Research Methods: Vocabulary

Authority

accepting knowledge because a trusted source says it is true. (C1)

Intuition

accepting knowledge because it feels true, without evidence or reasoning (C1)

Rationalism

acquiring knowledge through logical reasoning (C1)

Empiricism

acquiring knowledge through observation and evidence (C1)

Systematic empiricism

careful, systematic observation and measurement, the core of the scientific method (C1)

Pseudoscience

claims presented as scientific that lack one or more features of science (C1)

Folk psychology

everyday beliefs about human behavior; often incorrect, which is why psychology uses science (C1)

Skepticism

searching for evidence and considering alternatives before accepting a claim (C1)

Tolerance for uncertainty

withholding judgement when there is not enough evidence to decide (C1)

Basic vs. applied research

basic research learns about behavior for its own sake ; applied research solves a practical problem (C1)

Research literature

all published research, mainly journal articles and scholarly books (C2)

Theory

a broad explanation that acconts for larger bodies of data (C2)

Hypothesis

a specific predition about the outcome of a particular study (C2)

hypothetico-deductive method

deriving hypotheses from a theory, testing them and revising the theory based results (C2)

Variable

something that varies across people or situations; quantitative (e.g., age) or categorical (e.g., major) (C2)

Population and sample

a population is the whole group of interest, a sample is the subset selected to participate (C2)

simple random sampling

every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected (C2)

Convenience sampling

selecting people who are nearby adn willing to participate ; may not represent the population (C2)

experimental vs. non-experimental

experiments manipulate a variable; non-experimental research measures variables as they naturally occur (C2)

Measures of central tendency and dispersion

mean, median, and mode describe the typical score ; range, standard deviation, and variance describe spread (C2)

Four Moral Principles

weigh risks against benefits ; act responsibly with integrity ; seek justice ; respect people's rights and dignity (C3)

Informed consent

obtaining and documenting agreement after informing people of everything that might reasonably affect their decision (C3)

deception

misleading participants about a study. The APA ethics code allows it only under specific conditions (C3)

debriefing

informing participants about the study's purpose and any deception after their participation (C3)

Institutional review board (IRB)

a committee that reviews research protocols to sure they meet ethical standards (C3)

APA Ethics Code

the most important ethics code psychology researchers; standard 8 covers research (C3)

Written ethics codes

documents such as the nuremberg code, declaration of Helsinki, Belmont Report, and Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.

Ethical conflict

unavoidable in research; researchers must think through issues, minimize risks, and take responsibility for decisions (C3)

Confidentiality

protecting participants' identifying information ; a responsibility that continues after IRB approval (C3)

Scholarly integrity

honesty in research and in reporting it through the publication process (C3)

Measurement

assigning scores to individuals so the scores represent a characteristic of those individuals (C4)

Construct

A variable that cannot be observed directly, such as intelligence, self-esteem, or depression (C4)

Conceptual definiton

a description in words of what a construct means. (C4)

Operational definition

the specific way a construct is measured. One construct can have several. (C4)

Converging operations

using multiple operational definitions of the same construct (C4)

Levels of measurement

nominal , ordinal, interval, and ratio, each conveying more quantitative information than the last (C4)

Reliability

Consistency of a measure across time, items, and raters. (C4)

Test-retest reliability

Consistency of scores when the same measure is given at two points in time. (C4)

Internal consistency

Consistency among the items within one measure. (C4)

Validity

the extent to which scores actually represent the variable they are intended to measure. (C4)

Experiment

an empirical study that manipulates an independent variable, measures a dependent variable, and controls extraneous variables. (C5)

Independent Variable

the variable the researcher manipulates to create conditions (C5)

Dependent variable

the variable the researcher measures to see whether it changes across conditions. (C5)

Extraneous variable

any variable that varies systematically with the independent variable. (C5)

Confound

An extraneous variable that varies systematically with the independent variable. (C5)

Random assignment

Placing participants into conditions by chance, used in between-subjects experiments. (C5)

Counterbalancing

varying the order of conditions across participants in within-subjects experiments. (C5)

Placebo control condition

Participants receive a treatment look-alike that lacks the active ingredient. (C5)

Internal validity

The extent to which the way a study was conducted supports a casual conclusion (C5)

External validity

The extent to which results generalize to people and situations beyond the study. (C5)