Research Design & Analysis Exam 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering core psychological research methods, scientific inquiry, ethical considerations, and correlational design principles from Chapters 1 through 4.

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge comes from direct observation and experimentation, relying on empirical evidence and data.Claims based on evidence/data 

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories while ignoring contradictory data. You believe your favorite celebrity is a good person, so you only pay attention to positive stories about them and ignore negative ones. 

Ethnocentric Bias

Judging another culture based on the standards and values of one's own culture, failing to recognize how personal cultural values affect behavioral interpretations.

Illusory Correlation

Perceiving a relationship between events when none exists, such as assuming the opposite outcome must occur after repeated independent events.

Basic Research

Research conducted primarily to expand fundamental knowledge and theoretical understanding without an immediate practical application.

Applied Research

Research designed specifically to address and solve a practical, real-world problem.

Causation

A direct relationship in which a change in one independent variable directly produces a change in a dependent variable.

Covariation

A requirement for causality stating that two variables must change together or show a systematic relationship. - As hours of studying increase, test scores increase. 

Temporal Precedence

The essential cause-and-effect principle establishing that the cause must occur prior in time to the effect.

- You study whether sleep affects test scores. 

- Sleep happens first 

- Test score happens after 

Confound

An outside, extraneous variable that could affect research results, making it unclear what actually caused the observed effect.

- another possible reason why something happened. 

Skepticism

The practice of requiring evidence before accepting claims, particularly regarding personal anecdotes, experiences, or gut intuitions.

Pseudoscience

Claims presented as scientific that lack support from reliable scientific evidence or proper scientific methodology.

Falsifiability

The requirement that a scientific claim or hypothesis must be testable and capable of being proven wrong by empirical evidence.

Goals of Behavioral Science

The four primary objectives of research: to Describe, Predict, Explain, and Control behavior.

Literature Review

A comprehensive summary and analysis of previous research studies published on a specific topic.

• Example: If you are studying how social media affects sleep, you would look at many previous studies about social media and sleep and summarize what researchers have found. 

Theory Article

A scientific article that explains, develops, or discusses a conceptual framework rather than reporting new experimental data.

Empirical Research Paper

A scientific report detailing original data gathered through observations, experiments, surveys, or other direct research methods.

Abstract

A short summary placed at the beginning of an empirical research report detailing what was studied, how it was studied, and key findings.

- What they studied, how they studied it, and what they found. 

Introduction (Research Report)

The section of an empirical paper explaining the study's purpose, background context, previous research, and importance. A summary of past studies, the research gap, and the specific hypotheses or research questions

Method (Research Report)

The section of a research report detailing participants, materials, and procedural steps used to conduct the study.

Results (Research Report)

The section of an empirical paper presenting the gathered quantitative data and statistical findings of the study.

• often shown using tables, charts, and graphs, without personal interpretation

Discussion (Research Report)

The section of a research paper that interprets findings, addresses study limitations, and suggests future research directions.

References

A complete list of all academic sources and citations used in the paper

Research Question

A specific, meaningful inquiry designed to contribute new insights to existing scientific literature.

- Bad: Students are more likely to sit with two feet on the ground watching a lecture in a classroom than asynchronously. 

- Good: Students who study a little every day are more likely to retain course information than students who mass study to a single day each semester. 

Hypothesis

A testable, non-circular, and falsifiable prediction rooted in existing research that clearly defines constructs.

Independent Variable

The variable in an experiment that is directly manipulated or controlled by the researcher to evaluate its effect.

Dependent Variable

The variable measured by researchers to determine whether it undergoes changes in response to the independent variable.

Meta-Analysis

A statistical procedure that combines results from multiple independent studies on the same topic to establish overall findings.

Operational Definition

A precise, explicit description of how a variable or construct will be measured or manipulated in a specific study.

Impact Factor

A metric reflecting journal citation frequency, calculated by dividing total citations by total published articles over a $2\text{-year}$ period.

Peer Review

The process wherein domain experts evaluate a submitted manuscript prior to publication through editorial triage and external review.

- Author submits manuscript 

- Editor “Triage” 

- Manuscript sent for external review 

- Reviewers submit assessment 

- Editorial Decision made/communicated 

Predatory Publisher

An entity that pretends to be a legitimate scholarly publisher, failing to perform proper peer review and charging authors fees to publish.

Psyc Info

A specialized database used to search for psychological and behavioral science literature, books, and dissertations.

Belmont Report

A landmark document establishing core ethical principles for human subject research, including informed consent and risk assessment.

APA Code of Ethics

Ethical guidelines for psychologists encompassing Beneficence, Fidelity, Integrity, Justice, and Respect for Rights.

Principle of Beneficence

An ethical mandate requiring researchers to maximize participant benefits while minimizing potential physical, psychological, or social risks.

Risk-Benefit Analysis

An ethical evaluation comparing prospective risks to participants against expected scientific or societal benefits prior to research.

Assent

Formal agreement to participate in research given by a minor, accompanied by written informed consent signed by a parent or legal guardian.

Coercion in Research

Any procedure or excessive incentive that improperly compromises an individual's voluntary freedom to decline or grant consent.

Active Deception

The intentional misrepresentation of study details or commission of false information to research participants.

