Zoe Gellert Exam 1 Notes

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms and definitions from lecture notes on research methods, scientific inquiry, claims, validities, experimental designs, and threats to internal validity.

Producer Role

The role of understanding research for coursework, grad school, or working in a research lab.

Consumer Role

The role of reading and understanding news stories based on research, or using research for career advancement.

Empiricists

Scientists who use instruments and firsthand evidence, often through quantitative and qualitative methods, to obtain knowledge through an individual's senses.

Reflexivity

Scientists' self-conscious consideration of how their background or privilege shapes their research questions and interpretations.

Theory-Data Cycle

The process by which scientists use collected data to test, change, or update their theories.

Falsifiable

A characteristic of good theories, meaning they can be proven wrong.

Theory

A broad set of statements describing how variables relate to each other.

Hypothesis

A specific prediction derived from a theory.

Data

A set of observations used to test a hypothesis or theory.

Universalism (Merton's Norm)

Scientific claims are evaluated based on their merit, independent of the researcher's credentials or reputation.

Communality (Merton's Norm)

Scientific knowledge is created by a community, and its findings belong to that community.

Disinterestedness (Merton's Norm)

Scientists strive to discover the truth, unbiased by profit, politics, conviction, or idealism.

Organized Skepticism (Merton's Norm)

Scientists question everything, including their own theories.

Applied Research

Research conducted to solve a specific, efficient problem, with directly applicable findings to real-world issues.

Basic Research

Research aimed at enhancing the general body of knowledge about a particular topic or scientific principle.

Translational Research

Research that applies findings from basic research to develop practical applications and confirm findings on a broader scale.

Comparison Group

A group in a research study that allows for the systematic comparison of outcomes between different conditions.

Confound Variables

Other explanations for a research study's findings, which good research controls for to isolate factors.

Probabilistic

A characteristic of research findings, meaning they are not expected to explain all cases all the time, but rather a certain proportion.

Availability Heuristic

A cognitive bias where people are persuaded by what easily comes to mind, often ignoring what is not immediately present.

Present/Present Bias

The tendency to focus on what is present and fail to look for absences, leading to overlooking non-significant results.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to focus on evidence that supports one's existing beliefs or thinking.

Blind Spot Bias

The belief that one is unlikely to fall prey to cognitive biases, despite evidence of others doing so.

Disinformation

The deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false.

Variable

A factor that varies and must have at least two levels (values).

Measured Variable

A variable whose levels are observed and recorded without being manipulated by the experimenter.

Manipulated Variable

A variable that the researcher controls, usually by assigning participants to different levels of that variable.

Abstract Concepts

Theoretical constructs like 'infant temperament' or 'anxiety' that need to be defined operationally for empirical testing.

Operational Definition

The specific way a conceptual variable is turned into a measured or manipulated variable for a study.

Operationalize

The process of turning a conceptual definition into a measured or manipulated variable.

Frequency Claim

A claim that describes a particular level or degree of a single variable, often expressed as a percentage or rate.

Association Claim

A claim that argues one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable, indicating a correlation.

Causal Claim

A claim that one variable causes a change in the level of another variable, typically supported by experiments and meeting specific criteria.

Internal Validity

The extent to which variable A is responsible for changes in variable B, rather than another confounding variable (C).

External Validity

The extent to which the results of a study generalize to a larger population, other times, or situations.

Construct Validity

How well the variables in a study are measured or manipulated; the extent to which operational variables approximate conceptual variables.

Statistical Validity

How well the numbers support the claim being made, considering the effect size, precision of estimate, and replicability.

Covariance (for Causal Claims)

A criterion for causal claims stating that the study results show as variable A changes, variable B also changes.

Temporal Precedence (for Causal Claims)

A criterion for causal claims stating that the causal variable (A) must come first in time, before the outcome variable (B).

Self-Report Measure

A method of measuring variables where participants provide information about themselves, e.g., questionnaires.

Observational Measure

A method of measuring variables by directly observing and recording behavior.

Physiological Measure

A method of measuring variables by recording biological data, such as brain activity or hormone levels.

Categorical Variable (Nominal)

A variable whose levels are qualitatively described and have no meaningful numerical order.

Quantitative Variable

A variable whose levels are coded with meaningful numbers.

Ordinal Scale

A quantitative scale where levels represent a rank order (e.g., first, second, third), but distances between levels are not equal.

Interval Scale

A quantitative scale with meaningful intervals between numbers but no true zero point (e.g., IQ scores, temperature in Celsius/Fahrenheit).

Ratio Scale

A quantitative scale where zero means 'none' of the variable (e.g., height, weight, number of correct answers on a test).

Reliability

The consistency of a measure, ensuring consistent scores over time, across raters, or internally among its items.

Test-Retest Reliability

The consistency of scores every time a measure is used for the same individual.

Interrater Reliability

The consistency of scores no matter who does the measuring, typically between different observers.

Internal Reliability

The consistency of a pattern of responses regardless of how the researcher has phrased the question, especially for multi-item scales.

Face Validity

A subjective measure of construct validity, indicating that a measure appears to measure what it's supposed to.

