Basic Research Methods Deck 2

What are the three common non-scientific sources of psychological knowledge?

Experience, intuition, and authority.

Why is personal experience a flawed source of knowledge?

It lacks proper controls and comparison groups, making it hard to determine whether the factor of interest truly caused an outcome.

What is a comparison group and why is it important?

A group with or without the factor of interest that allows researchers to see what happens in its presence vs. absence, enabling causal conclusions.

Give an example illustrating the need for a comparison group.

Benjamin Rush

s bloodletting treatment: patients sometimes recovered, but without a group who didn

t receive bloodletting, its effectiveness couldn

t be evaluated.

What are confounding variables?

Factors other than the independent variable that can influence results (e.g., vaccination, masks, hand washing), making causal claims unreliable.

Why is intuition an unreliable source of knowledge?

It is vulnerable to cognitive and motivational biases that distort judgment.

What is the good-story bias?

Accepting explanations that sound plausible or appealing even if false (e.g.,

stress causes ulcers,

bloodletting cleanses

).

Define the availability heuristic.

Events that are vivid or easy to recall seem more common than they actually are.

What is confirmation bias?

The tendency to seek or favor information that supports existing beliefs.

What is the bias blind spot?

Recognizing biases in others but failing to see them in oneself.

What is present/present bias?

Focusing on cases where a treatment and outcome are both present, while ignoring cases where one or both are absent.

Why can authority be an imperfect source of information?

Experts can lack complete data, share common biases, or have personal/political agendas.

What is empirical research?

Systematic, peer-reviewed investigation that collects and analyzes data to test hypotheses.

What are empirical journal articles?

Articles reporting original research, detailed methods, and results, allowing replication.

What are review articles?

Papers that summarize and integrate many studies on a topic; may include a meta-analysis to calculate overall effect sizes.

What is a meta-analysis?

A statistical method that combines results from multiple studies to estimate the overall effect of a phenomenon.

How do book chapters and scientific books differ from journal articles?

They are typically less rigorously peer-reviewed and less common for primary research.

What is the purpose of peer review?

To ensure a study

s quality, accuracy, and credibility before publication.

What type of conclusions do behavioral researchers draw?

Probabilistic conclusions

findings explain a portion of cases, not every single case.

What is a researcher

s

privileged view

?

Researchers have access to all comparison groups and and data, allowing more accurate conclusions than personal observation.

What risks are associated with popular press reports of research?

They may oversimplify, misinterpret, or omit key details of the original studies.

What is disinformation?

The deliberate creation and sharing of false information to mislead the public.

How can you evaluate popular press claims?

Check if they accurately reflect the original research and are supported by credible, multiple sources.