Field Methods

empiricism

involves using evidence from the senses (sight, hearing, touch) or from instru- ments that assist the senses (such as thermometers, timers, photographs, weight scales, and questionnaires) as the basis for conclusions

theory-data

In the __________ cycle, scientists collect data to test, change, or update their theories.

cupboard theory

a mother is valuable to a baby Troubleshooting an electronic device is a form of mammal because she is a source of food. The baby animal gets hungry, gets food from the mother by nursing, and experiences a pleasant feeling (reduced hunger).

contact comfort theory

An alternative theory, proposed by psychologist Harry Harlow (1958), is that babies are attached to their mothers because of the comfort of their warm, fuzzy fur.

theory

a set of statements—as simple as possible— that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another

hypothesis

the specific outcome the researcher will observe in a study if the theory is accurate

data

a set of observations. (Harlow’s data were the amount of time the baby monkeys stayed on each mother.)

replication

the study is conducted again to test whether the result is consistent

falsifiability

a theory should lead to hypotheses that, when tested, could fail to support the theory

applied research

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

basic research

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

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 and represents a dynamic bridge from basic to applied research

journal

When scientists want to tell the scientific world about the results of their research, they write a paper and submit it to a scientific _______.

journalism

a secondhand report about the research, written by journalists or laypeople

science journalism

_________ fulfills the communality norm of science by allowing scientists to share potentially valuable work with the general public. It is easy to access, and understanding it does not require specialized education.

confound

Essentially, a __________ occurs when you think one thing caused an outcome but in fact other things changed, too, so you are confused about what the cause really was.

availability heuristic

Another bias in thinking is the _____________, which states that things that pop up easily in our mind tend to guide our thinking. When events or memories are vivid, recent, or memorable, they come to mind more easily, leading us to overestimate how often things happen.

present/present bias

When testing relationships, we often fail to look for absences; in contrast, it is easy to notice what is present.

confirmation bias

The tendency to look only at information that agrees with what we want to believe

bias blind spot

the belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to the other biases previously described

evidence gap

this gap involves contradictions in the findings of the prior research

knowledge gap

common gap in prior research

practical-knowledge gap

gap that can motivate new research in this direction. This conflict arises when the actual behavior of professionals is different from their advocated behavior.

methodological gap

a type of gap that deals with the conflict that occurs due to the influence of methodology on research results

theoretical gap

a gap that deals with the gaps in theory with the prior research

empirical gap

gap that deals with gaps in the prior research

population gap

gap that arises when the population is not adequately represented or under-researched in the evidence base or prior research

frequency claim

describe a particular rate or degree of a single variable. In the last example above, “most” refers to a proportion of students (presumably higher than 50%) who could not identify fake news. In the first example, “15%” is the proportion of American adults who smoke. These headlines claim how frequent or common something is. Easily identified because they focus on only one variable—such as level of food insecurity, rate of smiling, or amount of texting. In addition, in these studies, the variables are always measured, not manipulated.

association claim

argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable. Variables that are associated are sometimes said to correlate, or covary, meaning that when one variable changes, the other variable tends to change, too. More simply, they may be said to be related.

causal claim

must be supported by an experimental study, context of justification, arguing that one of the variables is responsible for changing the other.

belmont report

outlines ethical principles for research involving human subjects

respect for persons

individuals are autonomous, those with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection

beneficence

do no harm, safeguarding anonymity and confidentiality, balance of benefit vs. harm

justice

consider that participants “bear the burden” of risk, representativeness in participants

fidelity and responsibility

establish relationships of trust, accept responsibility for professional behavior

integrity

strive to be accurate, truthful, and honest in one’s role as researcher, teacher, or practitioner

Psychological Association of the Philippines Code of Ethics 2022

code of ethics in the Philippines

variable

something that varies, so it must have at least two levels, or values

measured

A __________ variable is one whose levels are simply observed and recorded. Some variables, such as height and IQ, are measured using familiar tools (a ruler, a test).

manipulated

a __________ variable is a variable a researcher controls, usually by assigning study participants to the different levels of that variable

conceptual

A careful, theoretical definition of the construct

operational

How the construct is measured or manipulated in an actual study

claim

an argument someone is trying to make

positive correlation

an association in which high goes with high and low goes with low

scatterplot

one variable is plotted on the y-axis and the other variable is plotted on the x-axis. Each dot represents one participant in the study, measured on the two variables.

negative correlation

high goes with low and low goes with high. In other words, high rates of coffee go with less depression, and low rates of coffee go with more depression.

zero correlation

no association between the variables

reliability

how much error did we measure

self-report, observation, physiological

3 types of measure

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

scale of measurements

validity

how accurately did we measure the variable

test-retest reliability

type of reliability where people get consistent scores every time they take a test

internal reliability

type of reliability where people give consistent responses to every item on the questionnaire

interrater reliability

type of reliability where two coders’ ratings of a set of target are consistent with each other

cronbach’s alpha

measures reliability

validity

reliability is a prerequisite for _________

convergent validity

validity where you are measuring parts of your construct, if you have a questionnaire and there is an established questionnaire, you make participants answer both and the scores need to correlate or converge

criterion validity

if you have a criteria to measure the variable, your questionnaire has to measure all these variables to have this validity

discriminant validity

how dissimilar is your pizza to other pizzas

inclusion criteria

these are the characteristics that participants must have to be included in the study

exclusion criteria

characteristics that disqualify participants from the study

external validity

how well a result represents the unstudied population

probability sampling

every member of the population of interest has an equal and known chance of being selected for the sample, regardless of whether they are convenient or motivated to volunteer

nonrandom sampling

selection of participants for the sample is based on certain conditions or limitations

simple random sampling

most basic sampling technique, sample is chosen completely at random from the population of interest

cluster random sampling

arbitrary groups of participants within a sample are randomly selected, followed by data gathering from all individuals in each group

multistage sampling

involves at least two stages, a random sample of clusters followed by a random sample of people within the selected clusters

stratified random sampling

the researcher identifies particular demographic categories, or strata, and then randomly selects individuals within each category

systematic random sampling

using a randomly chosen number N, and counting off every Nth member of a population to achieve a sample

convenience sampling

choosing those who are available

purposive sampling

only certain kinds of people are included in a sample

snowball sampling

variation of purposive sampling wherein participants are asked to recommend acquaintances for the study

quota sampling

researcher identifies subsets of the population of interest, sets a target number for each category in the sample, and nonrandomly selects individuals within each category until the quotas are filled