PSYC 601 Exam 1

Method of Tenacity

Beliefs that we hold because we have always believed it without external verification ex: New York has better pizza than Chicago

Method of Authority

When someone with authority says something, that’s why you believe it.

A priori Method

Formal reasoning as used in mathematics or logic

Scientific method (empirical and method for establishing the superiority of beliefs)

E: Scientific approach that relies on observations, experimentation, and direct experience rather than theory

M: Through cognitive biases and social mechanisms

Case Study

Intensive investigation of a single individual or a single situation

Survey Research

Survey approach. Surveys get a small amount of information from a large sample.

Correlational Approach

Examines the relationships between variables. Often used for prediction and selection (the closer it is to 1.0, the stronger it is)

Experimentation (IV, DV)

Casual conclusions. IV= controlled and manipulate and DV= outcome variable

Quasi-Experimentation

Some variables of interest cannot be manipulated or controlled. There is no random assignment, they already use groups that already exist.

(Ex. Sex differences in views on healthcare reform)

Criminal vs. Civil Law

Criminal: Prosecution vs. Defense and is the dos and donts of the law

Civil: Plaintiff vs. defendant. The rules that bind our activities. 

Substantive vs. procedural law

S: All of the stuff you should or should not do. What we usually think of in criminal and civil law.

P: All of the rules that dictate how a court or trial is organized. 

Judicial Process (pre-trial stage Trial Stage, Disposition Stage, Appellate Stage”

PT: someone is charged with a crime, grand jury, indictment, discovery process, and depositions. retrial stage is all the preparation before trial — filing the case, deciding bail, sharing evidence, making motions, and often negotiating a settlement or plea deal.

T: The actual trial 

D: The imposition of a sentence or penalty

A: The appeals process

amicus curiae

An individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. This is in the appellate stage. 

Frye Criteria vs. Daubert for admitting evidence

F: The subject matter is out of the common knowledge of the tier of fact and the facts/theory generally accepted by experts in the field of knowledge

D: Is it testable, has been peer reviewed, known for its potential error rate, and is it generally accepted? Reliability, relevance, and legal sufficiency

Test-Retest reliability

Giving the test twice in a row, we should get the same response

Internal Consistency

the extent to which all the individual items in a measurement tool, such as a survey or test, measure the same underlying construct or concept (split half reliability and parallel forms reliability)

Inter-Judge reliability

The measure of agreement between two independent judges

Reliability and Validity

R: measures the consistency

V: Does a test measure what it’s supposed to measure

Criterion Related Validity

Measure how well a test’s score correlates with another accepted real-world outcome. Example: If kids take the new math test and a well-known state math exam, and the scores are similar, that means the new test has good criterion-related validity.

Concurrent and predictive Validity (these are types of criterion-related validity)

C: Measure with something current.

P: Measure with something in the future.

Content and Construct Validity

Content: Checks that the test is measuring what is supposed to measure

Construct: The extent to which a test measures a psychological construct. 

Larry P. v. Riles Case/ PASE v. Hanson Case

L: Intelligence testing to assign children to EMR classes. These tests are no longer allowed to be used.

P: Subjective analysis test items to try to determine if bias exists.Decided they were still able to be used. The judge said there needed to be criterion-related validity for all groups and to produce identical scores. Also that we should not over rely on these scores.

Independent v. Dependent Variable

IV: This is what the scientist changes. This is the cause.

DV: This is what the scientist measures to see if the IV made a difference. This is the effect. 

Example: You want to see if adding fertilizer helps plants grow. IV= Fertilizer DV= Plant height

Confounding Variable

an external factor that affects both the independent (cause) and dependent (effect) variables

External Validity vs. Internal Validity

IV: Did the experiment really test what it was supposed to test, without other things messing it up?

EV: Can the results of the study apply to other people, places, or situations outside the experiment?

Griggs vs. Duke Power Co. (1971)

Challenge of general ability for hiring and promotion decisions. Found tests/diplomas that block minorities but aren’t job-related = discrimination. Disparte impact discrimination

Albermale Paper Co. vs. Moody (1975)

Companies must prove tests are valid (scientifically linked to job performance) criterion-related validity and content validity

Effect of eyewitness testimony

Deulm's study found that when there is eyewitness ID, there’s 75% of a conviction

Event characteristics

Opportunity to observe, weapon focus, stress and memory, sex and race of the witness and suspect, unconscious transference

Unconscious transference

When an eyewitness makes a wrong ID and instead says the suspect was a bystander who was close to the scene at the time of the crime

Cross-racial Identification

People tend to have a more accurate ID when the suspect is of the same race as them. Not differences in gender

Yurkes-Dodson Law

This is when arousal levels are low= low performance. High arousal= low perfomance but medium arousal=high performance 

Relationship between eyewitness and accuracy

The confidence–accuracy relationship is strongest at the initial identification in fair conditions. It matters because courts must avoid overvaluing later, inflated confidence that doesn’t reflect real memory accuracy.

Labeling Effects

Applying a label influences perceptions, behaviors, etc.

Leading Questions

A question that suggests or contains what the examiner is looking for. This can affect response and affect later memory of the event. 

Example: Loftus (1979)- About how fast the cars were going when they collided?

Post-Event Information

New info is introduced after an event that reshapes what people believe they remember. The closer the PED happens to the event, the higher the chances of misinformation.