L3. Doing Social Psychological Research

Falsifiability

A characteristic of scientific hypotheses where they are stated in a specific, quantifiable way that allows them to be tested empirically and proven wrong.

Replicability

The principle that researchers should report their methods in detail so that others can try to repeat the study and obtain the same findings.

Likeness Begets Liking

The finding that friends, engaged couples, and spouses are far more likely than random pairings to share common attitudes, beliefs, values, and personality traits.

Dissimilarity Breeds Dislike

The tendency for discovering that someone is dissimilar from you to decrease liking for that person.

Complementarity

The popularly supposed tendency, in a relationship between two people, for each to complete what is missing in the other (e.g., dominance/submissiveness).

Basic Research

Research that seeks to increase our understanding of human behavior and is often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a specific theory.

Applied Research

Research that aims to use social psychology's theories or methods to understand naturally occurring events and contribute to solving social problems.

Social Facilitation

A process whereby the presence of others enhances performance on easy tasks but impairs performance on difficult tasks.

Social Loafing

A group-produced reduction in individual output on tasks where individual contributions are pooled.

Hypothesis

A testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events.

Theory

An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena.

Displacement Theory (of Aggression)

The theory that aggression can be redirected to a target other than the source of frustration, usually a safer or more socially acceptable target.

Social Learning Theory

The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating others and by being rewarded and punished.

Conceptual Variable

The abstract, general form of a variable (e.g., prejudice, aggression, attraction).

Operational Definition

The specific way in which a conceptual variable is manipulated or measured in a study.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a study's manipulations really manipulate the intended conceptual variables and its measures really measure the intended conceptual variables.

Self-Reports

A measurement method where participants disclose their own thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions.

Bogus Pipeline Technique

A procedure where participants are led to believe their responses will be verified by an infallible lie detector, increasing the accuracy of their self-reports.

Interrater Reliability

The degree to which different observers agree on their observations.

Descriptive Research

Research whose goal is simply to describe people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Observational Study

A descriptive research method that involves observing people and recording their behavior.

Archival Study

A descriptive research method that involves examining systematic records of past events and behaviors (e.g., newspapers, diaries, statistics).

Survey

A descriptive research method that involves asking people questions about their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Random Sample

A sample in which each person in the population has an equal chance of being selected.

Correlational Research

Research that assesses the relationships or associations between two or more variables.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure (ranging from -1.0 to +1.0) of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables.

Positive Correlation

A relationship between two variables where they increase or decrease together (as one goes up, the other goes up).

Negative Correlation

A relationship between two variables where they go in opposite directions (as one goes up, the other goes down).

Experimental Research

A form of research that can demonstrate causal relationships because the experimenter controls procedures, manipulates the independent variable, and uses random assignment.

Random Assignment

A procedure in which each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition in an experiment, helping to ensure pre-existing differences are distributed evenly.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable in an experiment that the researcher manipulates to see its effect on the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable in an experiment that is measured to see if it is affected by the independent variable.

Quasi-Experiment

A research design where a researcher can manipulate an independent variable but cannot use random assignment (e.g., using pre-existing groups like married vs. single).

Internal Validity

The extent to which changes in the independent variable can confidently be said to cause changes in the dependent variable.

External Validity

The degree to which there can be confidence that the results of a study would be obtained for other people and in other situations (generalizability).

Mundane Realism

The degree to which the experimental setting and procedures physically resemble real-world situations.

Experimental Realism

The degree to which experimental procedures are engaging and elicit spontaneous involvement from participants.

Deception (in experiments)

A research procedure where participants are given false information, often to make the experiment more realistic or to study phenomena that couldn't be studied otherwise.