Intro to research method ch.1-8

theory

a set of statements that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another

hypothesis

specific testable prediction based on your theory

falsifiable

 the hypothesis could fail to support the theory

do not use the word…

prove

basic research

typically conducted in a laboratory with the goal of furthering our current knowledge

translational research

research informed by evidence from basic research aiming to make progress toward useful applications

applied research

research conducted in a real-world context (school, sporting event, etc.), aiming to address a practical problem. Goes from a controlled environment to an uncontrolled environment.

in what order is research conducted?

basic → translational→ applied

sample

multiple different people

heuristic

mental shortcuts we take unconsciously

bias

when a heuristic is consistently leads to erroneous thinking

skepticism

not accepting something that is true without evidence to support it

critical thinking

the skills involved in determining whether a given piece of evidence is convincing. Includes the ability to change beliefs as new evidence arises.

critical thinking focuses on…

logic over emotion

availability heuristic

if something comes to mind readily we believe it to be more probable. Emotional memories are usually more readily available

representativeness heuristic

basing expectations for a new thing on prior experience with other things that bear resemblance

what does the representativeness heuristic assume?

previously encountered examples are representative of the whole group

confirmation bias

seek and remember evidence that confirms our beliefs and ignore those that contradict

what does an empirical article have?

an abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references

what is a variable?

something that varies

what are operational variables?

variables that have been defined in such a way that they are now measurable and manipulatable

what are conceptual variables?

the idea or concept we wish to measure

what is a frequency claim?

a claim about how common a single variable is

what is an association claim?

claims about a link between two variables

what is a causal claim?

claims about change in one variable causing change in another

what is a correlational study?

measuring at least 2 variables to be an association

what is validity?

how reasonable, accurate, or justified a claim is

what is construct validity?

how well conceptual variable is operationalized?

what is external validity?

how well the results generalize to a larger population

what is statistical validity?

how strongly do the numbers support the claim

what is internal validity?

how strongly the validity supports causation

what is a sample?

all individuals measured in a study

what is a population?

all individuals the researchers are interested in

what is spurious correlation?

mathematically correlated but not feasible

what is an example of spurious correlation?

rate of Nicholas cage movies and drownings have high statistical validity

what are confounding variables?

factors other than the independent variable that could be causing the dependent variable to change

can all variables be manipulated?

no, only some

what studies are association claims usually

correlational

what is positive association?

as one variable increases so does the other

what is negative association?

as one variable goes up the other goes down

what does it mean if a graph has no association?

one variable does not predict the other

what group does external validity focus on?

sample and population

what kind of problem does psych have?

a WEIRD one! White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic

what question does construct validity hope to answer?

how well does the operational variable capture the conceptual variable?

what question does external validity hope to answer?

how well does the sample represent the population?

what question does statistical validity hope to answer?

how consistent is the association in our study? How confident can we be that it wasn’t due to chance?

what is internal validity used for?

causal claims

what are the statistical validity answers?

true, false, false positive, and false negative

what is a perfect correlation?

-1 or 1

what is omission?

simply neglect to tell a participant some information

what is commission?

telling a participant something untrue

what is data fabrication?

making up or altering data

what is data falsification?

influence your results/biasing data collection

what are the three guiding principles from the Belmont Report?

respect for persons, beneficence, and justice

what are the American Psychological Associations guidelines?

Belmont Report + Fidelity/Responsibility and Integrity

what is respect for persons?

people are autonomous and therefore have free will to choose their own participation. Includes informed consent.

what groups cannot give informed consent?

children, individuals with cognitive disabilities, and people who are incarcerated

what is beneficence?

help people, do not harm them.

what is justice?

treating people fairly. Is there a balance between who participates and the population that would benefit?

what is fidelity and responsibility?

earn and establish trust

what is integrity?

be accurate, truthful, and honest

what are the three r’s for the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

replace, reduce, or refine

what is considered deception?

omission and commission

is deception necessary?

sometimes

what is deception?

knowingly misleading participants

what is data manipulation?

data fabrication and data falsification

what does data manipulation do?

creates misinformation

what is a self report?

participants answer questions about themselves in a survey or questionnaire

what are observational measures?

observing a behavior or performance on a task

what does physiological mean?

biological activity

what is test-retest reliability?

participants get the same score at multiple time points

what are the three types of measurements?

self-report, observational, physiological

what are examples of physiological measures?

heart rate, brain activity, eye-tracking, hormone levels

what are quantitative variables?

numerical and may or may not have distinct levels/categories

what are qualitative variables?

nominal, distinct categories, not numerical

when assessing construct validity…

does it look like what you want to measure? Does it correlate with other measures of the same variable? does it not correlate with measures of other, separate variables?

what is face validity asking?

does it seem like a good thing to measure?

what is criterion validity asking?

does it correlate with important outcomes?

what is convergent validity?

one measure correlates with the measure of another with the same variable

what is discriminant validity?

does it not correlate with measures of other variables you’re not trying to measure

what is reliability asking?

are the scores consistent?

what is inter-rater reliability?

multiple people measuring the same thing. Often used in qualitative research.

what is internal reliability?

multiple questions getting at the same thing

What does this image represent?

reliable but not valid

what does this image represent?

valid but not reliable

what does this image represent?

not reliable nor valid

what does this image represent?

both reliable and valid

what are the two subjective ways to assess construct validity?

face validity and content validity

what are the three empirical ways to assess construct validity?

criterion validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity

what does categorical mean?

names of categories can be numerical but numbers do not have meaning

what does ordinal mean?

can be categorized and ranked

what does interval mean?

can be categorized and ranked, evenly spaced

what does ratio mean?

can be categorized and ranked, evenly spaced, and has a natural zero

what are closed-ended questions?

participants answer from a set of choices

what are double-barreled questions?

questions that are too complicated for people to respond and understand accurately

what does acquiescence mean?

just agreeing with everything

what does fence-sitting mean?

just responding to neutral to everything

what is observer bias?

when observers see what they expect to see

what is participant reactivity?

change in behavior when one is aware they are being observed

what are the three closed-ended question types?

likert-type scales, semantic differential scales, and forced choice