EXPSY midterms

methodology

scientific techniques used to collect data

commonsense psychology

"opposites attract" nonscientific sources of data and nonscientific inference (friends, people in authority, media) (superstition, confirmation bias). Lack of awareness of factors that influence our behaviors/attitudes

non-scientific inference

nonscientific use of information to explain/predict behavior (fundamental attribution error, stereotypes, gambler's fallacy, overconfidence bias, biases in human judgments)

characteristics of science

natural order, determinism, empiricism, seek general principles, parsimony, self-correlation, publicizing results, replication

deduction

general theory to data

theory-hypothesis-observation-confirmation

induction

data to general theory

observe-pattern-tentative hypothesis-theory

verification

inductive approach, focus on confirming hypotheses

falsification

deductive approach, focuses on falsifying hypotheses

objectives of psychological science

description- unbiased account of characteristics

prediction- knowing in advance (association)

explanation- (cause/effect)

control- use of scientific knowledge

applied research

research that is designed to solve real-world problems

basic research

research designed to test theories or to explain psychological phenomenon

main tools of psychological science

observation, measurement, experimentation

antecedent conditions

circumstances that occur or exist before the events/behavior to be explained

pseudoscience

appears scientific but is fake

principle of control

random assignment, treatment condition, keeping everything constant

Institutional Review Boards (IRB)

evaluate research proposals, protect safety of research participants

Belmont Report (1979)

respect for persons, beneficence, justice

science

claim & evidence

hypothesis

statement of a relationship between 2 or more variables

experimental hypothesis

tentative explanation of an event or a behavior. it is a statement that predicts the effect of an IV on a DV

non-experimental hypothesis

predicts how variables might be correlated but not casually related

synthetic statement

can be true or false

**a hypothesis must be a synthetic statement**

analytic statement

always true

contradictory statement

always false

experimental hypothesis as a synthetic statement

if-then form

serendipity

accidental discoveries

intuition

knowing without reasoning

non-experimental designs

do not create levels of an IV nor randomly assign subjects to these levels. Used where experiments are not ethical or possible, or in natural conditions

internal validity

the degree to which a researcher can establish a casual relationship between the IV and DV

external validity

the degree to which research findings can be generalized to other settings and individuals

a true experiment has

more internal validity

non experimental design has

less internal validity, more external validity

quasi has

in between

phenomenology

non-experimental, involves description of individual's immediate subjective experience. 1st person POV, low in manipulation, low in imposition units

case study

non-experimental, descriptive record of an individual's experiences, behaviors, or both, kept by an outsider observer. 1 person, 3rd person POV

deviant case analysis

researchers examine differences between deviant and normal individuals to identify etiological factors. Applied to nonclinical issues such as social trends and adult morale

field studies

non-experimental studies conducted in the field (real-life settings). the experimenter does not manipulate antecedent conditions

systematic observation

a system for recording observations, specific rules/guidelines

naturalistic observation

examines subjects' spontaneous behavior in their actual environment and may obtain more representative behavior than experiments. This method can achieve high levels of external validity.

participant-observer study

involves field observation in which the researcher is part of the studied group. Contrasts with naturalistic observation, the main problem is invasion of privacy.

Field experiment

true experiment. The antecedent conditions are manipulated by researcher. Conducted in real-life setting

archival study

descriptive method where researchers reexamine data that were collected for other purposes.

to determine research design

manipulate IV, random assignment, control/manipulate measures

purpose of true experiment

explanation

purpose of non-experimental

correlation

purpose of quasi-experimental

description

survey

obtain data about opinions, attitudes, performances, and behaviors using questionnaires or interviews. Allows researchers to study private experience, which cannot be directly observed.

research paradigms

basic belief system, answers fundamental questions regarding ontology, epistemology, and methodology

advantages of surveys

can collect large amounts of data, can be anonymous, draw inferences about behavior,

major limitation of surveys

does not allow us to test hypotheses about casual relationships.

reliability

the extent to which a survey is consistent and repeatable

validity

the extent to which a survey actually measures what it is supposed to measure

simple random sampling

every individual in the target population has an equal chance of being part of the sample

systematic random sample

obtained by selecting every nth individual from the population

stratified random sampling

separates population into non-overlapping groups and then obtaining a proportional simple random sample from each group. They should be similar in some way

cluster sampling

the entire population is divided into groups, and a random sample of these groups are selected

convenience sampling

nonprobability sampling, samples are selected because they are accessible

quota sampling

nonprobability sampling, samples are selected through predetermined quotas that are intended to reflect the makeup of the population

purposive sampling

nonprobability sampling, individuals are selected in the sample because they fit the specific purpose of the study

snowball sampling

nonprobability sampling, researchers identifies one or a few people that fit the sample criteria and asks these people to locate or refer the researcher to additional individuals who also fit the criteria

possible casual directions for simple correlation

one directional, reverse causation, bi-directional, third variable

spurious correlation

2 unrelated variables, no direct relationship

3 necessary conditions for causation

relationship condition (x and y must be correlated), temporal precedence (manipulate IV), no plausible alternative explanations

quasi means

seeming like

quasi-experiments

superficially resemble experiments, but lack their required manipulation of antecedent conditions and/or random assignment to conditions.

quasi-experiments study

effects of preexisting antecedent conditions, gender, age, personality, medical condition, traumatic events

pretest/posttest

quasi, before/after treatment, no control condition, no control group.

nonequivalent groups design

quasi, researcher compares effects of different treatment conditions on preexisting groups of subjects. Improves internal validity.

Solomon 4-group design

a group that received the pretest, treatment, and posttest.

a nonequivalent control group that received only the pretest and posttest.

a group that received the treatment and posttest.

a group that only received the posttest.

improves internal validity as well as external validity.

cross-sectional studies

subjects at different stages are compared at the same point in time

longitudinal

the same group of subjects is measured at different points of time to determine the effect time on behavior.

cross-lagged panel design

subjects are measured at 2 different points in time on same pair of variables, pattern of correlating across time is used to infer possible direction of cause and effect

operational definition

specifies the exact meaning of a variable in an experiment by defining it in terms of observable operations, procedures, and measurement

experimental operational definition

specifies the exact procedure for creating values of the IV

measured operational definition

specifies the exact procedure for measuring the DV

interrater reliability

the degree to which observers agree in their measurement of the behavior

test-retest reliability

the degree to which a person's scores are consistent across 2 or more administrations of a measurement procedure

inter-item reliability

different parts of instrument are designed to measure same variable, consistent results

face validity

validity of a manipulation is self-evident

context validity

content of measure reflects content of what is being measured

predictive validity

measurement procedure predicts actual behavior

concurrent validity

scores on the measuring instrument correlate with another standard

construct validity

operational definition accurately represents the construct intended to manipulate/measure (convergent and discriminant validity)

extraneous variable

3rd variable, not the focus

cofounding

an EV that varies systematically along with experimental condition

threats to internal validity

Maturation, Regression, Selection, Selection Interactions, Mortality, Instrumentation, Testing, History. MRS. SMITH

extraneous variables that can threaten an experiment's internal validity:

physical variables, social variables, personality variables, context variables

3 techniques for controlling EV's:

elimination, constancy of conditions, balancing