Psyo270 final

What is doing psychology

- conducting research

basic research

conducted to achieve a more detailed and accurate understanding of human behaviour

applied research

conducted to address some practical problem

independent variable

manipulated (cause)

dependent variable

measured as an outcome (effect)

categorical variable

qualitatively different groups

qualitative variables

range of numbers represent more or less of what is being measured

operationalization / operation definition

how a conceptual variable is measured in practical terms

replication

recreating a study to see if the same results can be obtained with different samples, by different researchers, and in different settings

replication rates

only roughly 1/3 in respected psych journals

methodology

contains all the info needed to evaluate its strengths or weaknesses

exact replication

everything the same except for time, place, and participants

conceptual replication

one or more elements are altered

reasons for non-replication

- falsified data (rare)

- replication attempt might have accidentally altered conditions of the original study

anchoring and adjustment

when faced with things we dont know we anchor to what wer'e given

low numeric anchor: leads to lower answers given

high numeric anchor: leads to high answers given

between subjects

- research participants see one condition

- can have confounding variables, should use random assignment to prevent

within subjects

- research participants see all conditions

- gives researchers more power to notice differences between conditions

- participants in groups are equivalent because they are themselves

- requires fewer participants

- can have carryover effects :(

carryover effects

- disadvantage of within subject design

- prevented through counterbalancing

counterbalancing

vary the order of exposure to the conditions systematiaclly

practice effect

participants learn how to respond

fatigue effect

participants get tired

context effect

viewing the first condition changes how you interpret the second

vignette experiment

scenario to read and consider before answering

- between subjects

activity experiment

ask them to do something

- between subjects

visualization/imagine experiment

ask them to imagine a scenario

- within subjects

informational experiment

gives info before questions

experimental indep. variable

being changed

non experimental indep. variable

variable that is not being altered (gender identity)

mixed model

has aspects of within and between subjects

extraneous variables

- any variable other than the indep. variable or dep. variable

- makes it difficult to identify the cause pf any differences in the dependent variable

confounding variable

- differs systematically across levels of the indep. variable

internal validity

- ability to understand what actually cause changes in the dep. variable

- lowered by extraneous and confounding variables

- high internal validity involves the ability to establish cause and effect

construct validity

manipulation check

measure of how well the manipulation worked in affecting what it was intended to

external validity

will the study generalize to other samples, situations, etc?

mundane realism

is the experiment like what people would encounter in the real world?

psychological realism

does the experiment create the same psychological process that would operate un another situation or for other people?

construct validity

is the operationalization of the indep. variable effective?

is the measurement of the dep. variable appropriate?

looks at the whole experiment

statistical validity

do the stats used in the study support the study's conclusion

features of scientific approach

- systematic empiricism

- empirical questions

- public knowledge

systematic empiricism

learning based on observation by systematically planning, making, recording, and analyzing observations

empirical questions

questions about the way the world is and can be answered by systematically observing it

pseudoscience

activities and beliefs that are claimed to be scientific by their proponents and may appear to be scientific at first glance but are not

- if adherents claim it is scientific but...

- if it lacks on or more of the three features of science

public knowledge

scientists publish their work

falsifiable

- scientific claims must be

- can be proved false

three goals of science

- describe

- predict

- explain

folk psychology

intuitive beliefs we have about people behaviours, thoughts, and feelings

heuristics

mental shortcuts that we rely on to make and maintain beliefs

confirmation bias

seeing trends that are not there simply because we want it to be true

tolerance for uncertainty

accept that there are many things that they simply do not know

who conducts research in psych?

- often psychologists (PhD)

- some w masters degrees, assisted by research assistants w bachelors degrees or other relevant training

clinical practice of psychology

the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and related problems

empirically supported treatments

treatments that have scientifically been proved to be effective

acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

- depressions

- anxiety

- psychosis

- chronic pain

- OCD

behaviourla couples therapy

alc use disorders

CBT

- eating disorders

- depression

- anxiety

- etc

exposure therapy

- ptsd

- phobias

exposure therapy with response prevention

- OCD

family based treatment

eating disorders

scientific research

research literature

all the published research in the field

professional journals

periodicals that publish original research articles

empirical research reports

describe one or more new empirical studies conducted by authors

review articles

summarize previously published research on a topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the results

theoretical article

review article dedicated to presenting a new theory

meta-analysis

review article the provides statistical summary of all the previous results

double blind peer review

- most professional journals undergo this