Week 1 Flashcards
Describe empiricism
Knowledge can only be acquired through observation and experiences
Describe the scientific method
A set of of principles about the appropriate relationship between ideas and evidence.
Theory
An hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon
Hypothesis
A falsifiable prediction made by a theory
What are the three things that make people hard to study
- Reactivity
- Complexity
- Relativity
What is an operational definition
What we are measuring and how we will measure it. Important for measurement of observations
Validity
The extent to which a measurement and property are related (eg. Do IQ tests measure intelegence)
Reliability
The tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement when done again
Describe demand characteristics and ways to reduce them
Aspects of an observational environmental environment that cause people to react in a certain way that threatens the validity of a study. Ways to avoid this involves
1) Cover stories- False leading stories about what is being studied
2) The unrelated experiments-Having two experiments, one with the variable and one without
3) Use of nonreactive measures-Participants don’t know what’s being measured
Naturalistic observation
A technique for gathering info by unobtrusively observing people in their natural habitats
Observer/Researcher bias
Researchers results being affected because they see what they want to see
Double blind experiment
Neither the researcher nor the participant knows the true purpose of an experiment
Frequency distribution
A graphical representation of measurements arranged by the number of times each measurement was mad
What are descriptions
Graphical representations and statistics (mode, median, mean)
What are the three methods of research
Descriptive research, Correlational studies, Experimental methods
Describe case studies
In depth analysis of an individual, group, or event.
What are some advantages of case studies
- Challenges validity of theories
- Can illustrate effectiveness of programs for special populations
- Useful for studying rare phenomenon
- Source for new ideas
What are some disadvantages of case studies
-Researcher bias
-Does not establish cause-effect
Generalizability questionable
Why is a representative sample important
Because you cannot study the whole population, your sample must reflect important characteristics of a population, and random sampling must be used
What are surveys and what are some drawbacks
Questionnaires asked to people. If they are given to unrepresentative populations, this can lead to faulty generalizations. Surveys also rely on self-reports which can be faulty, and cannot draw cause-effect relationships
Bimodal distribution
Has two areas of peak frequencies. (eg. one group got high scores for attending a lecture, while one got low scores)
What’s the difference between normal and skewed distribution
Normal distribution has a mean equal to the median. The mean is affected in skewed results and it is higher than the median if the results are positively skewed, and lower if the results are negatively skewed