AAQ

Research methods (part a)

Experimental, has confounding variable

Experiment

Non-experimental- just describe behavior, they can’t explain behavior, can’t be used to establish a causal relationship because of a third variable

Correlational study

Case study

Naturalistic observation

Meta-analysis

Design options (don’t use these terms by themselves, connect them to non-experimental or experimental)

Cross-sectional

Longitudinal

Experiment

goal is to test a hypothesis and establish a causal relationship between independent and dependent variables

independent variable- what is being manipulated

dependent variable- what is being measured

has an experimental group which receives the independent variable and a control group which is the group that gets the placebo

Random assignment used- assigning people randomly to control or experimental group

Random selection- people randomly selected for the study

Should demonstrate reliability, validity, & operational definition

How to know if it’s an experiment

1. Does the research deliberately change or manipulate one variable to observe its effect on another

2. Does the researcher use random assignment?

3. Does the research control other variables that could influence the outcome, either by keeping other variables constant or by using a control group?

Correlational study

examines the relationship between two variables without manipulating them

correlation is not causation

Case study

examines an individual group of people, event, or situation to provide detailed information and insight into the topic of interest

not always generalizable since they have a small sample size

Naturalistic observation

researcher observes individuals in a real world setting, the goal being to try and gather authentic data by observing people in their environments

Meta-analysis

a statistical technique that combines the results of multiple studies on the same topic to reach a conclusion

a study of studies

Cross-sectional

when research compares different groups of people at one single point in time

Longitudinal

studies the same group of people over a long period of time, observing how the group changes over time

State the operational definition(part b)

The operational definition allows other researchers to replicate the study or research, the operational definitions are generally quantifiable and specific, so everyone can see exactly what was done and how it was done

state how the variable is measured

The operational definition of [insert variable] is [insert the operational definition]

ex. the operational definition of intelligence is the score on the test

Describe the meaning of the identified statistic (part c)

They can ask for the mean, median, mode, range, standard deviation, percentile rank, skewness, correlation coefficients, effect size, or statistical significance

show how the statistic connects with the research

Mean

average, might be affected by outliers so look out for data that might be misleading due to having outliers

regression towards the mean- when outliers are followed by results that are closer to the average

ex. you do amazing on one basketball game but then go back to average, suggesting the amazing performance was luck

Mode

most helpful when looking at categorical data

Symmetrical distribution

mean,median, and mode all coincide at the center point

Right skew positive

mode is at peak of the distribution, median to the right of that, and mean to the right of that

Left skew negative

mode at peak again, median to the left of that, mean left of that

Standard deviation

average distance from mean for a data set

Percentile rank

the percentage of scores at or below a particular score

tells you what percentage of the population has a score that’s the same or lower than yours

ex. 73rd percentile for height means 73% of people your age are shorter or equal in height to you while 27% are as tall or taller than you

Correlational coefficients

used with correlational studies

correlations allow us to make predictions on what will happen in a study

correlation does not mean causation

the closer this value is to -1 or 1, the stronger the relationship between the 2 variables

Correlation range coefficient between 0 and 1 indicates that as one variable increases, the other increases too (positive correlation), when plotted it’s an upward trend

Correlation range coefficient between 0 and -1 indicates that as one variable increases, the other decreases (negative/inverse relationship), appears as downward trend when plotted

there’s also no correlation where the data points will be scattered randomly

positive is right picture negative is left picture

P-value

provides insight to statistical significance of a study

statistical significance tells us whether that difference is real or just due to chance

shows if results matter

ranges 0 to 1

less than or = to .05, results statistically significant, so the results are not caused by luck

smaller the p value stronger the evidence against the null hypothesis

larger the p value the more due to chance

Effect size

tells us the strength of the relationship between variables

how meaningful the effect is in real world terms

large effect size means large difference between 2 groups

small effect size means more minor difference

ex. p value of .05 so therapy has an effect, effect size 0.2 so the effect is small

shows how much the effects matter in real life

Identify one ethical guideline used (part d)

ethical guidelines you can choose are

1. the research received approval from an institutional review board (IRB)

2. informed consent was obtained from all adult participants

3. informed assent was collected from participants younger than 18

4. participants were protected from harm, or the study posed no potential harm

5. researchers ensured the confidentiality or anonymity of participant data

6. participants were allowed to withdraw from the study any time, even after it began

7. a full debriefing was provided to participants at the end of the study

Explain the extent to which the research findings may or may not be generalizable using specific and relevant evidence from the study

generalizability is the extent that the study can be broadly applied to the “larger population that is being studied”

figure out who is represented and not represented

say whether or not it is generalizable and then explain

the point depends how you explain it

Explain how at least one of the research findings supports or refutes the psychological concept or hypothesis of the study

state what the researcher found and explain how the results support or refutes the hypothesis/ concept that the aaq is talking about

say if it supports or refute hypothesis/concept, then explain