pitfalls in research
extraneous variables
confounding variables
what is an extraneous variable
variables that compete with the IV in explaining the outcome or DV
(can also be called nuisance variable)
what is a confounding variable
a variable that is systematically related to both the IV and the DV in your study, in such a way that any change in the DV cannot be directly attributed to the IV
what does confounding do
reduces internal validity
what is causation
a condition in which one event (the cause) generates another event (the effect)
criteria for identifying a causal relation
cause (IV) must be related to the effect (DV)
changes in the IV must precede changes in DV
no other plausible explanation must exist for the effect
