PSY 7 - Midterm

-is often wrong
-can lead to accepting unquestioningly what your own personal judgment or a single story tells you about the world
-numerous cognitive and motivational biases affect our perception, may draw erroneous conclusions about cause/effect

-unreliable authorities are bad
-scientific approach rejects the notion that one can accept on faith statements of any authority; evidence is needed
-must have expertise in area of relevance

-bias from the proximal occurrence of two variables
-sometimes results in bad causal conclusions
-seeing a connection when there is little or none

-knowledge is based on observations
-observations accurately reported to others
-search for discovery and verification of ideas
-open exchange and competition among ideas
-peer review of research

-hypothesis or theory must be testable (empirically verifiable)

-reviewed by the scientific community

use of scientific terms and science-like appearance to substantiate unscientific claims

hypotheses not testable
methodology not scientific
evidence anecdotal or unreliable authorities
ignore conflicting evidence
scientific-sounding
rationalize strongly held beliefs
vague claims
claims not revised (ever)

describe behavior
predict behavior
determine causes of behavior
understand or explain behavior

cause precedes the effect

when the cause is present, the effect occurs

when the cause is not present, no effect

Nothing other than the causal variable could be responsible for the observed effect.

People aware of being studied act to please to scientists

knowable external world
there exist reliable methods for gaining this knowledge and understanding

Basic - answer fundmental questions about the nature of behavior

Applied - address issues in which there are practical problems and potential solutions

evaluates social reforms and innovations that occur in society

abstract - summary
introduction - past research/theories
methodology - definitions/participants
results - narrative of what happened and statistics
discussion - analysis/confirmation

study of past work

researching individuals and behaviors in their natural environments; in-depth study of a phenomenon in its natural setting; investigator observes some naturally occurring behavior and does not make any changes to the situation

good generalizability
lack of control

study factors, elements and phenomena in particular cases or scenarios; an in-depth study of the behavior of one person or a small group

polling and asking the population for data; asks questions of large numbers of persons to gain information on attitudes and behavior

analysis of causal elements in a controlled environment

relationships are studied by making observations or measures of the variables of interest.

direct manipulation and control of variables

subjects/participants

defines a variable in terms of the actual procedures used by the researcher to measure and/or manipulate it

refers to the degree to which a study accurately reflects or assesses the specific concept that the researcher is attempting to measure.

refers to the extent to which a measure appears to measure what it is supposed to measure

measure appears to asses the intended variable

adequacy of an operational definition

the degree to which a measurement device accurately measures the theoretical construct it is designed to measure

the content of the measure is linked to the universe of content that defines the construct

scores on the measure predict behavior on a criterion measured at a time in the future

the criterion for predictive validity is future behavior

scores on the measure are related to a criterion measured concurrently

demonstrated by research that examines the relationship between the measure and a criterion behavior at the same time

Scores on the measure are related to other measures of the same construct

the extent to which scores on the measure in question are related to scores on other measures of the same construct or similar constructs

when a variable is not related to variables with which it shouldn't be related

awareness of being measured changes individual's behavior

no numerical or quantitative properties: just categories

rank ordering with limited numeric values

Numeric properties are literal
Assume equal interval between values
No absolute zero

Zero indicates absence of variable measured
literal numeric properties

the extent to which an experiment, test, or any measuring procedure yields the same result on repeated trials

consistency/stability

real score on the variable

the amount of deviation the tests have from the true score

-1.00 to 0.00 to +1.00

refers to the consistency of participants responses over time (hours and weeks)

Different items that measure the same variable should produce similar answers

comparison of individual's total score on one half of the test with the total score on the other half

individual items and their correlation with every other item

the extent to which raters aggree in their observations

o do no harm
o minimize coercion
o confidentiality
o informed consent

o the inquirer investigates the meanings of individual experiences with an intent of developing a theory or describing a pattern
o qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings
o generally a smaller number of people
o open-ended questions

conclusions based on statistical analysis of the data

- investigator uses cause-effect thinking, reduces questions to specific variables and hypotheses
-uses quantitative measurement and observation to test hypotheses

PURPOSE
seeks explanations and predictions to develop generalizations (vs.) seeks a better understanding of complex situations

RESEARCH PROCESS
known variables established guidelines, predetermined methods, objective
(vs.) unknown variables, flexible guidelines, emergent methods, subjective

DATA GATHERING
numeric data, representative large sample, standardized instruments
(vs.) textual/image data, small sample, loosely structured observations and interviews

DATA ANALYSIS
statistical analysis, objectivity, deductive reasoning
(vs.) search for themes and categories

FINDINGS
numbers, statistics, aggregated data, scientific style
(vs.) words, narratives, quotes and literary style

