Unit 0: Research Methods

Critical Thinking

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

“I-knew-it-all-along”

Peer Reviewers

An evaluation process where scholars or researchers asses each others work before it gets published

Hypothesis

Prediction or educated guess

A testable question often from a theory

Operational Definition

A carefully worded statement of the exact operations used in a research study

Replication

Involves testing an existing research result in order to remake similar results using similar conditions and methods

Case Study

Examines one individual or group in depth in hopes of revealing things that are universal about a population

Naturalistic Observation

Records behavior in a natural environment, without interfering or controlling by the researchers

Meta-analysis

A statistical procedure for analyzing the results from multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion

Survey

Process of looking at many cases in less depth than other research methods

Self-reporting

Social Desirability Bias

Occurs when survey participants answer questions in a way they think the researcher wants or in a way that they think makes them look “good”

Self-report Bias

Tendency for participants to provide inaccurate and untruthful information about themselves due to social desirability

Sampling Bias

Occurs when an unrepresentative sample of a population is used, which leads to flaws in the survey results

Random Sample

Represents the population, where each member of the group has an equal chance of participation