Research Methodology Unit 1

Authority

A way of knowing, proposed by Charles Peirce, in which a person develops a belief by agreeing with someone perceived to be an expert.

A priori method

A way of knowing, proposed by Charles Peirce, in which a person develops a belief by reasoning and reaching agreement with others who are convinced of the merits of the reasoned argument.

Empiricism

A way of knowing that relies on direct observation or experience.

Confirmation bias

Social cognition bias in which events that confirm a strongly held belief are more readily perceived and remembered; disconfirming events are ignored or forgotten.

Belief perseverance

Unwillingness to consider evidence that contradicts a strongly held view; similar to Peirce’s principle of tenacity.

Availability heuristic

A social cognition bias in which vivid or memorable events lead people to overestimate the frequency of occurrence of these events.

Science

A way of knowing characterized by the attempt to apply objective, empirical methods when searching for the causes of natural events.

Determinism

The assumption made by scientists that all events have causes.

Discoverability

The assumption made by scientists that the causes of events can be discovered by applying scientific methods.

Statistical determinism

An assumption made by research psychologists that behavioural events can be predicted with a probability greater than chance.

Objectivity

Said to exist when observations can be verified by more than one observer.

Introspection

A method used in the early years of psychological science in which an individual would complete a task and then describe the events occurring in consciousness while performing the task.

Data-driven

Describes the belief of research psychologists that conclusions about behaviour should be supported by data collected scientifically.

Empirical questions

A question that can be answered by making objective observations.

Theory

A set of statements that summarizes and organizes existing information about a phenomenon, provides an explanation for it, and serves as a basis for making predictions to be tested empirically.

Falsification

Research strategy, advocated by Popper, that emphasizes putting theories to the test by trying to disprove or falsify them.

Pseudoscience

A field of inquiry that attempts to associate with true science, relies exclusively on selective anecdotal evidence, and its deliberately too vague to be adequately tested.

Anecdotal evidence

Evidence from a single case that illustrates a phenomenon; when relied on exclusively, as in pseudoscience, faulty conclusions can be easily drawn.

Effort justification

After expending a large amount of time or effort to achieve a goal, people who invested the effort feel pressured to convince themselves that the effort was worthwhile, even if the resulting outcome is less positive than expected.

Description

A goal of psychological science in which behaviours are accurately classified, or sequences of environmental stimuli and behavioural events are accurately listed.

Laws

Regular, predictable relationships between events.

Predictions

A goal of psychological science in which statements about the future occurrence of a behavioural event are made, usually with some probability.

Explanation

A goal of science in which the causes of events are sought.

Application

A goal of science in which basic principles discovered through scientific methods are applied in order to solve problems.

Translational research

A form of research that is done for both a better understanding of a particular phenomenon as well as for its application to promote physical and psychological well-being.

Ethics

A set of principles prescribing morally correct behaviours.

Critical incidents

A method used by ethics committees that surveys psychologists and asks for examples of unethical behaviour by psychologists.

Research participants

A person who takes part in and contributes data to a research study in psychology.

Subjects

A human or animal research participant; humans volunteering for research are now called either subjects or research participants, while nonhuman animals are typically called subjects.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A University committee responsible for evaluating whether research proposals provide adequate protection of the rights of participants; must exist for any college or university receiving federal funds for research.

Risk

In the ethical decision making that goes into planning of a study, the chance that participating in research would have a greater costs than benefits to the participant.

Informed consent

Used to draw conclusions about the broader population on the basis of a study using a sample of that population.

Assent

To give assent is to say “yes”; in the SRCD code of ethics for research with children, it refers to the willingness of the child to participate in the study.

Deception

A research strategy in which participants are not told all the details of an experiment at its outset; used for the purpose of avoiding demand characteristics.

Debriefing

A post-experimental session in which the experimenter explains the study’s purpose to participants, reduces any discomfort they felt, and answers any questions they pose.

Participant crosstalk

A tendency for people who have participated in a research study to inform future participants about the true purpose of the study.

Dehoaxing

That portions of debriefing in which the true purpose of the study is explained to participants.

Desensitizing

That portion of debriefing in which the experimenter tries to reduce any distress felt by participants as a result of their research experience.

Confidentiality

In research ethics, an agreement by the researcher not to divulge the identity of those participating in a research study.

Anthrozoology

A branch of science primarily concerned with examining human-animal interactions.

Plagiarism

Deliberately taking the ideas of someone else and claiming them as one’s own.

Falsifying data

Manufacturing or altering data to bring about a desired result.

Basic research

Research with the goal of describing, predicting, and explaining fundamental principles of behaviour.

Applied research

Research with the goal of trying to solve an immediate, real-life problem.

Laboratory research

Research that occurs within the controlled confines of the scientific laboratory.

Field research

Research that occurs in any location other than a scientific laboratory.

Mundane realism

The degree to which an experiment mirrors real-life experiences; considered less important than experimental realism.

Experimental realism

The depth to which participants become involved in the experiment; considered more important than mundane realism.

Confederate

An individual who appears to be subject in an experiment but is in fact a part of the experiment and in the employ of their experimenter.

Manipulation check

In debriefing, a procedure to determine if subjects were aware of a deception experiment’s true purpose; also a procedure that determines if systemic manipulations have the intended effect on participants.