PURPOSE
seeks explanations and predictions to develop generalizations (vs.) seeks a better understanding of complex situations

RESEARCH PROCESS
known variables established guidelines, predetermined methods, objective
(vs.) unknown variables, flexible guidelines, emergent methods, subjective

DATA GATHERING
numeric data, representative large sample, standardized instruments
(vs.) textual/image data, small sample, loosely structured observations and interviews

DATA ANALYSIS
statistical analysis, objectivity, deductive reasoning
(vs.) search for themes and categories

FINDINGS
numbers, statistics, aggregated data, scientific style
(vs.) words, narratives, quotes and literary style

If some observations are not consistent the researcher revises the hypothesis and examines all the data to make sure that they are consistent with the new hypothesis

the careful observation of one or more specific behaviors in a particular setting

a system of assigning terms to behaviors being studided, and their necessary criteria

a set of rules used to categorize observations

Taking a smaller portion of something to get a generalization for the whole

the sample must be representative

type of case study in whic a resercher applies a psychological theory to explain the life of an important historical figure.

systematic analysis of existing documents, requires a coding system, quantifies information in the document.

Experimental Units - subjects
Treatment - exp. condition applied to units
Factors - explanatory multi-leveled variables

Designs with more than one independent variable (or factor)

Treatments consist of all combinations of the different factors

Simplest Factorial Design has two independent variables

2 x 2 factorial design

A design in which all levels of each IV are combined with all levels of other IVs. A factorial design allows investigation of the separate main effects and interactions of two or more independent variables

abstract - summary
introduction - past research/theories (review of literature)
methodology - definitions/participants
results - narrative of what happened and statistics
discussion - analysis/confirmation

Beneficence (maximize benefits, minimize costs)
Autonomy (respect for persons)
Justice (fairness in receiving benefits of research as well as bearing the burdens of accepting the risks)

Beneficence (maximize benefits, minimize costs)
Autonomy (respect for persons)
Justice (fairness in receiving benefits of research as well as bearing the burdens of accepting the risks)

potential subjects (participants) must be granted all information that would influence their decision to participate -- purposes, risks/benefits, rights to refuse, etc.

explain deception and why
provide access to resources
explain purpose

experimenter describes a situation and asks them how they would respond
NOT generally considered to be a good alternative to deception.
things might be different in a real situation.

Stanford prison experiment

responsible for the review of research conducted within its particular institution

fabrication of data

misrepresenting someone's work as your own

research in which there is no risk is exempt from review

{anonymous questionaires, surveys, educational tests, naturalistic observation w/o threat to anonymity, public archival research}

Needs approval by IRB

{physiological data gathering (EEG, etc.) moderate excercize, research on individual or group behavior/characteristics, w/o manipulation of behavior, and no stress}

Fully informed consent generally not required

Full IRB review required and special ethical procedures may be imposed

{physical/psychological stress, invasion of privacy, measures of non-anonymous sensitive information}

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees

institutions in which animal research is carried out must have IACUC composed of 1 scientist, 1 veterinarian, and 1 community member.

any event, situation, behavior, or individual characteristic that changes

as the IV increases so does the DV

As the IV increase the DV decreases

increases in the values of the IV are accompanied by either increases or decreases of the DV

the type of graph = nonmonotonic function

(looks like an inverted-'U')

the graph is usually something like a flat line.

correlation coefficient = 0 ± a little

numerical index of strength of the relationship

(strong negative correlation) -1 <---> 0 <---> +1 (strong positive correlation)

0 = no correlation

uncertainty implies that there is randomness in events
random variability or error variance is the amount of uncertainty that occurs in the world

uncontrolled third variable is operating, we call the third variable a confounding variable

if 2 variables are confounded they are entangled so you cannot determine which of the variables is operating in a given situation.

controlling for the effects of extraneous variables by ensuring that the variables operate in a manner determined entirely by chance

This is mostly random assignment of participants (subjects/experimental units)

when describing a relationship between two variables, a third variable is any other variable that is extraneous to the two of interest.

must control for this

the extent to which the conclusions about the relationships among variables reached on the basis of the data are correct or what terms "reasonable"

sometimes called statistical conclusion validity

need to draw 'reasonable' conclusions about our data: in quantitative, statistical data and qualitative data

numeric data, representative large sample, standardized instruments
(vs.) textual/image data, small sample, loosely structured observations and interviews

statistical analysis, objectivity, deductive reasoning
(vs.) search for themes and categories

numbers, statistics, aggregated data, scientific style
(vs.) words, narratives, quotes and literary style

known variables established guidelines, predetermined methods, objective
(vs.) unknown variables, flexible guidelines, emergent methods, subjective

seeks explanations and predictions to develop generalizations (vs.) seeks a better understanding of complex situations