Term
|
Definition
| A set of ideas often presented as science but actually based on non scientific theory. ex aromatherapy, astrology |
|
|
Term
| Methods of acquiring knowledge: |
|
Definition
| ways in which a person can know things or discover answers to questions |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| information is accepted as true because it has always been believed or because superstition supports it |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| information is accepted on the basis of a hunch or “gut feeling” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a person relies on information or answers from an expert in the subject area |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| variant of method of authority in which people have unquestioning trust in authority figure and therefore automatically accept it |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| seeks answers by the use of logical reasoning |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| describe facts or assumptions that are presumed to be true |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| is a set of premise statements that are logically combined to yield a conclusion |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| uses observation or direct sensory experience to obtain knowledge |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| involves using a relatively small set of specific observations as the basis for forming a general statement about a larger set of possible observations |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| type of hypothesis that always refers to a specific situation or an event that can be directly observed |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| uses a general statement as the basis for reaching a conclusion about specific examples |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| one for which all of the variables, events, and individuals are real, and can be refined and observed |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| can be demonstrated to be false, potential for the outcome to be different than the prediction |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| subjects in a study that are human |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| things in a study that are not human |
|
|
Term
| Limits to the empirical method |
|
Definition
| Its tempting to place beliefs on what we see and its also very easy to misinterpret what we see |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| intended to answer practical questions or solve practical problems |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| studies intended to solve theoretical issues |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| firsthand report of observations from person who did research |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| description or summary of another person’s work |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| goal is to find a set of published research reports that define the knowledge in an area that might have gaps that your study could fill |
|
|
Term
| Correlational research study: |
|
Definition
| two or more variables are measured to obtain a set of scores for each individual. The measurements are then reviewed to identify patterns of relationships |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| there is a tendency for two variables to change in the same direction. X goes up Y goes up |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| there is a tendency for two variables to change in the opposite direction. X goes up Y goes down |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| measures linear relationships |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| measure monotonic relationships |
|
|
Term
| Correlation coefficient : |
|
Definition
| the numerical value that measures the relationship between two variables ex/ +1, 0, or -1 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| variable that predicts the criterion variable, i.e. SAT scores |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| variable predicted by the predictor variable Ex college success |
|
|
Term
| Coefficient of determination: |
|
Definition
| r^2 The numericalvalue of the correlation measures how much of the variability in one variable is predictable from its realationship with the other variable |
|
|
Term
| Observational research design: |
|
Definition
| the researcher observes and systematically records the behavior of individuals in order to describe the behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| direct observation and systematic recording of behaviors |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| repeated exposure until the observer’s presence is no longer a novel stimulus |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the behaviors that we are observing/ focusing on, group play, eating, mating behaviors, etc… |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| measure of agreement between the observers on whether or not a behavior was significant |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| counting the instances of each specific behavior that occur during a fixed time observation period |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| recording how much time they participate in a specific activity during the fixed observation period |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| dividing the fixed time period into intervals and recording if the behavior happens in any of those intervals |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| observe for one interval, write down observations for the next and so on so forth |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| focus on one specific behavior for one interval then another behavior for the next |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| focusing on a specific participant for each interval |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| involves using the techniques of behavioral observation to measure the occurence of specific events in literature, movies, televisions… |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| involves looking at historical records to measure behaviors or events that occurred in the past |
|
|
Term
| Naturalistic observation: |
|
Definition
| a researcher observes behavior in a natural setting as unobtrusively as possible |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| researcher engages in same activities as the people being observed in order to observe and record their behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| observation of behavior in settings arranged specifically to facilitate the occurrence of specific behaviors |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| involves in depth study and detailed description of a single individual, may include and intervention or treatment administered by the researcher |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| does not include any treatment or intervention but looks at one specific instance being studied |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| statements about the mechanisms underlying a particular behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| hypothetical attributes or mechanisms that help explain and predict behavior in a theory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| procedure for measuring and defining a construct, specifies a measurement procedure for measuring an external, observable behavior, and uses the resulting measurements as a definition