Psych 217 Midterm 1

why study research methods?

• make you an informed consumer.

• gives you an edge in your career.

• makes you an informed citizen.

• helps you evaluate community programs.

what are the ways of acquiring knowledge?

• intuition.

• authority.

• the scientific method.

what is intuition?

• the ability to know something through instinct or insights into anecdotal evidence.

• intuition is affected by motive and emotion.

what is illusory correlation?

• connecting two events because they happened in close proximity to one another.

what is authority?

• authority is putting trust into one that we think knows more than us.

• advertisers may use trust in authority for marketing purposes.

• we can’t blindly trust authority.

what is the scientific method?

• the scientific method rejects intuition and authority.

• the scientific method uses data and evaluation to acquire knowledge.

• science should be universal, communal, disinterested and skeptically organized.

what are the four goals of science?

1. describing

2. predicting

3. determining

4. understanding

why describe behaviour?

• we describe behaviour in order to predict why it happens.

why predict behaviour?

• we predict behaviour to better understand it after observing phenomena.

why identify causes of behaviour?

• to find the root cause

what is the criteria for casual claims?

• if the cause is present, effect occurs.

• the cause must come before the effect.

• nothing but the cause can result in the effect.

what is basic research?

• basic research answers fundamental questions and focuses on testing theories.

what is applied research?

• applied research focuses on solving practical issues or insight into issues.

• applies research usually relies on the foundation of basic research.

where do research ideas come from?

• they may come from questioning common assumptions.

• to solve practical problems.

• by looking at past research ideas.

what is a theory?

• a theory is a set of logical ideas that proposes an explanation for some kind of phenomena

• theories explain an idea.

• theories also generate new knowledge, or reveal for improvement in previous observation.

what is parsimony?

• simpler is better (don’t overcomplicate things).

how do we find out what is already known?

• to find out what is already known, we use past research to guide us.

what to expect in a research article?

1. an abstract summary.

2. an introduction explaining hypotheses and reason for the study.

3. a method section detailing procedures.

4. a results section with findings.

5. a discussion that discusses greater implication.

how do you develop hypotheses and predictions?

• we first look at past research or a more general theory.

• then we develop our research hypothesis.

• then design a study.

operational definition

• defining the variables we study.

• planning for what we manipulate and measure.

participant variables

• characteristics people bring with them.

• can only be measured, not manipulated.

situational variables

• characteristics of situation or environment.

• can be measured and manipulated.

response variables

• performance, reaction, physiology, etc.

• can only be measured.

confounding variable

• variable we aren’t interested in but is intertwined with our main variable.

• this may impact the interpretation of our results.

• this is like a alternative effect on our dependent variable.

correlational study

• a study only measuring variables (two or more).

• measures how variables are related.

• measures how strongly variables are related.

correlation

• statistic that describes relationship between variables.

• only useful for linear relationship.

• does not equal causation.

describe experimental designs

• involves testing the effects of an independent variable on a dependent variable.

• must make sure A precedes B, A is present when B occurs and only A should apply B.

• steps: recruit sample, separation into conditions with independent variables, measure dependent variables.

internal validity

• ability to infer a casual relationship between IV and DV.

• the more we can infer cause between IV and DV, the more internal validity.

• we achieve internal validity via experimental control and random assignment.

what are mediating variables?

• middle man between cause and effect.

how do we achieve internal validity?

• experimental control and random assignment.

what are repeated measure studies?

• each participant is exposed to both conditions.

• may be affected by demand characteristics, fatigue, length of time intervals.

• uses less participants, less lost, easier to see IV effect on DV.

• systematic error is removed in this kind of study.

what are carry-over effects?

• participant response in present condition effected by previous condition.

• practice effects, fatigue effects and contrast effects.

what are the strengths of repeated measures studies?

• easier to see the effect of the IV on the DV.

• efficient in cost and resources.

what is error?

• any variability in the DV caused by something other than the IV.

what is random error?

• things you can’t control in a participant.

• misunderstanding questions, time of day, record errors, etc.

what are systematic errors?

• things you will never be able to control that consistently decrease or increase DV courses.

what are matched pair studies?

• studies where pairs are made based on similar before being put into conditions.

• this is so that both conditions are fairly similar.

what is experiment expectancy effect?

• cognitive bias that occurs when researchers know the predicted outcome, and so impact the results.

• this is a threat to internal validity.

• participants are good at picking up on subtle cues.

describe double-blind.

• both research and participant are unaware of the condition, so no EEE.

what are demand characteristics?

• any experiment feature that participant may pick up on and therefore skew results.

• people may try to help, hinder, or seem better than they are.

describe straightforward manipulation.

• present something for the IV that has to do with the IV.

• participants may guess the purpose of study.

describe staged manipulation.

• try to indirectly elicit an emotion state.

• hard to pull off and costly.