Week 2 - Research Methods Flashcards
What is cause-and-effect?
Related to whether we say one variable is causing changes in the other variable, versus other variables that may be related to these two variables.
What is generalizability?
Related to whether the results from the sample can be generalized to a larger population.
What is a margin of error?
The expected amount of random variation in a statistic (often defined for 95% confidence level)
What is p-value?
the probability of observing a particular outcome in a sample, or more extreme, under a conjecture about the larger population or process
What is validity?
The degree to which a measure is assessing what it is intended to measure
What is internal validity?
The degree to which a study allows unambiguous casual inferences
What is external validity?
The degree to which a study ensures that potential findings apply to settings and samples other than the ones being studied
What is ecological validity?
The degree to which an effect has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life.
What is Day reconstruction method?
A methodology where participants describe their experiences and behaviour of a given day retrospectively upon a systematic reconstruction on following the day.
What is an electronically activated recorder?
A methodology where participants wear a small, portable audio recorder that intermittently records snippets of ambient sounds around them.
What is experience-sampling method?
A methodology where participants report on their momentary thoughts, feelings, and behaviours at different points in time over the course of a day.
What is full-cycle psychology?
a scientific approach where researchers start with an observational field study to identify an effect in the real world, follow up with laboratory experimentation to verify the effect and isolate the casual mechanisms, and return to field research to corroborate their experimental findings.
What is generalizing?
The ability to arrive at broad conclusions based on a smaller sample of observations.
What is linguistic inquiry and word count?
A methodology that automatically extracts grammatical and psychological information from a text by counting word frequencies.
What is lived day analysis?
A methodology where a research team follows an individual around with a video camera to objectively document a person’s daily life as it is lived.
What are confounds?
Factors that undermine (influence) the ability to draw inferences from an experiment.
(factors that affect an experiment)
What is correlation?
Measures the association between two variables, or how they got together
What is the dependent variable?
The variable the researcher measures but does not manipulate in an experiement.
What are experimenter expectations?
When experimenter’s expectations influence the outcome of a study
What is the independent variable?
The variable the researcher manipulates and controls in an experiment
What are operational definitions?
How researchers specifically measure a concept
What is participant demand?
When the participant behave in a way they think the researcher wants them to behave
What is the placebo effect?
When receiving special treatment or something new affects human behaviour
What are Quasi-experimental designs?
Experiments that do not require random assignment to conditions
