PSY 215 Test 2 Simplified Cram Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering research ethics (Chapter 4), measurement reliability and validity (Chapter 5), survey and observational techniques (Chapter 6), and sampling methods with external validity (Chapter 7) from PSY 215.

Syphilis in African American men

What disease was the focus of the Tuskegee Study?

All 3 (Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice)

Which of the Belmont ethical standards were violated with Tuskegee?These standards were violated through deception and lack of informed consent, exposing participants to harm without benefits.

Respect for Persons

Belmont principle stating that individuals are autonomous agents entitled to free, informed consent, with protection for vulnerable populations (children, prisoners, intellectually disabled people)

Beneficence

A Belmont principle obligating researchers to protect participant welfare, do no harm, and ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Justice

A Belmont principle requiring the fair selection of participants so that the group bearing research risks also benefits from its findings, while preventing vulnerable communities from being exploited.

Human participants, patients, students, laboratory animals.

Who is protected by the APA ethics code?

A study’s purpose, procedures, risks, benefits, consent forms, and confidentiality

What components go in an IRB report?

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee that reviews human research; the report contains the study's purpose, detailed methodology, potential risks, expected benefits, informed consent forms, and privacy protection protocols.

Coercion

Forcing or improperly influencing research participation through explicit threats or irresistible rewards, which violates autonomous free choice.

Debriefing

Post-study disclosure to explain deception, APA Standard 8.08.

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)

A board that reviews, approves, and inspects animal research protocols to enforce legal standards via 6-month laboratory inspections to enforce legal care standards.

Replacement

An animal research guideline specifying the use of non-animal alternatives, such as computer simulations.

Refinement

An animal research guideline requiring the modification of experimental procedures and care protocols to minimize animal distress and pain.

It misleads the scientific community and damages scientific integrity.

Why are data falsification and fabrication problematic, beyond being ethical violations?

Respect for Persons 2

Which Belmont principle covers informed consent?

Children, prisoners, and intellectual disabilities (need assent)

Who does not have autonomy to give informed consent?

APA Standard 8.10

The ethical standard addressing Data Fabrication and Data Falsification, which prohibits inventing data or altering results because it damages scientific integrity and misleads the scientific community.

Informed Consent

A formal agreement that outlines the study's general purpose, voluntary participation, freedom to withdraw, risks, benefits, and contact details in plain language.

Assent

Agreement to participate required from individuals who lack the legal autonomy to provide informed consent

IRB (humans), IACUC (animals), ethics board, committee review.

Who is involved in determining if research is ethical?

Violates APA Standard 8.10 regarding Data Fabrication and Data Falsification.

What APA ethical standard does the research suggest a link between autism and vaccines violate?

The American Psychological Association (APA)

Established the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.

Milgram's Experiment

A famous study that violated ethical standards (Standards 8.02 and 8.08) by inflicting extreme psychological harm and stress, lacking true informed consent, and misusing deception.

Purpose, voluntary, freedom to withdraw, risks, benefits, plain language

What must be included on an informed consent form?

Debriefing

Must be done after the study when a researcher uses deception.

Beneficence to protect participants from emotional or social harm.

What Belmont principle is concerned with anonymity?

Justice 2 (protects vulnerable populations (black people during slavery) from being targeted)

What Belmont principle is concerned with protecting vulnerable communities?

Self-Report Measure

An operationalization of a variable that records participants' answers about themselves through questionnaires or interviews.

Physiological Measure

An operationalization of a variable that records biological data, such as heart rate or brain activity.

Categorical Variable

Also called a nominal variable, a variable consisting of qualitatively distinct categories that lack any numerical ranking or ordering.

Quantitative Variable

A variable coded with meaningful numbers that allow for mathematical calculations and comparisons.

Ordinal Scale of Measurement

A quantitative scale of measurement where values represent a rank order, but the intervals or distances between adjacent ranks are unknown or unequal.

Interval Scale of Measurement

A quantitative scale of measurement with equal numerical distances between levels, but no true absolute zero point. Zero has numeric meaning.

Ratio Scale of Measurement

A quantitative scale of measurement featuring equal intervals between levels and a true absolute zero point where zero signifies the complete absence of the variable. Zero means “none.”

True zero presence, zero means nothing vs zero has meaning.

What differentiates interval and ratio scales?

Test-Retest Reliability

The consistency of scores when the same test is done to the same participants across multiple time points.

Interrater Reliability

The consistency of observational scores across two or more independent raters, typically evaluated with a scatterplot and requiring a correlation coefficient of $r \ge 0.70$.

Internal Reliability

The consistency of participant response patterns across all items on a single multi-item scale, evaluated using Cronbach's alpha.

Test-retest reliability and interrater reliability (Plotting 2 raters or 2 test times on a scatterplot.)

What reliabilities are analyzed with scatterplots?