and a measurement of the hypothetical construct |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| whether or not the results of an experiment are usable/effective. The degree to which the measurement process measures the variable it claims to measure |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| an unscientific form of validity demonstrates when a measure superficially appears to measure what it claims to measure |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| demonstrated when scores obtained from a new measure are directly related to scores obtained from an established measure of the same variable |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| demonstrated when scores obtained from a measure accurately predict behavior according to a theory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| requires that the scores obtained from a measurement procedure behave exactly the same as the variable itself. Construct validity is based on many research studies and grows gradually as each new study contributes more evidence (never actually fully attained) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| demonstrated by a strong relationship between the scores obtained from two different methods of measuring the same construct |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| demonstrated by using two different methods to measure two different constructs. Then convergent validity must be shown for each of the two constructs. Finally there should be little or no relationship between the scores obtained for the two different construct when they are measured by the same method |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| established by comparing the scores obtained from two successive measurements of the same individuals and calculating a correlation between the two sets of scores. |
|
|
Term
| parallel-forms reliability: |
|
Definition
| if alternative versions of the measuring instruments are used for the two measurements, the reliability measure is called parallel-forms reliability |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| degree of agreement between two observers who simultaneously record measurements of the behaviors |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| obtained by splitting the items on a questionnaire or test in half, computing a separate score for each half, and then calculating the degree of consistency between the two scores for a group of participants |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| qualitative differences in the variable measured, ex// school subjects: psych, history, math etc… |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| different names and are organized sequentially.... has a directional difference but no magnitude of difference ex: 1st 2nd 3rd or t-shirt sizes |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| organized sequentially and all categories are the same size, o is an abstract number ex// farhenheit or Celsius |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| similar to interval scale except 0 has significance ex// Kelvin |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| person reports what they are doing and how they are feeling while doing it, best method is beeper method |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| PET scanning, MRI, measure what the body is doing while being run through experiments |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| measurements of different behaviors like mental awareness, could operationally be defined by focus time |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| clustering of scores at the high end of a measurement scale, allowing little or no possibility of increases in value |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| clustering of scores at the low end of a measurement scale, allowing little or no possibility of decreases in value |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| based on measuring variables for individual participants to obtain scores, usually numeric values |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| based on making observations that are summarized and interpreted in a narrative report |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| general approach to research determined by the kind of question that the research study hopes to answer |
|
|
Term
| Experimental research strategy: |
|
Definition
| intended to answer cause and effect questions about the relationship between two variables |
|
|
Term
| Quasi-experimental research strategy: |
|
Definition
| can never produce an unambiguous explanation, uses some of the rigor and control that experimental has but usually has some flaw… ex//depression—therapy—feel better |
|
|
Term
| Nonexperimental research strategy: |
|
Definition
| intended to demonstrate a relationship between variables but not to explain it |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| produce a description of individual variables as they exist within a specific group ex//on average students spend 12.5 hours stud |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| produce a description of the relationship between two variables but do not attempt to explain the relationship |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the degree to which the study accurately answers the question it was intended to answer |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| any component of a research study that introduces questions or raises doubts about the quality of the research process or the accuracy of the research results |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| produces a single, unambiguous explanation for the relationship between two variables |
|
|
Term
| Threat to internal validity |
|
Definition
| any variable that allows for an alternative explanation of the results |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to the extent to which we can generalize the results of a research study to people, settings, times etc… |
|
|
Term
| Threat to external validity: |
|
Definition
| any characteristic of a study that limits the generality of the results |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| any variable in research study other than the specific variables being studied |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| extraneous variable that changes with the other variables, therefore it offers abother explanataion for the variables changing and is a threat to internal validity |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| occurs when the process used to assign different participants to different treatments produces groups of individuals with noticeably different characteristics |
|
|
Term
| History’s effect on experiments: |
|
Definition
| outside events between treatments that threaten internal validity because it could explain the change in behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| any systematic changes in participants’psychology or physiology during a research study that affects the participants’ scores or behavior |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| changes in the the measuring instruments during the study, ex// different MRI machines or a scale wearing out, threat to internal validity |
|
|
Term
| Testing effects/order effects: |
|
Definition
| when an experience of being tested in one treatment condition affects the next treatment condition ex//scores are lower in the afternoon because they already did something in the morning and are tired |
|
|
Term
| Regression towards the mean: |
|
Definition
