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Pysch > research meathods > Flashcards

research meathods Flashcards

1
Q

what is the key to research?

A

systematic and controlled research strategies

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2
Q

What does the scientific method examine?

A

knowledge

*knowledge is a moving target and is constantly changing

*ideas and theories are put to the test

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3
Q

empiricism

A

the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation

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4
Q

scietific method

A

a set of principles about the appropriate relationship between ideas and evidence

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5
Q

theory

A

a hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomena

final step

Ex. alcohol intoxication impairs driving skills

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6
Q

what is the rule of parsimony? what does it apply to?

A

it means to keep it simple and

expand and get more complicated later on

applied to theories

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7
Q

hypothesis

A

a falsifiable predicition made by a theory

*should be proven wrong otherwise it is NOT science

Ex. preople who are intoxicated will show less motor coordination

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8
Q

4 main goals of the scientific method

A
  1. description (what happens)
  2. predicition (when it happens)
  3. causal control (what causes it to happen)
  4. explanation (why it happens)
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9
Q

what is the most complicated task in the scientific meathod?

A

getting data

*complex human targets make getting data hard because one must decide how to operationally define, gather data, and assess

Example: measuring seconds a person can balancing on 1 leg while drinking

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10
Q

What are the types of studies/ data collection methods in pysch research?

A
  1. descriptive research methods
  2. correlation methods
  3. experimental methods
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11
Q

what are the types of descriptive research methods?

A
  1. case studies
  2. naturalistic observation
  3. surveys
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12
Q

what is a case study?

A

careful description based on repeated observations

examine individual lives

Ex. Freud, Sacks, and clinical studies

Sacks cases helped understand neuropsychology

an unquiet mind helps explore bipolar disorder

*cannot always generalize- only know one person’s experience, large groups are washed out amid views of some individuals

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13
Q

what is a naturalistic observation? what is an example?

A

ethnology researches - understanding people within culture and observing them in their natural setting

they have “ecological validity”

Ex. under what circumstances will people help others? when do people do bad things?

with a drugged drink people did not do anything - then as an observation people try to find out cognitive reasons for why/ why this doesn’t happen

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14
Q

what bias exist in naturalistic observation?

A

no bias- people/ subjects behave the same way they normally would have in their normal setting

it is a technique for gathering scientific info by unobtrusively observing people in natural environments

*however, in some studies it is not always unobtrusice

ex. Jane Goodall

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15
Q

What are the descriptive research data collection methods?

A
  1. observing
  2. asking through surveys and interviews
  3. case studies for examining individual lives
  4. observing what we cannot ask or observe directly - response performance measures stimulus processing and body and brain activity can be directly measured
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16
Q

what are demand characteristics?

A

those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think they should

**can impair the way we act and can negatively effect results

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17
Q

what is an observer bias?

A

expectations that can influence observations and influence perceptions of reality

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18
Q

what is the hawthorne effect?

A

designed to observe people who worked at factories and see how lighting affects productivity

BUT workers wroked harder the entire time because they were being observed

*can’t sort out factors and truths because of demand characteristics

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19
Q

response performance - what can researchers measure to measure stimulus processing?

A
  1. reaction time (how fast)
  2. response accuracy
  3. stimulus judgements

*NOT relying on self-report

Ex. color test - reaction time and accuracy will slow slightly - interference (cognitively processing info differently)

*pyschos don’t slow reaction time

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20
Q

What does a PET (Positron Emission Tomography) measure?

A

scans blood flow in the subject’s brain under different conditions - sees what is activated

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21
Q

What does an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) measure?

A

provides very high quality images of intact human brains

static image to look at the structure of the brain and helps find out info if needed

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22
Q

What does an FMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) measure?

A

different parts of brain light up for certain activities

therefore we can see how we respond to stimuli

*pyschos show no disgust when shown violence, instead language portion of brain lights up

*munks also have different parts that light up (different parts of brain are activated)

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23
Q

What was the Diallo case?

A

west african man matches description for a wanted parist

man reached for wallet in his pocket when they told him to freeze (he was unarmed)

shot and killed - prejudice biases

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24
Q

In Diallo case - racism played a role in shooting. What part of the brain is activiated? how do we know?

A

Fmri scan shows for some subjects unfamiliar black faces AMYGDALA is activated

amygdala is the fear/threat center of the brain

*however fmri data does not apply to all (use IAT)

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25
Q

What is IAT?

A

implicit attitude (association) test

indirectly assess how people associate postivie/negative words with certain people

negative attitudes on IAT more likely to show activated amygdala with unfamiliar black faces

Ex. work/male and female/family test to test how women fit in work place and african american/bad and american/good test to test racism

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26
Q

What is IAT useful for (traning purposes?)

