Week Two: Research in Psychology

Question 1

Hypothesis

Answer 1

Educated guess or statement to be tested by research

Question 2

Research Design

Answer 2

Plan of experimentation for testing hypothesis

Question 3

Dependent Variable

Answer 3

Some aspect of the phenomenon that is measured and is expected to be changed or influenced by the independent variable

Question 4

Independent Variable

Answer 4

The aspect manipulated or thought to influence the change in the dependent variable

Question 5

Internal Validity

Answer 5

Extent to which we can be confident that the independent variable is causing the dependent variable to change

Question 6

External Validity

Answer 6

The extent to which the results of the study can be generalized or applied outside the immediate study

Question 7

Testability

Answer 7

Of a hypothesis, ability to be accepted or rejected

Question 8

Confound/

cofounding variable

Answer 8

Any factor occurring in a research study that makes the results uninterpretable because its effects cannot be separated from those of the variables being studied

Question 9

Control Groups

Answer 9

Group of individuals in a research study who are similar to the experimental subjects in every way but are not exposed to the treatment received by the experimental group;

Question 10

Randomization

Answer 10

Method for placing individuals into research groups that assures each one of an equal chance of being assigned to any group, to eliminate any systematic differences across groups.

Question 11

Analogue Models

Answer 11

Approaches to research that use subjects who are similar to clinical clients, allowing replication of a clinical problem under controlled conditions.

Question 12

Generalizability

Answer 12

Extent to which research results apply to a range of individuals not included in the study and in other settings.

Question 13

Statistical significance

Answer 13

Probability that obtaining the observed research findings merely by chance is small.

Question 14

Clinical significance

Answer 14

Degree to which research findings have useful and meaningful applications to real problems.

Question 15

Effect size

Answer 15

Statistical measure that shows the amount of difference among the members of a group in a clinical study

Question 16

What did Montrose Wold (1978) advocate?

Answer 16

Social validity

Question 17

What does social validity encompass?

Answer 17

Gathering input about changes and if the effect of treatment is large enough then it is clinically significant

Question 18

Why are statistical techniques important?

Answer 18

Measuring effect size and assessing subjective judgements of change will let us better evaluate results of treatment

Question 19

Patient Unity Myth

Answer 19

Tendency to consider all members of a category as more similar than they are, ignoring their individual differences.

Question 20

Why is patient unity bad?

Answer 20

Hides important differences in individual reactions to our interventions

Question 21

In a treatment study, the introduction of the treatment to the participants is referred to as the

Answer 21

independent variable

Question 22

After the treatment study was completed, you found that many people in the control group received treatment outside of the study. This is called a

Answer 22

confound

Question 23

A researcher’s guess about what a study might find is labelled the

Answer 23

hypothesis

Question 24

Scores on a depression scale improved for a treatment group after therapy. The change in these scores would be referred to as a change in the

Answer 24

dependent variable

Question 25

A relative lack of confounds in a study would indicate good :
whereas good generalizability of the results would be called good:

Answer 25

Internal

External

Question 26

Case study method

Answer 26

Research procedure in which a single person or small group is studied in detail. The method does not allow conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships, and findings can be generalized only with great caution.

Question 27

Why are case studies important?

Answer 27

They help us develop methods of treatments

Question 28

Correlation

Answer 28

Degree to which two variables are associated

Question 29

What happens in a positive correlation?

Answer 29

the two variables increase or decrease together

Question 30

What happens in a negative correlation?

Answer 30

one variable decreases as the other increases.

Question 31

Correlation coefficient

Answer 31

Computed statistic reflecting the strength and direction of any association between two variables.

Question 32

-1.0 coefficient represents

Answer 32

perfect negative correlation

Question 33

0.0 coefficient represents

Answer 33

no correlation

Question 34

+1.0 coefficient represents

Answer 34

perfect positive correlation

Question 35

What is epidemiology?

Answer 35

Psychopathology research method examining the prevalence, distribution, and consequences of disorders in populations.

Question 36

Why is epidemiology useful in the study of psychological disorders? Think of vitamins

Answer 36

Early 20th century people displayed symptoms similar to organic psychosis, victims were likely to be poor which led to speculation about class inferiority. Joseph Goldberger found correlations between the disorder and diet leading to the realization that niacin (B vitamin) deficiency was the cause

Question 37

Research method that can establish causation by manipulating the variables in question and controlling for other alternative explanations of any observed effects is called:

Answer 37

An experiment

Question 38

Introducing or withdrawing a variable in a way that would not have occurred naturally is called

Answer 38

manipulating a variable

Question 39

Who is blind in the double blind control group?

Answer 39

Participants and researchers

Question 40

Who came up with single-case experimental designs

Answer 40

B.F. Skinner