| the tendency where extreme(high or low) scores tend to—over time—get closer and closer to the mean over time/repeated experiments |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| has occurred when the findings of a study have been influenced by the experimenter’s expectations or personal beliefs regarding the outcome of the study. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| researcher doesn’t know the predicted outcome |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| both the researchers and participants are unaware of the predicted outcome |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to any potential cues or features of a study that suggest to the participants what the purpose and hypothesis is and influence the participants to respond or behave in a certain way |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| occurs when the participants modify their natural behavior in response to the fact that they are participating in a research study or the knowledge that they are being measured (good subject, negativistic subject, and faithfulo subject) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| any setting that is obviously devoted to the discipline of a science, it can be any room or any space that the subject or participant perceives as artificial |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| place that the participant perceives as a natural environment |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| general plan for implementing a research strategy, specifies stuff like including groups or individuals, make comparisons within group or between them, or how many variables will be included |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| exact, step by step description of a specific research study |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a large group defined by the researchers specific interests |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a group that can easily be reached to study the population of interest |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| set of individuals selected from the population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to the extent to which the characteristics of the sample accurately reflect the characteristics of the sample accurately reflect the characteristics of the population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| sample with the same characteristic as the population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| sample with different characteristics from those of the population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| occurs when participants or subjects are selected in a manner that increases the probability of obtaining a biased sample |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| process of selecting individuals to participate in a research study |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the entire population is known, each individual in the population has specifiable probability of selection, and sampling occurs by random process based on probabilities |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| procedure that produces one outcome from a set of possible outcomes. The outcome must be unpredictable each time, and the process must guarantee that each of the possible outcomes is equally likely to occur |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the population is not completely known, individual probabilities cannot be known, and the sampling method is based on factors such as common sense or ease, with an effort to maintain representativeness an avoid bias |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| lists all the individuals in a population, select every nth name on the list |
|
|
Term
| Stratified random sampling: |
|
Definition
| identify specific subgroups, select equal-sized random samples from those groups, RANDOM |
|
|
Term
| Proportionate stratified random sampling: |
|
Definition
| attempt to accurately represent the proportions in the population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| ex// trying to get data from 300 3rd graders go into a school and randomly select 10 classrooms of 30 |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| ex// college students, sample easiest available individuals of a population |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| only sample up to a certain point within each group, a quota, so instead of sampling first 30 participants sample 15 males, 15 females even if the first 30 are all male |
|
|
Term
| Conceptual Dependent Variable |
|
Definition
-the theoretical construct
hypothesized to vary as a function of the independent
variable
– e.g., aggression varies as a function of frustration |
|
|
Term
| Operational Dependent Variable- |
|
Definition
the concrete, observable
procedures in which one assesses the conceptual DV
– e.g., amount of hot sauce put on taco |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
That which is theorized to be an effect of a
given cause. It is dependent on the IV.
The variable that is measured.
• Self-report measures: interviews, questionnaires
• Behavioral measures: direct and indirect |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
an index of how consistently your measurement
system assigns the same number to the same observation.
– If a ruler says an 8 inch piece of paper is 9.32 inches every time,
the ruler is reliable
– Reliability is consistency; it doesn’t matter if it is right |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
an index of how well your measurement system
actually measures the variable under consideration.
– If a ruler tells you that an 8 inch piece of paper is 8 inches, it is
valid
– Measure can not be valid unless it is reliable |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Utilizing different operational measures of
the same conceptual variable.
• If different operations converge, then your
measure has convergent validity. |
|
|
Term
Self-Report Measures
Examples: |
|
Definition
• Interviews
• Daily Diaries
• Experience Sampling Methods
• Questionnaires
– Open ended vs. close ended (scales) |
|
|
Term
| Semantic Differential Scales: |
|
Definition
assesses the connotative
(subjective) meaning of things.
Example: In the Frank & Gilovich Black Uniform Study |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A scale where numbers are associated with
different responses to a series of statements for
participants to indicate the extent of their
disagreement or agreement. |
|
|
Term
| Advantages of Self-Report Measures |
|
Definition
• They are cheap and easy to use.
• They have a certain directness to them.
• You can ask a lot of questions in a short time.
• You can ask some questions that are solely there to help
untangle confounds later
• You can get at subtle changes in participant’s feelings
• Questionnaires can be anonymous, which makes
participants feel better about admitting embarrassing
things. |
|
|
Term
| Disadvantages of Self-Report Measures |
|
Definition
• Participants may treat them casually.
• Participants may try to make themselves look good.
• Participants may not be honest with themselves.
• Participants may act based on expectancies or reactance.
• Measure is what participants say about themselves--may
be different than behavior.
• Participants can tell you are assessing them.
• Responses can be influenced by aspects of questionnaire. |
|
|
Term
| Direct behavioral measures: |
|
Definition
Provide participants an opportunity to perform a behavior and see whether they do
it, how long they do it, or how many times they do it.
