Term
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Definition
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Term
| Errors in Human Judgement (4) |
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Definition
1. Innacurate Observations
2. Generalizations
3. Selective Observation
4. Illogical Reasoning |
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Term
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Definition
| A prescribed and socially shared set of rules for translating research questions into their testable form, collecting and evaluating data, and communicating the results. |
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Term
| Assumptions and Philosophies of Social Science |
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Definition
- Looks for social regularities
- Evidence based and probabalistic
- Parsimony ("Occams Razor")
- Progression in small steps
- Acceptibility of uncertainty and nonproof |
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Term
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Definition
| From the general to the particular, applying a theory or established particular, applying a theory or established principles to a particular caseprinciples to a particular case |
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Term
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Definition
| Starts from observed data and develops a generalization which explains the relationship between the objects observed |
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Term
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Definition
A scientific prediction must be able to be proved wrong.
Example:
Tomorrow it will rain or not versus Tomorrow it will rain.
Can't disprove a negative (such as there is no God). |
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Term
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Definition
- Science is not a confirmation process (looking
for evidence to corroborate a generalization) but
a refutation process (looking for evidence to
shoot down a claim)
- Claim has to be falsifiable
- Efforts at falsifying
- Claim rejected when refuting evidence presented |
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Term
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Definition
- institutional goal of “empirically confirmed and logically consistent statements of regularities"
1. Scientists share and communicate findings
2. Evaluate findings using universal, impersonal criteria
3. Scientists are disinterested, do not merely follow self interested behavior
4. Organized skepticism, suspends judgement of a claim until sufficient evidience is available |
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Term
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Definition
- Periods of “normal science” are punctuated by revolutions and paradigm shifts.”
- Paradigm: background assumptions about how the world works.
- Normal science is like puzzle solving, where the frame, the cut out pieces and the spaces to be filled in are specified by a paradigm
- at times anomalous pieces can not be fit and science transitions between frames of meaning |
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Term
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Definition
| The name of a logical rule adopted in science that says among two competing explanations, the simplest explanation is usually the best. |
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Term
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Definition
Verb: The process of translating vague, abstract constructs into measurable form
Noun: The specific means by which a construct is measured in a study (aka“operational
definition”or “empirical realization”)
Examples: Exposure to TV Violence;
Self report rating of how often a person
reports watching programs with violent content; Number of violent TV programs that a person reports having watched recently from a list provided to him or her; Behavioral diary: Number of violent programs person records having watched over a month-- long period |
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Term
| Choosing an Operationalization |
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Definition
- Use operationalizations that are consistent with resources available to you.
- operationalizations that will be convincing to potential critics.
- If possible, use more than oneoperationalization. |
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Term
| Convergence/Triangulation of Evidence |
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Definition
Use Use operationalizationsoperationalizationsthat are consistent with that are consistent with
resources available to youresources available to you
When different studies using different operationalizations of a construct yield
the same research finding, or when a single study using multiple operational-
izations yields similar findings across operationalizations |
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Term
| CRITERA FOR CAUSALITY (3) |
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Definition
1. Correlation between proposed cause and proposed effect (and in the correct direction.
2. Proposed cause must precede the propsed effect.
3. No plausible alternative relationships between proposed cause and proposed effect. |
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Term
| Experimenter threats to Internal Validity |
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Definition
1. Experimenter Expectancy Effects
2. Differential Treatment Effects |
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Term
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Definition
External validity pertains to the “generalizability” of the
research findings away from a lab environment to the “real
world” of interest.
Two broad dimensions of external validity: |
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Term
| Evaluating Ecological Validity |
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Definition
1. Mundane Realism
2. Experimental Realism |
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