lecture 2 - scientific method

Question 1

external validity

Answer 1

can outcome of observation be applied and expected in other settings
- does it apply to other settings, people and time?

Question 2

internal validity

Answer 2

does the study answer design and analysis answer the og research question

Question 3

case studies

Answer 3

• focuses on a specific case, mostly just 1 person
• pro; give rich info
• con: low external validity (doesnt always apply to everyone else)

Question 4

naturalistic observation

Answer 4

• examines what people do in natural context, in their own environemtns
  -con: reactivity: when people know they are being watched, they act differently
• con: possible low internal validity
• pro: can have high external validity (if no reactivity)

Question 5

archival study

Answer 5

• doing research using existing data
• pro: less invasive
• con: lack of quality control (dont exactly know if this information i true or good)

Question 6

surveys

Answer 6

• pro: ease of administration, convenient
• con: response/error bias
• malingering and social desirability - faking answers to make people feel bad for you
• anonymity helps
• con: ambiguity (do people fully understand what your trying to measure)
• will answer differently based on how they interpret the questions

Question 7

reliability

Answer 7

• to be reliable a test must produce similar answers over an over again
• internal validity
• test-retest reliability
• inter-rater reliability

Question 8

internal consistency

Answer 8

• do results agree
• all answers should lead to similar and consistent results
• shouldn’t have conflicting results

Question 9

test-retest reliability

Answer 9

• same test different timeline
• will the same test provide the same results two days apart?

Question 10

inter-rater reliability

Answer 10

do two people agree on the resuts

Question 11

validity

Answer 11

valid if it measures what its supposed to measure
- face validity
- convergent validity
- divergent validity

Question 12

face validity

Answer 12

• does the test measures what its supposed to
• does a survey ask about cars if they want to know how often someone bikes

Question 13

convergent validity

Answer 13

test that measure the same things should have the same results

Question 14

divergent validity

Answer 14

test that measure different things should have different results

Question 15

correlation studies

Answer 15

• related things but not causation
  two variables have a relationship
  advantage: can make predictions
  disadvantage: cannot infer causality

Question 16

correlation graphs

Answer 16

• positive if going up (both variables increasing)(+1)
• negative if going down (one inc, one dec)(-1)
• no correlation: straight line
• closer dots are on scatter plots, more correlated

Question 17

illusory correlation

Answer 17

looks like theres a correlation but in reality there isnt
- jinx, or spiritual beliefs

Question 18

random assignment

Answer 18

randomly assigns people to groups in experimental design

Question 19

confounds

Answer 19

variable that can alternatively affect your variables
- can think that y cause x but really z is affecting them both
- could be placebo effect or
- participant demands (behaving the way researcher wants you to)
- or experimental effect (researcher has bias)

Question 20

experimental design

Answer 20

• has random assignment
• for cause and effect
• has manipulation

Question 21

quasi-experimental design

Answer 21

no random assignment but still manipulation
- some things cant be random (marital status, ethnicity, experiences)

Question 22

W.E.I.R.D

Answer 22

mostly study weird samaples because we are in the western world
W: western
E: educated
I: industrialized
R: rich
D: democratic

Question 23

descriptive statistics

Answer 23

• characterizes or summarizes the data
• mean, median, mode
• density function: formula that estimates the line of best fit

Question 24

positive skewed distribution (stats)

Answer 24

• long tail on the right
• mean gets pulled to the right

Question 25

negatively skewed distribution

Answer 25

• long left tail
• mean gets pulled to the left
• median is in-between mean and mode

Question 26

normal distribution

Answer 26

• symmetric distribution
• mean median and mode are all in the middle at the peak

Question 27

inferential statistics

Answer 27

• test that let us know if outcomes generalize to the greater population
• if there is a difference, is it statistically significant
• can we say that it applies to the population
• use p test

Question 28

null hypothesis

Answer 28

hypothesis that says there is no effect
- trying to disprove it