Psych 2010 Cog Dev F22

intuition

knowledge acquired from personal experiences

prone to distortion

leads to illusory associations

authority

accept knowledge based solely on consideration of the source

prone to corruption/deciet/abuse

reason

I think therefore I am

only as good as premises

empirical

knowledge is acquired through systematic observation

only concerned with falsifiable ideas

falsifiable

can be supported/refuted by empirical data

things outside the realm of observation are not subject to scientific methods

objective

observations must be unbiased and able to be made by anyone

findings made public

double blind

neither subject or experimenter knows which treatment condition the subject recieved

replication

requirement that findings must be confirmed by repeating the study and obtaining the same results

inductive reasoning

specific to general

deductive reasoning

general to specific

covariation

when the cause is present, the effect occurs; when the cause is absent, the effect is absent

temporal relationship

the cause must come before the effect

basic research

obtaining information for its own sake, to test a theory or model

applied research

obtaining information to solve an immediate practical problem

abstract

short summary

paragraph-150 words

introduction

develops rationale, justifies and states hypotheses

method

describes exact procedures used, defines measures, etc

results

summary of data and statistical analysis

discussion

interprets results in light of theory, states conclusion

beneficence (concern for welfare)

maximize benefits and minimize harms

autonomy (respect for persons)

subjects should enter/continue research voluntarily and with informed consent

special consideration for persons with developing, impaired, or diminished autonomy

justice

the choice of who receives the benefits/bears the burdens of research should be fair

cannot administer/withhold treatment from underprivileged/any groups

variable

something that can take on more than one value

situational variable

characteristics of a situation within a study

may be manipulated or measured

ex lighting, temperature

response variables

behavioural responses of individuals in study

main variables of interest

ex reaction time, heart rate

participant variables

characteristics of individuals brought with them into the study

ex ethnicity, age

independent variable

a variable manipulated in an experiment to determine it's effects on another variable

ex effects of sleep amount on memory

dependent variable

a variable under study in an experiment to determine if it is influenced by the manipulated variable

extraneous variable

variables that aren't the direct focus of the study but must be considered in order to determine cause/effect relationships between primary variables of interest

confounding variable

variable that co-varies with the independent variable, making it impossible to ascribe a cause-effect relationship ship

mediating variable

variables that may explain the relationship between 2 variables

usually a psychological process

ex diffusion of responsibility between bystander # and helping behaviour

operational definiton

defines a variable in terms of: procedures/operations used to produce/change it

the methods used to measure it

construct validity

how well the operational definition reflects the variable it defines

positive/direct relationship

as the value of one variable increases, values of another increase

monotonic relationship

relationship is in one direction, can be + or -

negative/inverse relationship

as values of one variable increase, the other decreases

non monotonic relationship

relationship between variables is not the same at all levels

no relationship

as values of one variable increases, the other doesn't change in any systematic way

non experimental methods

variables measured, not manipulated

types of relationships can be determined

ex correlational research, quasi-experiments

experimental methods

at least one variable manipulated

enables prediction

to determine cause-effect relationship

limitation of non experimental methods

cannot establish causation

co-variation may be established

temporal precedence of cause over effect may not be known

cannot rule out alternative explanations

experimental control

extraneous variables must be controlled to avoid a confound by:

hold extraneous variables constant across conditions (ex time and location of testing)

randomly distribute extraneous variables across conditions (ex use random assignment)

quasi experiment

non experimental but often look like experiments

lack full experimental control (groups may be self selected/pre formed)

internal validity

ability to state that a cause-effect relationship exists

depends on how well extraneous variables are controlled

experiments have highest degree

external validity

extent to which research findings can be generalized beyond the scope of study

depends on how well participants represent greater population and how well experiment captures factors of "real world"

nominal scale

for variables that categorize individuals

levels differ in quality not quantity

ex biological sex, eye color, yes/no questions

ordinal scale

for variables that assess relative position/rank of individuals along a quantitative

intervals between levels are not meaningful

ex birth order, placement in race

interval scale

for variables that can take on a range of numeric values along a quantitative dimension

intervals between values are quantitatively meaningful

ex daily temperature

ratio scales

for variables that can take on a range of numeric values along a quantitative continuum

value 0 means absence of the variable

reliable

consistent/stable

valid

accurate

test retest reliability

administer same test or alternate forms to the same people at two separate times

if measure is reliable, scores should be highly positively correlated

(consistency of measure over time)

internal consistency reliability

assess reliability of items within a measure by giving a single test at one point in time

important for measures that have multiple items (personality test)

can be evaluated with variables that are not stable (mood, hunger)

(consistency of measure over items)

split test reliability

randomly divide items on test that measure the same variable in two sets

determine correlation between sets of scores

if reliable, highly + correlated