PSC 041 Exam 2

Archival Measures

Measures in which the researcher consults existing records to measure variables

Archives

Documents or records intended to preserve information

Closed-ended questions

Questions that force a participant to choose one of several possible answers. Can yield quantitative data, with choices that are easily counted or averaged and compared among participants

Double-barreled question/compound question/double-direct question

A question that asks about more than one issue, yet allows for only one answer

Exhaustive

Covering all possibilities

Faking bad

A response set in which participants give answers that exaggerate negative behaviors, characteristics, or symptoms

Internal reliability

Consistency in participants’ performance on items within a test that are intended to measure the same construct or factor

Items

Questions on a questionnaire or in an interview

Leading question

A question designed to elicit a particular response

Loaded question

A type of leading question that involves using emotional wording that would likely trigger an emotional response from participants and influence their answers

Likert scale

A type of rating scale that requires participants to choose one of several points on a continuum to indicate how strongly they agree or disagree with a statement

Multiple-choice questions

Questions that require the participant to select one response from a list of possible choices

Mutually exclusive

The quality of having no overlap

Nay-saying

A response set in which a participant answers questions negatively regardless of the questions’ content

Noise

Meaningless data that make it harder to identify or understand the variables of interest

Open-ended questions

Questions that allow participants to respond in their own words; may provide qualitative data or quantitative data

Participant observation

An observational technique in which a researcher pretends to be a participant (e.g., posing as a member of a group) and surreptitiously gathers data while observing activity as it occurs

Physiological measures

Measurement of variations in participants’ physiological states, usually obtained by using highly calibrated instruments

Qualitative data

Contains detailed, varied responses that can be difficult to compare

Quantitative data

Contains choices that are easily counted or averaged and compared among participants

Ranking scale questions

Questions that require the participant to arrange the options in order of preference or importance

Rating scale questions

Questions that require the participant to rate (i.e., assign a quantitative value to) each item based on a scale

Reliability

The extent to which a measurement is consistent

Response set

A tendency to answer questions in a systematic manner that is unrelated to their content

Reverse coding

A method of scoring answers such that responding Yes earns a point on some items and responding No earns a point on other items

Reverse wording

A method of arranging survey items such that some items are phrased positively and others negatively

Rubric

Contains the objectively correct answers for open-ended questions and can be used to compare responses

Self-observation

A process in which participants record their own actions as they happen

Self-report

A process in which participants are asked to recall what they remember about their past actions or other information about themselves; often used with questionnaires and interviews

Semantic differential scale

A type of rating scale that uses pairs of opposites, such as bad–good, unpleasant–pleasant, or competitive–cooperative, as response anchors at either end of a continuum. Participants are given a topic or statement and respond to it by choosing a point on the continuum that best describes their response

Social desirability

A response set in which participants give answers that are in accordance with social norms or the perceived desires of the researcher rather than genuinely representative of their actual views, behaviors, or symptoms

Split-half reliability

Consistency in participants’ performance on the first half of the test items compared to the second half of the test items

Test-retest reliability

Consistency in participants’ performance when tested twice under similar conditions

Yea-saying

A response set in which a participant answers questions positively regardless of the questions’ content

Block Design

a research design in which participants are divided into relatively homogeneous subsets, or blocks, based on a variable of interest, and from these blocks they are randomly assigned to the experimental or control conditions

Confounding variable (or confound)

a variable other than the independent variable that causes a change in the dependent variable

Contamination by communication

a confound that occurs when participants who have been seen by the researcher communicate their experiences with those who are waiting their turn to participate, such that the waiting participants’ foreknowledge of the experiment confounds the study

Counterbalancing

an arrangement of the experimental conditions in which multiple orders of the experimental conditions are administered and compared; different sequences are assigned to different participants or groups

Double-blind study

a study design in which both the participants and the researchers are unaware of each participant’s study condition

Equivalent

comparable

History effect

the tendency of events or circumstances outside an experiment to influence the outcome, particularly in pretest–posttest studies

Homogeneous sample

a sample group that is unified or similar on all relevant variables

Instrumentation

a change in the measuring device during the course of a study

Internal validity

the degree of confidence with which we can conclude that only variations in the independent variable—and not the action of other confounding variables—caused observed changes in the dependent variable

Interrater reliability

consistent judgment among observers or evaluators such that results do not vary significantly from one to another

Longitudinal study

a study that takes place over a period of time, sometimes several years

Matched-pairs design

a research design involving two groups of participants in which each member of one group is paired with a similar person in the other group