A

police officers

can change police training to address implicit attitudes that can contribute to negative response to blacks

can retrain officers to reduce tendency

Ex. implicit pairing of black faces with gun and white faces with wrench

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27
Q

What are the main issues with the scientific method and implementing research?

A

how to measure?

who to sample?

how to avoid measurement bias?

how to avoid sampling bias?

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28
Q

what are 2 important types of measurement bias?

A

sampling bias - shouldn’t generalize people in a group

expectancy bias - shouldn’t rely on expectancy (leads to distorion of research)

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29
Q

What are some examples of sampling bias?

A

hawthorne effect

oprah survey about cheating on husbands - who would send their info to this survey, who are the readers?

males only for drugs for genders

college students

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30
Q

How can you minimize the effects of sampling bias?

A
  1. random sampling (example: calling random people from the telephone book - represents population)
  2. representative populations

*generalization targets must be carefully specified - interferences should be qualified based on the sample employed

* in researches want people who are randomly selected, randomly assigned, and representing the population to which researchers want to generalize

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31
Q

what is an expectancy bias?

A

systematic error resulting from…

  1. observers or experimenter expectancies
  2. subject or research respondent expectancies
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32
Q

what are observer/ experimenter expectancy effects?

A

when the person collecting the data is aware of the research hypothesis and the experimental condition in which the subjects are placed

data collection can therefore be biased

Ex. animal experiment with rats - people who thought their rats were smarter thought their rats went faster (results based on expectancies) HOWEVER both groups had average rats

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33
Q

What does subject expectancy effect?

A

subjects attempt to understand the research they are involved with…

so they develop a hypothesis and their beliefs invariably influence their performance

**expectancy influences outcome

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34
Q

How can you control observer AND subject expectancies within experiments?

A

both must be eliminated for MAXIMAL validity

blind experiments (don’t know desired outcomes, no expectations!)

blind subjects

double blind (controlling observer and participant expectancy effects so no one knows)

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35
Q

How can blind experiments be successful?

A

train experimenters to be consistent

give subjects explicit instructions to “guide” expectancies and to get everyone on the same page so everyone has the same info

add extra control groups and compare opposing expectancies

*control group is NOT exposed to conditions but come into labs to check (so no biases form)

*placebo

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36
Q

How was the anger video accurate in its research?

A

random assignment of people

essays were controlled - not their personal essays, all given the same response

measure anger through blasting white noise - objective

RESULTS: saw difference in groups and had an independent variable that changed aggression (punching bag)

*problem in the real world is that situations are hard to define

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37
Q

what is the ultimate goal of scientific research?

A

discovery of casual relationships between properties - studying patterns of variation in a series of measurements

*variables

38
Q

what is a variable?

A

a property whose value can vary across individuals over time

39
Q

what does a correlational design reflect? how is it expressed?

A

the association between 2 variables

expressed as a coefficient of association (r) which varies from +1 to -1

+1 is a perfect postivite correlation (both increase together)

-1 is a perfect negative correlation (as one increases the other decreases)

None is no relationship

Ex. += gpa and sat scores, -= hours of sleep vs. age, none = house plants vs. brushing teeth

40
Q

what is the best way to represent correlations?

A

scatterplot data

41
Q

What 2 problems interfere with causation and correlational data?

A
  1. directionality problem
  2. the thrid variable problem
42
Q

what is the directionality problem?

A

which causes which?

ex. does depression cause impaired sleep OR does impaired sleep cause depression

neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin have moderate negative correlation with level of clinical depression (N and S decrease, depression increases) BUT what causes what?

43
Q

what is the third variable problem?

A

the 3rd factor that influences relationships - makes it look like another factor is causing it

ex. family conflicts causing either impaired sleep or depression?

44
Q

does correlation imply causation?

A

NO

corrlational data can suggest causes BUT are insufficient grounds for casual interference - can NOT be sure of causes

only know there is a reason to explore further and find cause

45
Q

examples of correlations - NOT implying causation

A

polio outbreaks in summer (increased levels of sugar and ice cream) - thought sugar caused polio outbreaks BUT heat was the real cause

3rd variable - heat caused polio and ice cream consumption

heavy smokers - sudents who are heavy smokers were more likely for mental health problems

10 cigs caused greater depression and higher anxiety

implied causation that smoking causes mental health problems early BUT do people use smoking to cope? or is it due to a 3rd factor (like upbringing?)

46
Q

Why is correlational research important? what can it tell us?

A

can suggest causation

can then build a causal model with an interesting correlation and test that model

with experimentation we can move closer to understanding the cause - find out what is causing what

47
Q

how is experiment different from descriptive research?