– Love on the Bridge Study (Dutton & Aron, 1972) |
|
|
Term
| Indirect behavioral measures: |
|
Definition
Measure some proxy for
behavior of interest
– Liking = How close person sits near other
– Physical traces--popularity of children’s museum exhibits
measured by nose prints (Webb et al., 1981) |
|
|
Term
| Advantages of Behavioral Measures |
|
Definition
• Can often measure behavior without
participants’ awareness of what is being
measured (or measurement taking place).
• Behavior is more engrossing than filling out
questionnaires--could get truer response.
• Behavior is often closer approximation to
construct of interest than questionnaire. |
|
|
Term
| Disadvantages of Behavioral Measures |
|
Definition
• Harder to implement (from researcher’s perspective) than
self-report.
• Sometimes it is not possible to measure behavior of
interest.
• People can do the same behavior for completely different
reasons.
• Behavioral measures usually obtained individually.
• Hard to measure multiple things in one study |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Measures that require
participants to commit to a future behavior
without actually having to perform it later
– e.g., number of hours participants agree to tutor
a fellow student; number of questionnaires
participants commit to help a confederate score |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
The universe is orderly: All events have
meaningful, systematic causes. |
|
|
Term
| Zajonc’s cockroach experiment findings |
|
Definition
• The “mere presence” of others has one consistent
effect: It increases physiological arousal.
• Increased arousal facilitates the “dominant
response”
– Easy tasks get easier
– Difficult tasks get harder |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• We learn about the universe by observing it.
• Galileo’s “legendary experiment” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
All else being equal, one should prefer
simpler explanations over complex ones.
• Occam’s razor: “What can be explained by
fewer principles is explained needlessly by
more.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
statements about the mechanisms
underlying a particular behavior
• Statements about the relationship between two or
more variables |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-definitions of theoretical
concepts that are stated in terms of concrete,
observable events
– Hunger = amount of ice cream eaten
– Hunger = self-report on hunger scale
– Interest in safe sex = number of condoms purchased |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a universal statement of the nature
of things that allows reliable predictions of
future events. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a general statement about the
relationship between two or more variables.
– Should be deterministic, empirically grounded,
parsimonious, and testable |
|
|
Term
Conceptual vs. Operational
Definitions |
|
Definition
• Conceptual Definition--the theoretical
construct research is interested in
– Humor, Coping
• Operational Definition--definitions of
theoretical concepts that are stated in terms
of concrete, observable events
– Number of jokes told, illness symptoms |
|
|
Term
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Approaches |
|
Definition
• Qualitative -- observational methods in which raw
data exists in non-numerical form
– Reports of conversations
– Case studies
• Quantitative -- observational methods in which
raw data exists in numerical form.
– Archival: use data in original format
– Content Analysis: perform subjective judgments on
original data |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Customer given price much lower than salesman
intends to sell car in order to induce customer to
agree to purchase |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
--error caused by extraneous and uncontrolled variables
whose average influence on the outcome of an experiment is the same
in all conditions.
– e.g., subject variables, extraneous events
– with random assignment, does not affect validity of results
– affects signal to noise ratio and can hide the effect of IV |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Error caused by extraneous variables that tend to
influence all scores in one condition and to have
no effect, or a different effect, on scores in other
conditions.
• Can distort the effect of the IV
• Threatens internal validity
• “Confounding variable” in text |
|
|
Term
External Validity:
The Mook Perspective (1983) |
|
Definition
• What is most important, is not the external validity
of a study’s methods, but the external validity of
the theory behind the study.
• Studies often teach us what can happen, not
necessarily what does happen.
• Which word more common:
-----n-
----ing |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
explains when a finding is sometimes true
–Ex: Good performances make Simon smile only when he’s in a good mood. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
participant doesn’t know you are interested in the measured behavior
–Ex: Love on the bridge |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
your assignment to conditions leads to having groups with different characteristics
–Problem for internal validity
–Ex: Assign psych 1 students to one condition and psych 7 students to another |
|
|
Term
| Quota vs. Stratified Random Sampling: same goal, different approach |
|
Definition
Stratified random sampling: The population is divided into strata followed by random sampling from each stratum
•Probabality sampling! Why?
–Quota sampling: A sample is chosen to reflect the numerical composition of various subgroups in a population.
•Non-probability sampling! Why? |
|
|