Maturation

naturally occurring time-related changes in participants

Order effect

the influence of the order in which treatments are administered

Participant variables

characteristics that make people unique: age, sex, ethnicity, education, socioeconomic status, marital status, living arrangements, employment status, personal habits, personality traits, and so on

Placebo

a therapeutically inert substance or nonspecific treatment

Placebo effect

this response occurs if participants have expectations about the effects of an experimental condition

Random assignment

a method of assigning participants such that each participant has an equal chance of being placed into each condition or group in an experiment, as opposed to other nonrandom means of assignment

Random selection

the process of randomly choosing participants (i.e., choosing your sample), whereas random assignment is the process of randomly deciding the experimental condition to which each participant will be exposed

Regression to the mean

the tendency of extremely high or extremely low scores to become more moderate (i.e., closer to the mean) with repeated measurement of the dependent variable

Single-blind study

a study design in which the participants are unaware of their study condition

Testing effect (also called practice effect)

the tendency of participants who are tested multiple times to be influenced by this “practice” in a way that changes their performance in subsequent tests

Washout period

the time frame allotted for an administered drug to be eliminated from the body or for a previously administered intervention to become ineffective

Between-groups design

a research design that involves the comparison of two or more groups of participants that each receive a different level of the independent variable

Carryover effect

an order effect in which the outcome of one condition influences the outcome of a condition that follows

Control group

in an experiment, the group of participants that does not receive the independent variable

Counterbalancing

an arrangement in which multiple orders of the experimental condition are administered and compared; different sequences are assigned to different participants

Criterion variable

the dependent variable in regression designs. This is the variable that is predicted

Dependent variable

the variable upon which the independent variable may have an effect

Experimental condition

a level of the independent variable that is manipulated by the researcher in order to assess the effect on a dependent variable

Experimental group (also Treatment group)

in an experiment, the group of participants that receives some level of the independent variable

Factor

an independent variable with two or more levels or groups

Factorial designs

(multifactorial designs) experimental designs in which there are two or more independent variables

Forecast

when a change in one variable is used to predict a change in another variable

Full counterbalancing

a research design in which every possible order of treatments is administered

Independent variable

the variable the researcher manipulates in an experiment

Interaction effect

a possible outcome of a multiple factor design when one independent variable depends on the effect of the other independent variable

Latin square

a type of partially counterbalanced research design in which every participant or group receives every treatment, and every treatment is given equally often in each position of the sequence

Level

the number of treatments or conditions that are represented with an independent variable

Longitudinal study

a study that takes place over a period of time, sometimes several years

Main effect

an overall difference in the levels of one independent variable collapsing over the levels of the other independent variable

Manipulate

to change

Matched-pairs design

an experimental design in which each participant is matched to another participant based on some important variable, and then participants in the pair are each randomly assigned to different experimental conditions

Mixed factorial design

a multifactorial design in which there is at least one between-groups independent variable and at least one within-group independent variable

Multiple regression design

a regression design in which there are two or more predictor variables (independent variables)

Omnibus

the main test for a significant difference in a single-factor design when there are more than two groups

Order effect

the influence of the order in which treatments are administered

Partial counterbalancing

a research design in which experimenters do not use all possible orders but still control for order and sequence effects

Post hoc

a test that isolates a difference identified by an omnibus test in a single-factor design

Posttest

a measurement of the dependent variable after the experimental manipulation

Posttest-only between-groups design

an experimental design in which each participant is exposed to only one experimental condition, and the single score that each contributes to the study is based on a posttest

Predictor variable

the independent variable in regression designs. This is the variable that is used to predict the criterion variable

Pretest

a measurement of the dependent variable before the experimental manipulation

Pretest-posttest between-groups design

an experimental design in which each participant is exposed to only one experimental condition, but contributes two scores based on one pretest and one posttest

Regression

a statistical technique that can be used to predict or forecast a criterion variable (dependent variable) based on one or more predictor variables (independent variables)

Repeated measures

an aspect of a research design in which a dependent variable is measured on repeated occasions

Simple regression design

a regression design with one predictor variable

Single-factor design

an experimental research design with a single independent variable that includes two or more levels

Statistical significance

the likelihood that a relationship between two or more conditions is caused by something other than chance

Washout period

the time frame allotted for an administered drug to be eliminated from the body or for a previously administered intervention to become ineffective

Williams Latin square

a Latin square design that counterbalances multiple conditions while also minimizing the carryover effect between adjacent conditions

Within-group design

an experimental design in which the effects of treatments are observed through a comparison of the scores of the same participants observed under all the treatment conditions

reliability

the trustworthiness or consistency of a measure

validity

the characteristic of being founded on truth, accuracy, fact, or law

parallel forms

Take two equivalent but not identical tests at same time point