Psychological Research

  • Science uses critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity.

  • Inductive Reasoning: Ideas based on observation

  • Deductive Reasoning: Ideas based on a hypothesis

  • Empirical Evidence: Data from direct observation or experiment.

  • Case studies have the issue of not being generalized.

  • Correlations predict the possibility of cause and effect, but they cannot prove anything.

  • Independent Variable: What can be changed in the experiment

  • Dependent Variable: The stable variable

  • Archival Study: Using existing data

  • Cross-sectional study: studying different groups of people at the same time

  • Variable: something that is being studied

  • Random assignment: All participants have an equal chance of being assigned to either group

  • Population: The entire group to conclude about

  • Sample: the subset of the population to study

  • Generability: the extent to which findings apply to the target population

  • Random selection: each person in the population has an equal chance of being selected

  • Experimenter Bias: The researcher’s expectations might influence participants’ responses inadvertently.

  • Demand Characteristics: Participants may feel the need to please the researcher (s)