Chapter 2: Research Methodology (Gazzaniga, Psychological Science, 6th Edition)

A set of practice flashcards in a Question-and-Answer format covering key concepts from the chapter on research methodology in psychology.

What are the three main goals of science in psychology as described in this lecture?

Description of a phenomenon; Prediction of when and where it is likely to occur; Explanation of the underlying mechanisms.

How is the scientific method defined in this chapter?

A systematic and dynamic procedure of observing and measuring phenomena to achieve description, prediction, and explanation.

What is a theory in psychology?

An explanation or model of how a phenomenon works; good theories are based on empirical evidence.

What is a hypothesis?

A specific, testable prediction that is narrower than the theory it is based on.

What features make a theory 'good'?

Falsifiability; the ability to generate a wide variety of testable hypotheses; tendency toward simplicity.

Describe the relationship between theory, hypothesis, and data in the scientific method.

Theory leads to hypotheses; hypotheses are tested by research; data support or refute the theory.

What are the seven steps of the scientific method?

Frame a research question; conduct a literature review; form a hypothesis; design a study; conduct the study; analyze the data; report the results.

What are the three main research designs used in psychology?

Descriptive; correlational; experimental.

What is descriptive research?

Research methods that observe behavior to describe it objectively and systematically, without manipulation (includes case studies, observation, and self-report).

What is a case study?

An intensive examination of an unusual person or organization; provides detailed information but may not generalize.

What is observational research?

Research that involves watching and recording behavior, using either participant observation or naturalistic observation.

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Being observed can lead participants to change their behavior.

What is observer bias?

Systematic errors in observation due to an observer’s expectations or bias.

What are self-report methods?

Data collection through questionnaires or surveys; can be affected by social desirability.

What is correlational research?

Describes and predicts how naturally related variables are in the real world without manipulating them; cannot establish causation.

What is a scatterplot?

A graphical depiction of the relationship between two variables.

What does a positive correlation indicate?

Both variables tend to increase together (or decrease together); 'positive' does not mean 'good'.

What does a negative correlation indicate?

As one variable increases, the other decreases.

What is a zero correlation?

A relationship where one variable does not predict the other.

What are the directionality and third-variable problems in correlational studies?

Directionality problem: unclear which variable influences the other; Third-variable problem: an unmeasured variable could be the actual cause.

What is the experimental method?

A research method that tests causal hypotheses by manipulating the independent variable and measuring the dependent variable while controlling extraneous variables.

What is an independent variable (IV)?

The variable that is deliberately manipulated by the researcher.

What is a dependent variable (DV)?

The variable that is measured and observed.

What is an operational definition?

A precise description of how a variable will be measured or quantified.

What is an experimental group?

The participants who receive the treatment or manipulation of the IV.

What is a control group?

The participants who receive no treatment or an unrelated intervention; used for baseline comparison.

What is a confound?

A variable that affects the DV and varies across conditions, threatening internal validity.

What is random assignment?

Assigning participants to conditions with equal probability to balance groups and control for confounds.

What is random sampling?

Selecting participants so that every member of the population has an equal chance of being included.

What is the difference between population and sample?

Population is everyone in the group of interest; a sample is a subset of that population.

What is a convenience sample?

A sample that is readily available but may not be representative of the population.

What ethical issues are governed by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)?

Protecting participants’ safety and well-being; ensuring ethical standards in proposed research.

What is informed consent?

Participants have the right to know what will happen in the study; deception requires debriefing; minors or cognitively impaired cannot give legal consent.

What is the purpose of debriefing?

To inform participants about the true purpose of the study and any deception used after participation.

What is IACUC?

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee; oversees humane treatment of animal subjects in research.

What is reliability?

The degree to which a measure yields consistent results over time.

What is validity?

The extent to which a measure assesses what it is intended to assess; includes construct, external, and internal validity.

What is replication?

Repeating a study to confirm results and establish reliability of findings.

What are descriptive statistics?

Statistics that summarize data, including measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode) and variability (range, standard deviation).

What is the mean?

The arithmetic average of a set of numbers.

What is the median?

The middle value in an ordered data set.

What is the mode?

The most frequent value in a data set.

What is the range?

The difference between the largest and smallest values in a data set.

What is standard deviation?

A measure of how spread out numbers are around the mean.

What is the correlation coefficient range and meaning?

Ranges from -1.0 to +1.0; the absolute value indicates strength, the sign indicates direction.

What are inferential statistics?

Procedures that help decide whether observed differences reflect true population differences or are due to chance; allow generalizations.

What is null hypothesis significance testing (NHST)?

A formal approach for deciding whether a null hypothesis (e.g., no difference or no relationship) can be rejected based on sample data.

What is a p-value?

The probability of obtaining the observed data (or more extreme) if the null hypothesis were true; a small p-value (typically \text{p} < 0.05) suggests the result is statistically significant.

What is statistical significance?

A result is statistically significant if the p-value is less than the predetermined alpha level (e.g., 0.05), indicating that the observed effect is unlikely to have occurred by chance.

What is a Type I error?

Rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actually true (a 'false positive'). The probability of a Type I error is denoted by \alpha (alpha).