AP Psych - 4. Research Methodology

Unit 4

Confidentiality

participants should be identified with a number or letter, never their name unless and agreement was made

Minimize Harm

no mental or physical harm

Voluntary Participants

participants must be voluntary

Informed Consent

is a patient can’t give their own consent a power of an attorney can

Informed Assent

given by a child under 18

Parental Consent

must also be granted for minor to participate

Ethical Guidelines

all research must meet ethical guidelines

Deception

lying about the true purpose of the experiment is allowed if necessary for research

Right to Withdraw

participants have the right to walk away from the study at any given time with no penalties

Debriefing

must occur immediately following the study, otherwise deception is not ethical

Operational Definitions

explicit definitions of the research variables & procedures, allow us to replicate research

Replication

repeating a study using the same methods but different subjects/researchers

Generalizability

apply sample results to more/broad universal groups of people, based on who the study represents

Good Generalizability

results can be applied to many different types of people or situations

Bad Generalizability

results can only be applied to the study population or a very specific situation

Peer Review

evaluation by qualified professionals in the same field of someone else’s research and methods, in order to be published

Qualitative Research

descriptive, lengthier responses, data comes in words, images or observations

Quantitative Research

numerical, uses statistics and mathematical models to understand patterns and relationships

Population

the entire group the study will apply to

Sample

smaller group that is studied

Random Sampling

process of randomly selecting subjects (sample) for a study from the eligible population so that everyone in the population has the same chance of being selected

Sample Bias

bias caused by a flawed and unrepresentative sample because random sampling was not done

Convenience Sampleing

electing people for your research who are close at hand, not randomly selected

Naturalistic Observation

researcher observes human/animal behavior in a natural setting (not a lab) without interaction

Case Study

research design where one individual or small group with something unique in common are studied in depth

Meta-Analysis

taking data from previously completed studies on the same topic and combining them

Survey

can be used in experimental and non-experimental studies

Likert Scale

used to measure quantifiable data, 5-7 point scale where you rank your opinion

Wording Effect/Bias

questions are ordered in a way that leads to biased answers

Self-Report Bias

participants don’t fully true answers 

Social Desirability Bias

people give answers they believe are socially acceptable instead of the truth

Correlational Research

allows us to see if there is a relationship among variables, does not show cause and effect

Correlational Coefficient

relationships are shown by correlational coefficients or scatter plots 

Positive Correlation

move in the same direction, upward, closer to +1 = stronger correlation

Negative Correlation

move downward, closer to -1 + stronger correlation

Directionality Problem

you can’t tell if one variable causes an effect on the other, or vise versa

Third Variable Problem

find a correlation between variables but another variable (third variable) exists that may have affected those variables

Experiment

performed in a lab, the only research that can show cause and effect

Hypothesis

a testable idea about a fact, behavior, relationship, etc that states an expected outcome

Falsifiable

means it can be proven wrong, has to be this to be scientifically valid

Independent Variable

experimental variable that researchers manipulate, given to the experimental group

Dependent Variable

variable researchers measure to see if the manipulation caused a change

Confounding Variable

a hidden or unexpected factor that can influence the independent or dependent variable and skew the results or time of the study

Random Selection

used to draw a sample from the population, can be called random sampling

Representative Sample

can be generalized to the population

Experiment Bias

the researcher’s expectation can influence their perception of the results (unintentional)

Double-Blind Procedures

neither the researcher orr participants knows who is in the control group

Single-Blind Study

participants don’t know who is in the control/experimental group but the researcher does

Placebo

a sugar pill or inactive treatment that is often used with the control group in an experiment

Placebo Effect

when participants experience a beneficial effect from a treatment simply because they know it will work

Descriptive Statistics

• describes your sample

• quantitative

• organizes and summarizes

• includes measures of central tendency (mean, mode,etc.)

Frequency Distribution

list data collected in order from highest to lowest

Histogram

a bar graph created from your frequency distribution, shows continuous data

Mean 

the average of all the scores (add all number then divide by the amount of numbers)

Median

score that falls right in the center

Mode

the score that occurs most often