psy 213 final (syracuse fall 2023)

method of experience

believing something because it has seemed true in your personal life

method of intuition

believing something because it "feels right" (ex. wearing your lucky socks to your basketball game because it "helps you win")

method of authority

believing something because an authority figure or expert says its true

empirical

believing something based on direct observation

the scientific method - empirical

driven by evidence in the form of systematic observation

the scientific method - public

write papers, attend, and present at conferences, distribute to policy makers and popular media

the scientific method - objective

recognize and avoid bias (ex. statistics, replication, collaboration)

the scientific method

a standardized way of making observations, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results; is a cycle

research question - testable

all variables / constructs can be measured

research question - refutable / falsifiable

can be proven wrong, also specifies a direction

hypothesis

specific idea (from a theory) about a construct that can be falsified and tested

construct

an abstract concept or idea of interest, not directly observable (IV and DV)

operational definition

specifies how each construct will be measured, turns constructs into a variable that can be measured and observed

variable

an element of your study which is allowed to vary

measured variable

dependent variable, measure the outcome

manipulated variable

independent variable, something is manipulated

constant

an element of your study which is not allowed to vary

frequency claim

provides a description of behavior, describes rates or amounts (ex. how many have internet access?)

association claim

indicates the relationship between two things (ex. cuter kids get higher grades)

causal claim

establishing a cause-effect relationship between variables, typically involve one measured continuous variable and one manipulated categorical variable (ex. being with your pet reduces stress)

archival research

conducts analyses on data from primary sources such as public records, often allows from larger sample sizes and national/international comparisons

content analysis

converts text into quantifiable data, usually used for large data sets and uses software to process the data

meta-analysis

conducts analyses on results from several existing studies, used to calculate an overall or average effect size, can be used to determine publication bias, studies the same topic, although the several analyses used may be different types of research

case study or ethnography

provides a qualitative description of a person or group's experiences, useful for documenting rare circumstances, not numerical

observational research

experimenter records the occurrence of pre-selected behaviors, can occur in contrived or naturalistic settings, can measure frequency or duration of behavior

experience sampling

participants are prompted to report their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors at the current moment

survey research design

refers specifically to studies that use surveys to describe groups, might use questionnaires to collect data and that data might be used in various other researches

correlational research (associative claims)

research designed to demonstrate a relationship between two variables

difference between associative and casual

associative claims cannot indicate direction of causal relationship, causal claims uses IV and DV

telling associative and casual claims apart

when people give advice, they are making a causal claim (ex. if you do "x" then "y" will happen as a result)

3 requirements for causal claims

(1) covariation / association; changes in the IV and DV are related

(2) temporal precedence; IV occurs before the DV

(3) non-spurious; relationship between IV and DV cannot be explained by another variable (a confounding variable)

experimental designs

(1) control / comparison; data from at least two groups are compared

(2) manipulation; researcher creates the difference between the groups or conditions

(3) random assignment; equal chance for any participant to be in either group

quasi-experiment design

involves a comparison of groups, does not have random assignment or manipulation, pre-existing groups are compared, can use the same statistical analyses to test experiments and quasi-experiments, cannot make causal claims with quasi-experiments

quanitative data

quantifiable objective (usually numeric) data, amount, duration, frequency, etc.

qualitative data

quality, nature, or theme of data, subjective description

steps of data collection

(1) define behavior categories;

identify every category of behavior PRIOR to conducting the observation, list everything that qualifies as a member of each category

(2) choose a method of measurement; frequency, duration, or interval

(3) choose a type of observation; naturalistic, participant, or intervention

frequency method of measurement

count number of times a behavior occurs

duration method of measurement

measure amount of time spent engaging in behavior

interval method of measurement

set time intervals and note if behavior is observed during that time (yes or no)

naturalistic observation

observe in the natural habitat, do not disturb the subjects being observed, hide, habituate

participant observation

"become" one of the subjects (ex. rosenhan pretended to be schizophrenic to get into psych hospital)

intervention observation

make a change in the world that might not naturally occur (ex. bobo doll experiment)

asch experiment

asked the length of a line, tested to see if the real participant is influenced by the opinion of the others, even when they are clearly incorrect, participants agreed with the incorrect answer 30% of the time

problems with observation

reactivity, demand characteristics, experimenter expectancy effect, subjectiveness of observations

reactivity

people modify natural behavior when they know they are being watched

demand characteristics

people might do what they feel is expected of them based on accidental clues

experimenter expectancy effect

the perceived expectations of an observer can influence the people being observed, aka observer bias

single blind study

experimenter does not know hypothesis or the condition the participant is in

double blind study

neither experimenter nor participant knows the condition

apa style

style used by the American Psychological Association; plain - avoid flowery prose and hyperbole, fact based - anything you state as true must be supported by a reference (ex. peer reviewed article)

seven sections of an apa style paper

(1) title page

(2) abstract

(3) introduction

(4) method

(5) results

(6) discussion

(7) references

(8) figures / tables

body of an apa style paper

introduction, method, results, discussion **IMRD

abstract section of apa paper

brief summary of the entire paper (usually 120 words)

introduction section of apa paper

introduces the constructs & how they are related, sets the stage by reviewing the literature, specifies hypothesis for current research

method section of apa paper

provide sufficient information for a reader to replicate your study exactly, 3 main subsections

