week 4 research approaches Flashcards
falsifiability
the ability to disprove hypotheses as criterion for scientific research
refuting a general principle
causality
distinguishing cause and effect relationships from mere correlation
validity
ensuring internal (study-specific) and external (generalisable) conclusions
what did alhazen do
advocated observation and systematic inquiry
what did Francis bacon introduce
inductive method and systematic experiments
what did Karl popper emphasize
falsifiability and critical rationalism
what do you associate popper and bacon with
observation
what is another way to say raven paradox
the paradox of indoor ornithology
explain the raven paradox
work on the logic of confirmation and is based on the principle of inductive reasoning. It can be summarized as follows:
- A universal statement, such as “All ravens are black,” is logically equivalent to its contrapositive: “If something is not black, then it is not a raven.”
- Observing a black raven confirms the statement “All ravens are black.”
- By the same logic, observing a green apple (a non-black, non-raven) should also confirm the statement, because it supports the contrapositive.
what is inductive reasoning
drawing general conclusions or forming hypotheses based on specific observations or evidence.
what did Karl popper refute
inductive reasoning - can’t make a general statement from a few examples
4 steps of hypothetico-deductive model
- research question
- hypothesis
- predictions through deductive inference
- test - falsify
what is deductive inference
logical reasoning in which a conclusion is derived from one or more general premises that are assumed to be true.
what is the emphasis of hypothetico-deductive model
avoid logical error like affirming the consequence
operationalisation
translate general hypothesis into specific prediction of measurements - defining variables
generalisation
translate specific results of a test into a general statement that contributes to a theory
confounder
condition/factor whose variation systematically affects the DV, but is not part of the IV
noise
unsystematic random variation of measurements producing uncertainty
how to control confounds
keep all conditions constant even those not part of the experiment
how to control noise
can’t fully eliminate noise but you can minimize it
measurements should be as precise as possible - little variation
weakness of observational research
no test of causality as no manipulation or control
clutter of data
ptsp can act differently when they know they’re being watched
ethical problems - consent
what does cooccurrence not allow for
establishing cause and effect
what do confounds produce
spurious correlations/relationships between IV and DV
spurious correlation
A spurious correlation is a misleading statistical association between two variables that occurs because of the influence of one or more confounding variables, not because of any actual causal relationship between the two variables.
