Exam 1 - Critical Thinking In Psychology

Both ________ ___________and ___________ _____________share commitment to answering psychological questions with direct formal observations and to commute with others about their findings

research producers and research consumers

Why is the Research Producer role important?

- for coursework
- for graduate school
- for working in a lab

Why is the Research Consumer role important?

- for psych courses
- when reading articles based on research
-for future research

What is empiricism (aka empirical methods/research)?

Idea that knowledge comes from observations

Skepticism

Philosophy that ideas must be evaluated on the basis of careful logic and results from scientific investigations

Empiricism uses what type of evidence?

Evidence through our senses

What are the parts (in order) of the theory data cycle?

- theory
- research question
- research design
- hypothesis
- data

What do researchers do in a theory data cycle?

scientists collect data to test, change, or update their theories

Main idea of the cupboard theory?

due to the mother being the main holder of resources for the infant , they cling to them - the mother is the "cupboard"

i.e - dog seeing owner

Main idea of the contact comfort theory?

Infant monkeys preferred the cloth mother (had food) compared to the wire mother (no food) - most infant monkeys preferred the cloth monkey

What does the theory-data cycle test for regarding good scientific theories?

- Is it falsifiable?
- Does it have parsimony?
- Does it prove anything?

What are the 3 different types of research?

- Basic Research

- Translational Research

- Applied Research

What is Applied Research?

research done with a practical problem in mind and the researchers conduct their work in a local, real-world context.

Provide an example of Applied Research.

might test the efficacy of a treatment for depression in a sample of trauma survivors

What is Basic Research?

enhance the general body of knowledge rather than to address a specific, practical problem

Provide an example of Basic Research

might want to understand the structure of the visual system, or the capacity of human memory, etc.

What is Translational Research?

the use of lessons from basic research to develop and test applications to health care, psychotherapy, or other forms of treatment and intervention

__________ research is the bridge between basic and applied research

translational

Provide an example of Translational Research

basic research on how mindfulness changes people's patterns of attention might be TRANSLATED into a study skills intervention.

What is a hypothesis?

A prediction stated in terms of the study design - the specific outcome the researcher will observe in a study if the theory is accurate.

What is a theory?

A set of statements that describe the general principles about how variables relate to one another

How do scientists share the results of their research with the scientific community?

Submitting to a scientific journal

What is Temporal Precedence (Think A comes before B)?

means that the method was designed so that the casual variable CLEARLY comes first in time before the effect variable..one of the causes of behavior under the goals of behavioral science.

What is Covariation of Cause and Effect?

Effect occurs ONLY in the presence of cause...one of the causes of behavior under the goals of behavioral science.

What is Elimination of Alternative Explanations?

Nothing other than a causal variable could be responsible for the observed effect....one of the causes of behavior under the goals of behavioral science.

What is the Research Question?

formulated as the first and most general step in the research process - must be specific so the project can answer it

Difference between Hypothesis and Prediction?

A hypothesis is a tentative answer to a research question and a prediction is a GUESS of the outcome of a study

Explain the comparisons of Research Vs. Experience

- experience has No comparison group and is confounded

- research is better and is probabilistic

Why are comparison groups important ?

They provide different data points but it's important to not have too many differences between the groups

At the end of the day, although experience is good...its ____________ in research.

Confounded! When you think you may understand why one thing caused an event, something else actually did.

What does the scientific approach do?

offers objective rules for learning about the world

Why is Research better then just trusting our 'intuition'

Intuition is biased!!

Name the 5 ways in which intuition is biased

1. Being swayed by a good story

2. availability heuristic

3. present bias

4. confirmation bias

5. blind spot

What is the Availability Heuristic?

Being persuaded by what easily comes to mind

What is present bias?

failing to think about what we cannot see - we fail to think about comparison groups

What is confirmation bias?

focusing on the evidence we like best "cherry picking" - usually favors your opinion or experience

What type of bias is the biggest in research?

confirmation bias

What is the blind spot bias?

biased about being biased. belief that we are not likely to fall prey to other biases. feeling as though biases dont apply to you.

Explain the factors of science vs. intuition

- we make mistakes when we base our reasoning on intuition rather than on science

- researcher create comparison groups and look at all the data

Can you name the parts of a report paper?

- abstract
- introduction
- methods
-results
-discussion
-references

What is an Abstract?

Summary of the research report that includes hypothesis, procedure, and broad pattern of results

What is an introduction?

outlines the investigated problems in a research report.

describes past research and theories relevant to the problems + introduced the formal hyopthesis and specific expectations

What are the methods in a research report?

it describes the the study's design

What are the subsections of the methods section in a research report?

- overview of design
- characteristics of participants
- procedure
- equipment or testing materials

What are the results section of a research report?

the findings are presented by the researcher through description in narrative for, statistical language and material in tables or graphs

What is the discussion section of a research report?

reviews the research from various aspects...explains how the results compare, includes suggestions for future research and discusses limitations

___________ section lists the articles and sources used in research.

References

What are the 3 types of claims?

