PSYCH10L - Midterm reviewer

experimental psych midterm flashcards, purely terms.

Experimental Psychology

teaches students how to design and execute an experiment.

Authority

It is a factor that constrained commonsense wherein people accept information as truth because they are an authority.

Inferential Strategies

A factor that constrained commonsense psychology because of spontaneous judgement and not based on reasoning.

Scientific Mentality

A characteristic of modern science that imposes that prediction is possible due to the natural order of behavior.

Determinism

Behavior is always caused antecedent affair.

Gathering Empirical Data

Data that are observable or experienced and verifiable.

Laws

General scientific principles that explain and predict events.

Theory

Set of general principles that attempt to explain and predict behavior.

Good Thinking

Organized and rational thought characterized by open mindedness, objectivity and parsimony.

Parsimony

aka Occam’s razor

Self-correlation

old information is reevaluated in light of new facts.

Publicizing Results

Exchange of information and opportunity to incorporate most recent findings.

Replication

Repeat, recreate

Prediction

An objective of psychological science; knowing in advance.

Explanation

An objective of psychological science; knowing the causes of behavior.

Applied Research

A type of research that aims to solve real life problems.

Basic Research

A type of research that attempts to test theories or answer basic questions.

Observation

A tool of psychological science that is done systematic noting and recording non observable like feeling and thoughts.

Measurement

A tool of psychological science that is done by assigning numerical values to objects or events their characteristics according to conventional rules.

Experimentation

The process to test a hypothesis that particular behavior events will occur reliably in certain specifiable conditions.

Explanation

This means specifying the antecedent conditions.

Antecedent Conditions

Are the circumstances that come before the event or behavior that we want to explain.

Treatments

Created specific set of conditions - treating subjects differently as exposed to different sets of conditions.

Psychology Experiment

A controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects.

The Principle of Control

Principle that states that all explanations except the one being tested should be clearly ruled out.

Temporal Relationship

Is the cause-and-effect relationship in the experiment because of time difference.

Wilhelm Wundt

The first experimental psychologist.

G Stanley Hall

The one to open the first laboratory

Mental Philosophy

Study of the consciousness and mental processes.

Pseudoscience

Is a field of study that gives the appearance of being scientific but has no true scientific basis and has not been confirmed using the tools of scientific method.

Mesmerism

A therapeutic technique popularized in the late 18th century by Franz Anton Mesmer, who claimed to effect cures through the use of vitalistic principle that he termed animal magnetism.

Phrenology

The study of the conformation of the skull as indicative of mental faculties and traits of character.

Physiognomy

Also called face reading, is the practice of assessing a person’s character or personality from their outer appearance — especially the face.

Primal Scream

It is based on the idea that repressed childhood traumas are at the root of neurosis, and that screaming can help to release and resolve pain.

Eye Movement Desensitization Therapy

A structured therapy that encourages the patient to briefly focus on the trauma memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation, which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotion associated with the trauma memories.

Introduction

It introduces the hypothesis and tells how it is tested. It usually begins with a description of the general topic area providing evidence for the importance of studying the topic.

Institutional Review Board

Reviews proposed research to safeguard the safety and rights of human participants.

Subject at Risk

One who is more likely to be harmed in some way by participating in the research.

Risk/Benefit Analysis

Risk is outweighed by potential benefits or the importance of knowledge to be gained.

Informed Consent

The subject agrees to participate after having been fully informed about the nature of the study.

Nuremberg Code of 1947

Basis for today’s ethical standard.

Minimal Risk

Subject’s odds of being harmed are not increased by research.

Respect for persons

maintains that every human being is an autonomous person with the right to make hi or her own decisions about research.

Beneficence

Obligation to minimize risk of harm or maximize possible benefits to individuals.

Justice

Fairness in both the burdens and benefits of research.

Deception

Should be justified by the knowledge that is gained and use it if nondeceptive alternative approach is not feasible.

Debriefing

Explaining the true nature and purpose of study especially if it involved deception.

