CHAP 2 (exam 3- nov 4th)

Research:

a scientific process that involves the careful collection, analysis, and interpretation of data

Data:

a collection of measurements gathered during the research process

Scientific method:

a systematic and dynamic procedure of observing and measuring phenomena, used to achieve the goals of description, prediction, control, and explanation; it involves an interaction among research, theories, and hypotheses

Theory:

a model of interconnected ideas or concepts that explains what is observed and makes predictions about future events. These are based on empirical evidence.

Hypothesis:

a specific, testable prediction, narrower than the theory it is based on

what makes a good theory?

it should be falsifiable.

Variable:

Something that can vary and that the researcher can manipulate (change), measure (evaluate), or both

Operational definition:

a definition that qualifies (describes) and quantifies (measures) a variable so the variable can be understood objectively

False positive:

occurs when the hypothesis was false but the study produces seemingly trustworthy results by chance alone

HARKing:

hypothesizing after the results are known

P-hacking:

running many different statistical analyses until one is statistically significant

Underreporting null effects:

choosing not to publish (or being unable to publish) non- significant results

Meta-analysis:

Studies that combine the results of many separate studies to look at the broader picture

Descriptive research:

research methods that involve observing behavior to describe that behavior objectively and systematically

Case study:

a descriptive research method that involves the intensive examination of an unusual person or organization

Participant observation:

a type of descriptive study in which the researcher is involved in the situation

Naturalistic observation:

a type of descriptive study in which the researcher is a passive observer, separated from the situation and making no attempt to change or alter ongoing behavior

Self-report methods:

methods of data collection in which people are asked to provide information about themselves, such as in surveys or questionnaires

Correlational studies:

a research method that describes and predicts how variables are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them or assign causation between them

Directionality problem:

a problem encountered in correlational studies; the researchers find a relationship between two variables, but they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable

Third variable problem:

a problem that occurs when the researcher cannot directly manipulate variables; as a result, the researcher cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest

Confound:

anything that affects a dependent variable and that may unintentionally vary between the experimental conditions of a study

Random assignment:

placing research participants into the conditions of an experiment in such a way that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable

Informed consent:

understanding what will happen in a study and actively agreeing to it

• If deception is used, a careful debriefing must take place after the

study’s completion.

Debriefing:

A process where the researchers inform the participants of the study goals after the study is complete

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs):

groups of people responsible for reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well-being of research participants •

IRBs consist of administrators, legal advisers, trained scholars, and members of the community.

Experimentation Aversion:

a tendency for people to prefer to receive an untested treatment than to participate in a randomized study to evaluate the treatment effectiveness

Construct validity:

the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure

External validity:

the degree to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other people, settings, or situations

Internal validity:

the degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are due to the independent variable and not confounds

Central tendency:

a measure that represents the typical response or the behavior of a group as a whole

Inferential statistics:

a set of procedures that enable researchers to decide whether differences between two or more groups are probably just chance variations or whether they reflect true differences in the populations being compared

Bayesian statistics:

A class of statistics that combines existing beliefs (“priors”) with new data to update the estimated likelihood that a belief is true (“posterior”)