Cronbach's Alpha

A statistical correlation metric used to evaluate internal reliability across scale items, with an acceptable consistency threshold of $0.80$.

Internal Reliability 2

What type of reliability uses Cronbach’s alpha?

Construct Validity

The degree to which an operationalized measure successfully assesses the abstract, theoretical, non-observable concept it was designed to measure.

Assessing abstract constructs, non-observable concepts, theoretical variables.

What type of concept is construct validity most important?

Face Validity

A subjective, non-empirical evaluation of whether a measure appears, at surface level, to measure what it is intended to.

Content Validity

A subjective, non-empirical assessment of whether a measure captures all theoretical components of a construct.

Criterion Validity

The extent to which a measure correlates with key concrete behavioral outcomes that it theoretically should predict, often established via known-groups evidence.

Discriminant Validity

Also called divergent validity, an empirical demonstration that a measure does not correlate strongly with measures of dissimilar or distinct theoretical constructs. (Constructs don’t correlate)

Divergent validity

What is discriminant validity also called?

Conceptual Definition

The definition of a variable specified at an abstract, theoretical level.

Operational Definition

The precise method, process, or scale used to concretely measure or manipulate a conceptual variable.

Double-Barreled Question

A poorly constructed survey question that combines two separate questions into a single item, creating ambiguous response data.

Double Negative Question

A survey question that uses two negative words in a single statement, confusing respondents and damaging construct validity.

Question Order Effects

A survey phenomenon where early questions establish a cognitive frame or priming context that influences how participants answer subsequent questions.

Acquiescence

A response set bias, also known as yea-saying, where a participant marks 'strongly agree' across all items on a survey without reading carefully.

Fence Sitting

A response set bias where participants repeatedly select the neutral or middle option on a scale to play it safe.

Observer Effect

Also termed an expectancy effect, a phenomenon occurring when an observer's expectations inadvertently cause participants to change their behavior to match those expectations.

Observer Bias

A threat to construct validity where researchers' expectations or prejudices distort how they perceive, interpret, and record participant behavior.

Masked Design

A study design, also known as a blind design, where observers are kept unaware of experimental conditions or hypotheses to minimize observer bias.

Reactivity

A threat to construct validity where participants alter their behavior simply because they know they are being watched or evaluated.

Leading Question

A survey question phrased with wording that subtly sways or guides respondents toward a specific, desired answer.

Socially Desirable Responding

Also known as 'faking good,' an impression management bias where participants answer questions to portray a positive social image rather than reporting truth.

Likert Scale

A specific survey rating format with anchored options ranging specifically from 'strongly agree' to 'strongly disagree.'

Semantic Differential Format

A survey rating scale anchored at opposite ends by contrasting bipolar adjective pairs.

Participant Observation

An observational technique in which the researcher actively joins and immerses themselves within the group being studied.

Population

The entire group or set of individuals that a researcher aims to investigate and generalize study conclusions to.

Sample

A smaller subset of individuals selected from the broader target population.

Census

A complete data collection method that tests or counts every single individual within the entire target population.

Probability Sampling

Also called random sampling or unbiased sampling, a technique where every member of the population has a known, equal, random chance of being chosen, yielding high external validity.

Nonprobability Sampling

Sampling methods based on non-random selection that produce unrepresentative samples with unknown external validity.

Convenience Sampling

A nonprobability sampling method that selects participants who are easiest to contact or access based on availability.

Multistage Sampling

A probability sampling technique where a researcher draws a random sample of clusters first, and then draws a random sample of individuals from within those clusters.

Biased Sample

An unrepresentative sample that systematically overrepresents or excludes specific segments of the population of interest.

Self-Selection

A sampling bias that occurs when a sample contains only individuals who volunteer to participate.

Oversampling

A stratified probability sampling variation where a researcher intentionally recruits a disproportionately larger percentage of a rare subgroup to guarantee statistical accuracy.

Random Sampling vs. Random Assignment

Random sampling recruits a representative sample from a population to ensure external validity, whereas random assignment places participants into experimental groups to ensure internal validity.

Snowball Sampling

A nonprobability recruitment technique where existing participants recommend acquaintances, growing the sample through personal referrals.

Margin of Error

A statistical estimate defining the maximum expected difference between a sample outcome and the true population value, which decreases as probability sample size increases.

Purposive Sampling

A nonprobability sampling method where a researcher non-randomly recruits individuals who possess rare, highly specific characteristics.

Systematic Sampling

A probability sampling technique where a researcher selects every Nth member from a population list after a randomly determined start point.

Stratified Random Sampling

A probability sampling technique where a population is divided into demographic strata and random samples are drawn from each stratum to match exact population proportions.

Quota Sampling

A nonprobability sampling technique where a researcher sets target counts for specific subgroups and fills each quota non-randomly using convenience sampling.