1. Frequency
2. Association
3. Casual

What is a frequency claim?

describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable -- involves only using ONE measured variable

What is an Association Claim

argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable ...involve 2 measured variables that correlate

What are the types of associations under an associational claim?

- positive
- negative
- zero

What is a Positive Association?

a correlation in which high goes with high and low goes with low

What is a Negative Association?

a correlation in which high goes with low and low goes with high

What type of claim make it helpful to make predictions?

An association claim

The stronger the association between 2 variables, the more accurate a _______________ will be.

prediction

What is a Casual Claim?

argues that one of the variables is responsible for changing the other variables

What type of claim is the following: "4 in 10 teens admit to texting while driving"?

Frequency Claim

What type of claim is the following: "Single people eat fewer veggies"

Association Claim

What type of claim is the following: "Music Lessons ENHANCE IQ"

Casual Claim

What type of claim is the following: " 71% of people in the U.S support transgender people serving in the military" ?

Frequency Claim

What type of claim is the following: "Girls are more likely to be compulsive texters"?

Association Claims

What type of claim is the following: "Pretending to be batman helps kids stay on task" ?

Casual Claim

Causal claims use ________ that suggests one variable affects the other

language!

ex : cause, enhance, affect, decrease

What is needed to back up a claim?

Validity

What is validity?

refers to the appropriateness of a conclusion or decision - a valid claim is reasonable, accurate, and justifiable

What is Construct Validity?

An indication of how well a variable was measured or manipulated in a study.

How is Construct Validity measured in a Frequency Claim?

how well the researchers measured their variable of interest

How is Construct Validity measured in an Association Claim?

assess how well measurements were conducted (how did they measure the 2 variables )

How is Construct Validity measured in a Causal Claim?

How well has the researcher measured or manipulated the variables in the study?

How can the researcher prove that the one variable is actually responsible for changing the other variable?

What is Statistical Validity?

The extend to which a study's statistical conclusions are precise, reliable, and replicable ...how well do the numbers support the claim?

How does one measure Statistical Validity in a Frequency Claim?

Asking them what the margin of error was in their estimate

How does one measure Statistical Validity in a Association Claim?

How strong is the estimated association?

How precise is the estimated association?

Is the association statistically significant?
etc. (slide 29)

How does one measure Statistical Validity in a Casual Claim?

Is there a difference between groups, and how large is it?

Is the difference statistically signfigant?

What is Internal Validity?

the extent to which you can be confident that a cause-and-effect relationship established in a study cannot be explained by other factors

What Claim is the only one that uses Internal validity?

A Casual Claim

How does one measure Internal Validity in a Casual Claim?

- Was the study an experiment?
- Does the study achieve its main purpose?
- Does the study explain the control for random assignment?

What is external validity?

the degree to which the researcher can extend or generalize a study's results to other subjects and situations.

How is External Validity measured in a Frequency Claims, Association Claims, and Causal Claims?

- To what populations, settings, and times can we generalize this type of claim?

- How representative is the sample ?

What is an Operational Variable?

The specific way in which a concept of interest is measured or manipulated as a variable in a study. Also called operationalization, operational variable.

What is an operational definition?

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study (measured or manipulated)

What is a measured variable?

whose levels are simply observed and recorded
Ex: Gender/hair color

What is a Manipulated Variable?

variable the researcher control
Ex: giving participants mg levels of a medication

What is a Curvilinear Relationship between variables ?

Increases in one variable result in systematic increases and decreases in another

- Explanation for the U shaped plots

What is a Correlation coefficient?

Numerical index of the strength of relationship between variables - STRENGTH AND DIRECTION

What is the Non-experimental Method?

Observes naturally occurring variables of interest to find out if they vary together

Ex: Attendance or a Course Grade

What is an Experimental Method?

Involves direct manipulation and control of variables. Tries to reduce the impact of any other confounding variables on the dependent variable

What is the Third Variable Problem?

The possibility that one or more extraneous variables (or confounding variables) are responsible for an observed covariance (A+B=C)

What are Confounding Variables?

variables that are intertwined so one can't determine which variable is acting in a different situation

What is a independent variable?

variable that is manipulated

What is a dependent variable?

variable that is measured

What is the Experimental Control?

Extraneous variables kept constant

What are extraneous variables?

any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a study

What is randomization?

Eliminates the influence of difficult to control extraneous variables by ensuring their chances of affecting each experimental group is equal

What is classical conditioning?

a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

What is an Unconditioned Stimulus (US)?

a stimulus that produces a response without prior learning (dog seeing the steak)

What is a conditioned stimulus (CS)?

a stimulus that elicits a response only after learning has taken place (The Bell)

What is an Unconditioned Response (UR)?

a reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus (salvation)

What is the Conditioned Response (CR)?

a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

What is an Unconditioned Reflex?

inborn, automatic (ex: salivation) ...just happens

What is a Conditioned Reflex?

acquired through experience or learning and may vary a great deal among individual members of a species...not automatic