3: Developing Ideas for Research in Psychology

Question 1

Basic vs Applied research

Answer 1

Basic Research
Emphasize describing, predicting and explaining the fundamental principles of behaviour and mental processes

Applied Research
Has direct and immediate relevance to the solution of real-world problems

Question 2

what is a major advantage of basic research

Answer 2

the principles developed through it can be used is a broad range of applied situations

Question 3

Lab vs Field Research

Answer 3

Lab: greater control, conditions can be specified for precisely, participants can be selected and placed in different conditions more systematically

Field: more realistic to daily living (environment)

Field research can provide support for findings from lab research.

Question 4

mundane realism

Answer 4

how closely a study mirrors real life experiences

Question 5

experimental realism

Answer 5

the extent to which a controlled study is meaningful and engaging to participants, eliciting responses that are spontaneous and natural.

Question 6

Support for field research

Answer 6

Conditions in the field often cannot be recreated in a laboratory - IRB wont always allow it

Confirms findings of lab research - can correct misconceptions or oversimplifications

To make discoveries that can result in an immediate difference in the lives of the people being studied

Ordinarily associated with applied research, but also good for basic research

Question 7

Confederate

Answer 7

someone who appears to be a part of the normal environment but is actually a part of the study

Question 8

Manipulation check

Answer 8

in debriefing, a procedure to determine if subjects were aware of a deception experiment’s true purpose; also a procedure that determines if systematic manipulations have the intended effect on participants

Question 9

Pilot study

Answer 9

Used to test aspects of the procedure to be sure the methodology is sound

Can check important components
Clarity of instructions to participants
Difficulty of a task
The duration of the experiment
Adequacy of materials

Question 10

converging operations

Answer 10

Understanding increases as studies with different operational definitions “converge” on the same result

Question 10

Quantitative vs Qualitative Research

Answer 10

Quantitative
Includes quantitative data and statistical analysis
numbers

Qualitative
Includes narrative descriptions, content analyses, interviews

Question 10

Features of empirical questions

Answer 10

must be answerable with data and terms must be precisely defined

Question 11

operational definitions

Answer 11

Variables defined in terms of a clearly specified set of operations or procedures to be performed

good in that they force researchers to clearly define the terms of their studies and allows for replication

Question 12

the nature of theory

Answer 12

set of logically consistent statements about some phenomenon that
○ Best summarizes existing empirical knowledge of the phenomenon
○ Organizes this knowledge in the form of precise statements of relationships among variables
○ Proposed an explanation for the phenomenon
○ Serves as the basis for making predictions

Question 13

construct

Answer 13

a hypothetical factor that is not observed directly, it is inferred from certain behaviours and assumed to follow from certain circumstances

Question 14

what makes a good theory

Answer 14

-Productivity: advance knowledge by generating a great deal of research

-Falsification: allows science to process by setting up theories and attempting to falsify them, if its continually resistant to falsification this increases confidence

Parsimony: simple is better, guards against confirmation bias

Question 15

Direct replication vs conceptual replication

Answer 15

Direct replication: An attempted reproduction of a study’s results testing the same type of sample and using the exact procedures and statistical analyses as the original study
Usually done by a separate research team

Conceptual replication: Parts of the procedures of a prior study are purposefully changes in order to test predictions similar to those in the original study

Question 16

Extension

Answer 16

partial replication, with new features added to extend the findings