Pilot study

During the initial stages of research, it is common for some data to be collected; problems spotted in this trial stage enable the researcher to refine the procedures and prevent the full-scale study from being flawed methodologically.

Quantitative research

A category of research in which results are presented as numbers, typically in the form of descriptive and inferential statistics.

Qualitative research

A category of research activity characterized by a narrative analysis of information collected in the study; it can include case studies, observational research, and interview research.

Operationism

A philosophy of science approach, proposed by Bridgman, holding that all scientific concepts should be defined in terms of a set of operations to be performed.

Operational definitions

A definition of a concept or variable in terms of precisely described operations, measures, or procedures.

Converging operations

Occurs when the results of several studies, each employing slightly different operational definitions, nonetheless converge on the same general conclusion.

Serendipity

The process of making an accidental discovery; finding X when searching for Y.

Theory

A set of statements that summarizes and organizes existing information about a phenomenon, provides an explanation for it, and serves as a basis for making predictions to be tested empirically.

Construct

A hypothetical factor (e.g. hunger) that cannot be observed but is inferred from certain behaviours (e.g. eating) and assumed to follow from certain circumstances (e.g. 24 hours without food).

Deduction

Reasoning from the general to the specific; in science, used when deriving research hypotheses from theories.

Hypothesis

An educated guess about a relationship between variables that is then tested empirically.

Induction

Reasoning from the specific to the general; in science, when the results of research studies are used to support or refute a theory.

Productivity

With reference to theory, the amount of research generated to test a theory; theories that lead to a great deal of research are considered productive.

Falsification

Research strategy, advocated by Popper, emphasizes putting theories to the test by trying to disprove or falsify them.

Parsimonious

Describing a theory that includes the minimum number of constructs and assumptions in order to explain and predict some phenomenon adequately.

Programs of research

Series of interrelated studies in which the outcome of one study leads naturally to another.

Research teams

A group of researchers working on the same research problem.

Replication

The repetition of an experiment; exact replications are rare, occurring primarily when the results of a prior study are suspected to be erroneous.

Direct replication

An attempted reproduction of a study’s results testing the same type of sample and using the exact procedures and statistical analyses as the original study.

Conceptual replication

An attempted reproduction of a study’s results in which parts of the procedures of a prior study are purposely changed in order to test predictions similar to those in the original study.

Creative thinking

A process of making an innovative connection between seemingly unrelated ideas or events.

Sample

A portion or subset of a population

Population

All of the members of an identifiable group

Representative sample

A sample with characteristics that match those attributes as they exist in the population.

Biased sample

A sample that is not representative of the population

Simple random sample

A probability sample in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected as a member of the sample.

Stratified sample

A probability sample that is random, with the restriction that important subgroups are proportionately represented within it.

Cluster sampling

A probability sample that randomly selects clusters of people having some feature in common and tests all people within the selected cluster.

Convenience sample

A non-probability sample in which the researcher requests volunteers from a group of people who meet the general requirements of the study: used in most psychological research, except when specific estimates of population values must be made.

Purposive sampling

A non-probability sample in which the researcher targets a particular group of individuals.

Quota sampling

A non-probability sample in which the proportions of some subgroups in the same are the same as those subgroup proportions in the population.

Snowball sampling

A non-probability sample in which a member of a particular group, already surveyed, helps recruit additional group members through a network or friends; often occurs for surveys of a relatively small group or a group that generally wishes to remain hidden.

Reliability

The extent to which measures of the same phenomenon are consistent and repeatable; measures high in reliability contain a minimum of measurement error.

Measurement error

Produced by a factor the introduces inaccuracies into the measurement of some variable.

Validity

In general, the extent to which a measure of X truly measures X and not Y

Content validity

Occurs when a measure appears to be a reasonable or logical measure of a trait

Face validity

Occurs when a measure appears, to those taking a test, a reasonable measure of some trait; not considered by researchers to be an important indicator of validity to.

Criterion validity

A form of criterion validity in which a measure is meaningfully related to some other measure of behaviour.

Predictive validity

A form of criterion validity in which a measure can accurately forecast some future behaviour.

Concurrent validity

A form of criterion validity in which a measure is meaningfully related to some other measure of behaviour.

Construct validity

In measurement, it occurs when the measure being used accurately assesses some hypothetical construct; also refers to whether the construct itself is valid; in research, refers to whether the operational definitions used for independent and dependent variables are valid.

Convergent validity

Occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct are correlated with scores on other tests theoretically related to the construct.

Discriminant validity

Occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct are uncorrelated with scores on other tests theoretically unrelated to the construct.

Measurement scales

Ways of assigning numbers to events

Nominal scale

Measurement scale in which the numbers have no quantitative value, but rather identify categories into which events can be placed.

Ordinal scales

Measurement scale in which assigned numbers stand for relative standing or ranking

Interval scales

Measurement scale in which number refer to quantitative and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero is just one of many points on the scale and does not denote the absence of phenomenon being measured.

Ratio scale

Measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero denotes the absence of the phenomenon being measured.

Descriptive statistics

Provide a summary of the main features of a set of data collected from a sample of participants.

Inferential statistics

Used to draw conclusions about the broader population on the basis of a study using a sample of that population.