Anonymity and Confidentiality

Protect the privacy of participants.

Animal Welfare

Humane care and treatment of animals.

Fraud

Unethical practice of falsifying or fabricating data.

Karen Ruggiero

An assistant professor at Texas University found guilty of scientific misconduct for falsifying data in several experiments.

Cyril Burt

Published studies on inheritability of IQ in identical and fraternal twins, committed statistical mistake.

Stephen Breuning

Admitted falsification of data on two occasions, he was charged by the NIMH of perjury; the university returned more than $135,000.

Plagiarism

Representation of someone else’s ideas, words or written work as one’s own.

Survey Research

It is the collection of information from a sample of individuals through their responses to questions.

Content Analysis

It is used to systematically categorize the data gathered from the answers.

Nominal Scale

Groups items together into categories that can be named.

Ordinal Scale

Magnitude of each value is measured in the form of ranks.

Interval Scale

Measures magnitude or quantitative size using measures with equal intervals between values, has no true zero point.

Ratio Scale

Has equal intervals between all values and a true zero point.

Response Styles

Tendencies to respond to questions or items in specific ways, regardless of the content.

Yea-sayers

Apt to agree with question even in doubt regardless of its manifest content.

Nay-sayers

Tend to disagree no matter what they are asked.

Context Affects

Sometimes the position of a question can influence how the question is interpreted.

Buffer Items

Questions unrelated to either of the related questions to help separate each other.

Survey

Is a data collection tool, used to gather information about individuals.

Self-Administered questionnaires

• Instructions must be simple and clear,

• Consider the posibility of “reactivity”

• Filled out privately.

• Data is collected anonymously.

Latent Content

The “hidden” meaning behind the queation.

Response Set

A picture we want to create of ourselves.

Email Surveys

These questionnaires include a polite and professional cover letter. Do not expect these questionnaires to be filled out to everyone you send them to.

Computer and Internet Surveys

These questionnaires can be completed on a computer. They also allow people to freely participate or to stop answering whenever they wish.

Telephone Surveys

Most widely used method for conducting survey research.

Interviews

Most expensive method for collecting survey data and it is twice as long as conducting a telephone survey.

Structured Interview

Same questions are asked the same way each time and it provides more usable and quantifiable data.

Unstructured Interview

Free-flowing. The interviewer is free to explore interesting issues as they come up, but the information may not be usable for a content analysis or statistics.

Facilitator

The one who guides the focus group in a discussion for specific issues.

Focus Groups

The discussion is made up of open-ended questions but it is not limited to them.

Reliability

Is the extent to which the survey is consistent and repeatable.

Validity

Usually refers to which a survey actually measures the intended topic.

Sampling

Selecting subject is an important part of any research regardless of its design, and it is a particularly critical issue in survey research.

Population

Consist of all people, animals, or object that have at least one characteristic in common.

Sample of subjects

Is a group that is a subset of the population of interest.

Representativeness

How closely the sample mirrors the larger population.

Probability Sampling

A sampling technique wherein the samples are gathered in a process that gives all the individuals in the population equal chances of being selected.

Random Selection

Any member of the population has an equal opportunity to be selected.

Simple Random Sampling

Each element in the population has an equal probability of selection and each combination of elements has an equal probability of selection.

Systematic Random Sampling

A probability sampling method in which sample members from a large population are selected according to a random starting point and a fixed, periodic interval.

Stratified Random Sampling

Obtained by randomly sampling from people in each subgroup in the same proportions as they exist in the population.

Cluster Sampling

Used when “natural” but relatively homogenous groupings are evident in a statistical population.

Quota Sampling

The researcher selects samples through predetermined quotas that are intended to reflect the makeup of the population.

Convenience Sampling

Obtained by using any groups who happen to be available.

Purposive Sampling

Nonrandom samples are selected because the individuals reflect a specific purpose of the study.

Snowball Sampling

A researcher locates one or few people who fir the sample criterion and ask these people to locate or lead them to additional inidividuals.

Reporting Samples

To participate the participants must follow a given criteria.