3 subsections of the method section of an apa style paper

(1) participants

(2) stimulus materials

(3) design & procedure

results section of apa paper

details and nothing else, no interpretation of data, statistics, refer to tables & figures, essential to most journal articles, provide a caption for each figure or table

discussion section of apa paper

explaining the data; what are the results? are they consistent with the hypothesis? if not, why not?, relate findings to the literature, what are the broad & general implications?

reference section of apa paper

every source of information you refer to or mention in the paper

parenthetical citation

- at the end of the sentence (Last name, year)

- if there are two authors (Last name 1 & Last name 2, 1945)

- if there are more than two authors (Last name et al., 2015)

narrative citation

when referring to the author's work as part of the sentence for the second time, you include the first author's last name, address the rest as "colleagues" and include the year

(ex. Lee and colleagues (2013) found that marijuana use...)

manuscripts

intended for publication in a peer-reviewed journal

conference presentations

talks given to scientific community, often covers information in the same order as an APA formatted manuscript, may include more personal anecdotes and work in progress, often supplemented by slides

poster presentations

visual aid summarizing research project, often includes most important info from each major section: introduction, methods, results, conclusion, designed to be attention grabbing and a quick overview, often supplemented with informal discussion between presenter and audience

research options for an academic audience

manuscripts, conference presentation, poster presentations

research options for a non-academic audience

pop science articles, podcasts, infographics, social media posts

popular science articles

interpretation of science intended for a general audience, more broad-ranging rather than recent scientific developments (like science journalism focuses on)

infographics

more likely to emphasize results only, and may not include any background literature, designed to increase engagement, possibly linking to empirical research report

social media posts

more likely to emphasize results only, and may not include any background literature, designed to increase engagement, possibly linking to empirical research report

survey structure

open with a non-threatening, interesting questions as a warm-up, put general questions before specific ones, demographic questions at the end of the survey

types of survey questions

open ended and restricted-choice

open ended survey questions

benefits:

- freedom & flexibility to provide a unique answer

- best for exploratory, novel research

costs:

- difficult & time consuming to analyze

- participants might not provide a relevant answer

restricted choice survey questions

benefits:

- fast and efficent

- answers guaranteed to be on-topic

costs:

- at risk for a 'response set' - pick an answer, give it all the time

- there may not be an answer that reflects the true opinion of participant

types of restricted choice questions

likert, semantic differential, quantitative, categorical

likert questions

type of restricted choice

ex. mangos are my favorite fruit.

( ) Strongly Agree ( ) Agree ( ) Undecided ( ) Disagree ( ) Strongly Disagree

semantic differential

type of restricted choice

ex. indicate your attitude about doing homework in psy 213

boring --------------- interesting

unnecessary ----------- necessary

quantitative

type of restricted choice

ex. i drink ____ water per day

( ) less than 8 oz

( ) 8-16 oz

( ) 17-24 oz

( ) more than 24 oz per day

categorical

type of restricted choice

ex. my favorite color is

( ) Red

( ) Blue

( ) Green

( ) Yellow

( ) Other

problems with survey studies

memory is easily altered, vocabulary can be confusing, avoid leading questions, avoid tactless questions, avoid double-barreled questions, avoid ambiguous answers, be wary of response sets, establish a frame of reference

sampling

how we select people from the population

representative

how similar the sample is to the population of interest:

very similar = highly representative = unbiased, measured by bias and sample

characteristics of a sample

bias and stability

bias

sample differs from population on important dimensions, means that we have inaccurately sampled our data

bias = systematic difference between sample & population

unbiased = good = representative sample

stability

the spread (or variability) of the sample (how much "noise" in our measurement?)

high stability = low variability = a good thing

the margin of [sampling] error in a poll is based on stability

how to avoid unstable sample

sufficiently large sample size (N), measurements that have little error

!!!! unstable means our sample is not reliable !!!!!

sample size

larger sample size = more certain that your sample is stable

(but a large, stable sample can still be biased)

how to avoid bias

develop a sampling plan

sampling plans

non-probability and probability

non-probability sampling plan

do not draw from the entire population, the probability of selecting any one given person is not known, participants are not selected at random

types of non-probability sampling

(1) convenience

(2) voluntary response

(3) quota

convienence sampling

type of non-probability sampling

take whoever you can get

voluntary response sampling

type of non-probability sampling

participants get to choose to be in sample

quota sampling

type of non-probability sampling

selectively take what is available according to a plan

probability sampling plan

each member of the population has a known and non-zero chance of being selected (i.e., everyone has the potential to be selected), the probability of selecting any one given person is known, participants are selected randomly

types of probability sampling

(1) simple

(2) stratified

(3) proportional stratified

simple sampling

type of probability sampling

everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected

stratified sampling

type of probability sampling

break up population into strata or sub-samples, sample an equal number from each strata

(ex. 20% of your sample from each 5 income brackets)

proportional stratified sampling

type of probability sampling

sample each strata in proportion to its size in the population

(ex. § 3%, 13%, 27%, 20%, 37% from the 5 brackets)

hypothesis

specific idea (from a theory) about a construct that can be falsified and tested, describes why you predict a certain outcome

construct

an abstract concept or idea of interest (not directly observable) (ex. we predict there is an negative association between self-esteem and social media use)