Content Validity

A subjective measure of construct validity, ensuring the measure contains all the parts that the underlying theory says it should contain.

Criterion Validity

An objective measure of construct validity, evaluating whether the measure is associated with a concrete behavioral outcome that it should be associated with.

Known-Groups Evidence for Criterion Validity

A method to gather evidence for criterion validity by seeing if scores on a measure can discriminate between two or more groups whose behavior is already confirmed.

Convergent Validity

An objective measure of construct validity, where a measure should correlate highly with scores on other measures of the same construct.

Discriminant Validity

An objective measure of construct validity, where a measure should not correlate too highly (or at all) with measures of theoretically dissimilar constructs.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that is manipulated by the researcher, with different 'conditions' or levels.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The measurable outcome variable in an experiment that is influenced by the independent variable.

Controlled Variable

A variable that an experiment holds constant to minimize its influence on the dependent variable.

Control Group

A group in an experiment that receives no treatment or a neutral level of the independent variable, serving as a baseline for comparison.

Treatment Group

A group in an experiment that receives a non-neutral level of the independent variable.

Placebo Group

A type of control group that receives an inert treatment but believes they are receiving an active treatment.

Confounds

Possible alternative explanations for an observed outcome in a study, posing a threat to internal validity.

Design Confounds

A threat to internal validity caused by a mistake in designing the independent variables, where a second variable systematically varies with the intended IV.

Systematic Variability

When a second variable happens to vary along with the intended independent variable, creating a design confound.

Between-Subjects Design

An experimental design where different groups of participants are exposed to different levels of the independent variable (also called independent-groups design).

Posttest-Only Design

A between-subjects design where participants are randomly assigned to groups and the dependent variable is measured only once after the experiment.

Pretest/Posttest Design

A between-subjects design where the dependent variable is measured both before and after the manipulation of the independent variable.

Random Assignment

A method used in experiments to ensure that individual differences of participants are about the same in each group, enhancing internal validity.

Within-Subjects Design

An experimental design where participants experience all levels of the independent variable, allowing for comparisons within the same individuals (also called repeated measures).

Concurrent Measures Design

A type of within-subjects design where participants are exposed to all levels of an independent variable at one time, and their preference is measured.

Order Effects

A threat to internal validity in within-subjects designs where the order of conditions influences participants' responses (e.g., practice or fatigue effects).

Counterbalancing

A method to control for order effects in within-subjects designs by presenting the different levels of the independent variable in various sequences.

Latin Square

A common technique for partial counterbalancing, ensuring each condition appears equally often in each position and before and after every other condition.

Manipulation Check

An additional dependent variable included in a study to ensure that the manipulation of the independent variable actually worked as intended.

Pilot Study

A small-scale, preliminary study conducted before the main research to test procedures, manipulations, and measures.

Maturation Threat

An internal validity threat where an observed change in an experimental group could be due to natural changes or improvements over time, not the treatment.

History Threat

An internal validity threat where an external event or factor (other than the treatment) occurring between pretest and posttest systematically affects most members of the treatment group.

Regression Threat

An internal validity threat occurring when a group's average score is unusually extreme at Time 1, making it likely to be less extreme (closer to the mean) at Time 2.

Attrition Threat

An internal validity threat occurring when there is a systematic reduction in participant numbers from pretest to posttest, especially if specific types of participants drop out.

Testing Threat

An internal validity threat where a change in participants results from taking a test (the DV) more than once (e.g., practice effects or fatigue effects).

Instrumentation Threat

An internal validity threat occurring when the measuring instrument changes over time, or observers change their standards for coding behaviors.

Observer Bias

An internal validity threat where a researcher's expectations influence the interpretation of results.

Demand Characteristics

An internal validity threat where participants guess the study's purpose and change their behavior accordingly.

Placebo Effects

An internal validity threat where participants improve simply because they believe they are receiving a treatment, not due to the treatment itself.

Double-Blind Placebo Control

An experimental setup where neither the participants nor the individuals administering the treatment know who is receiving the true therapy versus a placebo.

Null Effects

An experimental outcome that shows no significant difference between groups or no significant correlation, potentially due to weak manipulations or insensitive measures.

Weak Manipulations

A reason for null effects where the independent variable was not changed enough between levels to produce a detectable difference.

Insensitive Measures

A reason for null effects where the dependent variable measure is not precise enough to detect existing differences.

Ceiling Effect

A type of insensitive measure where all scores on the dependent variable are at the high end, making it impossible to see true differences.

Floor Effect

A type of insensitive measure where all scores on the dependent variable are at the low end, making it impossible to see true differences.

Measurement Error

The degree to which a recorded or measured variable differs from its true value, which can contribute to null effects.

Individual Differences

Variability among participants in a study that can spread out scores within groups and obscure between-group differences, contributing to null effects.

Situation Noise

Unrelated events or distractions in the environment that create unsystematic variability within groups of participants, potentially leading to null effects.

Power (Statistical Validity)

The likelihood that a study will yield a statistically significant result when the independent variable truly has an effect.