FINAL 3650

What is an experiment?

a type of research design that involves manipulation of an independent variable, allowing control of extraneous variables that could affect the results//

What is a case study?

a research design that involves intensive study of a particular individual and their behaviors//

What is a correlational study?

a type of research design that examines the relationships between multiple dependent variables, without manipulating any of the variables//

What is a quasi-experimental design?

a type of research design where a comparison is made, as in an experimental, but no random assignment of subjects to groups occurs//

What is a predictor variable?

the dependent variable in a correlational study that is used to predict the score on another variable//

What is an outcome variable?

the dependent variable in a correlational study that is being predicted by the predictor variable//

What is a small-N design?

an experiment conducted with one or a few participants to better understand the behavior of those individuals//

What is an independent variable?

variable that is manipulated//

What is a dependent variable?

the measurable effect, outcome, or response in which the research is interested//

What is external validity?

the degree to which the results of a study apply to individuals and realistic behaviors outside the study//

What is internal validity?

the degree to which a study provides causal information about behavior//

What year is considered the birth of psychology?

1879//

Who started the first psych lab?

Wilhelm Wundt//

What is the main goal for this class?

to be a good consumer of scientific evidence//

What is basic research?

research conducted with the goal of understanding fundamental processes of phenomena//

What is applied research?

research conducted with the goal of solving everyday problems//

Which research design allows us to find causation?

experimental designs//

What is the first step in the research process?

choosing a research question that adds new knowledge and can be answered with scientific methods//

What is the second step in the research process?

conduct a literature review via PsycINFO, other web sources or attend a conference//

What is the third step in the research process?

develop a hypothesis that is theory driven or data-driven//

What is the fourth step in the research process?

design the study//

What is the fifth step in the research process?

conducting the study//

What is the sixth step in the research process?

analyzing the study//

What is the seventh step in the research process?

report the results//

What is the IRB and what do they do?

institutional review board, approves research proposals and ensures the study is ethical//

What is a between subjects design?

each participant experiences only one of the conditions in the experiment or study//

What is a within-subjects design?

each participant experiences every condition of the experiment/study//

What is a nominal scale?

nonordered categorical responses//

What is qualitative data?

non-numerical participant responses//

What is quantitative data?

numerical data//

What is an ordinal scale?

ordered categorical responses//

What is an interval scale?

numerical responses that are equally spaced, but scores are not ratios of each other//

What is a ratio scale?

numerical responses, where scores are ratios of each other//

What is sampling error?

the difference between the observations in a population and in the sample that represents that population in a study//

What is a probability sample?

a sample chosen such that individuals are chosen with a specific probability//

What is a convenience/purposive sample?

a sample chosen such that the probability of an individual being chosen cannot be determined//

What is simple random sampling?

sample chosen randomly from the population and every member of the population has an equal probability of being selected for the sample//

What is cluster sampling?

dividing the population into a group/cluster then selecting a sample from each cluster//

What is stratified random sampling?

sample chosen from the population such that the proportion of individuals with a particular characteristic is equivalent in the population and the sample//

What is volunteer sampling?

a sample chosen from the population such that available individuals are chosen based on who volunteers to participate//

What is quota sampling?

selecting sample based on convenience until a certain number of participants are selected from each category (e.g., 10 male, 20 female)//

What is snowball sampling?

a sample where past participants recommend future participants from the same population//

What is the best sampling technique but almost never used?

simple random sampling//

What is descriptive statistics?

measures that help us summarize data sets//

What is inferential statistics?

a set of statistical procedures used by researchers to test hypotheses about populations//

What are the major sections of an APA paper?

- Title - Abstract - Intro - Methods (design/procedures, participants, materials) - Results - Discussion - Tables/graphs - Reference//

What is the abstract section of an APA article?

a summary of an article that appears at the beginning of the article and in searchable databases of journal articles. It usually includes (a) the general topic of the study, (b) a brief description of the methodology, (c) the major results of the study, and (d) what was learned from the study. Strict APA style allows for a maximum of 120 words//

What is the discussion section of an APA article?

compares the results of a study to the predictions and the results of previous studies//

What is the introduction section of an APA article?

introduces the topic of the study, reviews relevant background studies, and presents predictions for the data//

What is the method section of an APA article?

describes the participants, design, stimuli, apparatus, and procedure used in the study//

What is the results section of an APA article?

presents a summary of the results and the statistical tests of the predictions//

What is an alpha level?

the probability level used by researchers to indicate the cutoff probability level (highest value) that allows them to reject the null hypothesis//

What does P ≤ 0.05 mean?

the alternative hypothesis was accepted and the null hypothesis was rejected//

What does P ≥ 0.05 mean?

the alternative hypothesis was rejected and the null hypothesis was accepted//

What is construct validity?

indicates that a survey measures the behavior it is designed to measure//

What is criterion validity?

determining the validity of the scores of a survey by examining the relationship between the survey scores and other established measures of the behavior of interest//

What is test-retest reliability?

indicates that the scores on a survey will be similar when participants complete the survey more than once//

What is a pretest-posttest design?

a type of research design (often quasi-experimental) where behavior is measured both BEFORE and AFTER a treatment or condition is implemented//

What is an interaction effect?

tests the effect of one independent variable at each level of another independent variable in an ANOVA//

What is a main effect?

test of the differences between all means for each level of an independent variable in an ANOVA//

How many independent variables should a multi-experiment have?

2+//

What are some advantages of having multiple independent variables?

able to test for interaction effects between variables and it is more efficient//

What is a longitudinal design?

a developmental design where a single sample of participants is followed over time and tested at different ages//

What is a cross-sectional study?

a developmental design in which multiple samples of participants of different ages are tested once//

What is a cohort-sequential design?

a developmental design where multiple samples of participants of different ages are followed over time and tested at different ages//

What is an interrupted time series design?

a time series design where the "treatment" is an independent event, such as a historical event//

What is a non-interrupted time series design?

a time series design where the "treatment" is implemented by the researcher//

What are the threats to internal validity?

history, maturation, instrumentation, testing, selection bias, regression to the mean, social interaction, and attrition//

What are the threats to external validity?

selection effects, reactive effects, measurement effects//

What is the difference between correlational and experimental studies?

in a correlation study, the researcher or research team does not have control over the variables in the study. In an experiment, the research team has control over the independent variable and other aspects of the experiment//

What is a quasi-independent variable?

a variable that allows comparison of groups of participants without manipulation (i.e., no random assignment)//

What is the IRB equivalent for research with nonhuman animal subjects?

institutional animal care and use committee//

What studies have the smallest amount of risk involved?

exempt studies//

External validity is typically more important for ______ research than for ______ research.

applied; basic//

A researcher who examines the relationship between individuals' tooth flossing frequency and the incidence of heart disease in these individuals is using what type of research design?

correlational//

Confounding variables primarily threaten what in a study?

internal validity//

If a study involves comparing means from a factorial design, the appropriate statistical test is what?

an ANOVA//

_____ can occur for tasks that may affect future performance over time?

carryover effects//

One advantage to using a factorial design is that a researcher can be more efficient in testing the effects of multiple ______ variables in one experiment.

independent//

What type of design was used in the Bandura "bobo doll" study?

between subjects experiment//