Passive Deception

The withholding of key details or purpose of a study from research participants via omission.

Debriefing

A post-experimental session explaining study goals, clarifying roles, restoring participant well-being, and revealing any deception used.

Content:

- Statement of the study’s purpose 

- Clarification of the participant’s role 

- Overview of the basic results or expected outcomes 

- Normalization of behavior 

Benefits: 

- Opportunity to gather feedback 

- Builds report and credibility 

- Reduces negative feelings about deception 

- Enhances trust in the research process 

Physical/psychological/social harm

- Consider the benefit (to participants, science, society) 

- Consider the quality of research 

- Consider the risks – Is there a lower risk procedure available?

- Psychological (stress, distress) 

- Social injury (confidentiality, privacy)

Milgram Obedience Experiment

A classic study measuring obedience to authority where participants were instructed to deliver perceived electric shocks to a confederate.

- Stanley Milgram’s experiment studied how willing people are to obey an authority figure, even when they believed they were hurting another person. 

- Participants were told to give another person increasingly strong electric shocks for wrong answers. The shocks were actually fake, and the “learner” was an actor. An experimenter told participants to continue. Many participants continued giving shocks even when the learner appeared to be in pain. 

Changes from Milgram 

- Explicitly tell participants they can withdraw 

Inform participants immediately after regarding the deception, showing no “victims” were harmed 

- Screen participants prior to the study 

- Much milder sample shock 

- Clinical psychologist present to stop study if signs of distress 

- Procedure stopped at 150 vs. 450 volts 

Findings 

- Obedience rate only slightly lower 

- Participants fairly positive following debriefing 

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

A $40\text{-year}$ ($1932$ to $1972$) unethical USPHS study where $600$ Black men were deceived and intentionally denied penicillin treatment.

• Deception: Researchers never secured informed consent. They deceived the participants by telling them they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term for various physical ailments

• Withholding Treatment: The stated goal was to observe the natural history of untreated syphilis. However, even after penicillin became a widely available, safe, and effective cure in the 1940s, researchers deliberately withheld treatment from the men and actively prevented them from receiving care elsewhere

• Exposure and Results: An investigative news report exposed the experiment in 1972. An advisory panel called the study "ethically unjustified," leading to its immediate halt

Confederate

An actor instructed to follow a script and pose as a naive participant during a research experiment.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

An ethics committee charged with reviewing human research protocols to ensure participant protection and compliance.

carefully reviews a study because it involves more than minimal risk or has other ethical concerns.

Minimal Risk

A research risk classification where potential harm does not exceed discomforts encountered in normal daily life.

- Minimize risk: anonymity, confidentiality, protect data, non-coercive compensation - Explain purpose and procedures: debrief in a timely fashion 

- Sometimes need to use descriptive designs 

Fraud/Plagiarism/Paraphrasing

- Ethically Prohibited 

- (word-for-word or paraphrasing without attribution) 

Internal Validity

The degree of accuracy regarding conclusions drawn about direct cause-and-effect relationships between variables.

Construct Validity

The extent to which an operational measure or manipulation accurately reflects the theoretical variable being studied.

External Validity

The degree to which experimental findings can be generalized to broader populations, settings, or real-world environments.

Conclusion Validity

The accuracy and reliability of statistical inferences drawn from research data.

Statistical Validity

the degree to which a study's conclusions are accurate, well-founded, and reflective of true effects rather than random chance or flawed analysis

Field Experiment

An experimental study conducted within a real-world, naturalistic setting rather than a controlled laboratory environment.

Linear Relationship

An association between two variables that follows a straight line pattern, categorized as positive or negative.

- (+) = as x increases, y increases; same direction 

- (-) = as x increases, y decreases; opposite direction 

Curvilinear Relationship

A non-linear pattern where the direction or strength of association between variables changes along a curved line.

• As stress increases, performance may increase at first, but after a certain point, performance decreases. 

Monotonic Function

A relationship between variables that changes continuously in one direction without reversing.

Nonmonotonic Function

A relationship in which the association between variables changes direction across different values.

Correlation Coefficient ($r$)

A statistical metric ranging from $-1$ to $+1$ indicating the direction and strength of a linear relationship between continuous variables.

- R = (+1) - perfect positive relationship 

- R = 0 - no linear relationship 

- R = (-1) - perfect negative relationship 

Multimethod Research

An empirical approach incorporating two or more distinct research methods within a single study to examine a question.

Experimental Control

The practice of keeping extraneous factors constant across conditions so they do not confound research outcomes.

- The researcher changes the independent variable (IV) to see what happens.

- The researcher keeps other factors the same or controlled so they don't affect the results.

Randomization

The unbiased assignment or selection of participants using chance to ensure equal probability across experimental conditions.

Third Variable Problem

An issue in non-experimental designs where an unmeasured third variable accounts for an observed relationship between two variables.

Operational Definitions 

- a specific, measurable way of defining and measuring a variable in a study.

Anscombe's Quartet

Four datasets with identical numerical summary statistics and correlation coefficients that reveal drastically different graphical relationships.

Spurious Relationship

A mathematical relationship where two variables appear related but are in fact independently caused by a third variable.

Paraphrasing Without Attribution

An ethically prohibited form of plagiarism involving restating another author's ideas without providing proper academic citation.