A

an experiment attempts to establish cause/ test causal theories

an experiment involves manipulating conditions

NOT just describing

48
Q

What are the core features of experimental methods?

A

independent variables

dependent variables

random sampling from representative populations- the more random the better!

random assignment to conditions or treatments

efforts to “control” or minimize extraneous/ irrelevant factors

49
Q

what is an independent variable?

A

variables that change (the variables we manipulate)

**want to have control over as many factors as we can to have the most accurate results

Ex. for anger experiment - punching bag or no punching bag

50
Q

what is a dependent variable?

A

the outcome variable

Ex. anger experiment - level of white noise blasted into the other person’s ear

51
Q

what is the goal of using independent variables?

A

experimenter “control” is the central features

GOAL is this to be the only thing that varies - minimize the possibilty than anything other than the independent variable

Ex. anger experiment - the only thing that varied was the punching bag (same essays were used and same responses were given)

52
Q

what is a confounder?

A

anything affecting a dependent variable that may unintentionally vary between different experimental conditions of a study

*different than 3rd variable problem but is similar

53
Q

how are dependent variables measured in relation to independent variables?

A

they are the outcome variables in research

research question is if we manipulate IVs, what happens to DVs

*they depend on, be the “effects” of, or be “caused” by IVs

54
Q

what is an example of manipulation?

A

exposure to media violence, lack of adult supervision, and aggressiveness - is adult supervision a 3rd variable?

experimental group exposed to violence

control group not exposed

1st experiment - just measured media violence and aggression

2nd experiment controlled for 3rd variable - added adult supervision, although some were supervised/ not supervised same results resulted

increased confidence that media violence may be the cause - need more evidence though

55
Q

when is statistical significance determined?

A

when we calculate the odds that random assignment as failed, through ingerential statistics

*95% chance level of research is meaningful! not as random finding

NOT accepted unless that chance is less that 5% (p<.05)

56
Q

what is internal validity?

A

the characteristic of an experiment that established the causal relationship between variables

checks if the way we set up experiment is valid

57
Q

what is external validity?

A

the property of an experiment in which the variables have been operationally defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way

checks to see if they are representive of the real world - is the way we measured variables meaningful?

ex. noise blasting in the anger study

58
Q

what are the hallmarks of good research?

A

systematic data collection procedures have standardization of procedure and reliablity and replicability

careful specification of theoretical terms

careful specification of operational “variables”

effort to tie tems/ variables to “observable” events

59
Q

what is mindfulness meditation?

A

accepting the present moment, just as it is, pleasant or unpleasant without clinging or rejecting

mindfulness = the aware, balanced acceptance of the present

60
Q

what were the questions asked for the mindfulness research study?

A

are people who meditate happier, more compassionate, etc?

can meditation move your happiness set point?

61
Q

what were the theories/ hypothesis regarding meditation?

A

meditation can change the functioning of the brain - people feel better

fmri scan show different parts of brain functioning - brain wired differently?

left prefrontal cortex is associated with positive emotions VS right prefrontal cortex associated with negative emotions

meditation activate left side of brain? strengthens left side?

62
Q

who is davidson? what is Davidson’s hypothesis?

A

davidson = uw neuropyschologist

studied what is meditation and how can we improve mood?

hypothesis - that we can think of emotions, moods, and states such as compassion as trainable mental skills

Ex. meditation

63
Q

Davidson’s research (2003)

A

study: madison, bio tech firm
sample: employess of biotechfirm - 8 week program

IV = mindfulness training

DV = outcome variables/ results

decrease in negative affect and anxiety, increase in left sided pre-frontal, increasein fluenza vaccine antibody titers (strengthening of immune system increased)

people in waitlist lowered strength - everyone else who wasn’t in experiment was on a waitlist

64
Q

CONCLUSIONS

A

various methods for gaining scientific knowledge

experimental knowledge is crucial to causal understanding

even carefully designed experiments yield results subject to multiple interpretations

need critical thinking and scientific humility - scientific knowledge is a process

65
Q

most important parts of doing an experiment

A

how do we refine?

observe/ ask questions

explore correlations

examine processes we can’t see

manipulate variables/ experiment

examine results

what are other explanations?

66
Q

empirical method

A

set of rules and techniques for observation

67
Q

what is the difference between methods of observation and explanation?

A

observation - determine what people do

explanation - why people do it

68
Q

what are the 3 things that make people hard to study?

A

variability

reactivity

complexity

69
Q

what is an operational definition?

A

a description of a property in concrete, measureable terms

70
Q

EMG

A

electromyograph - device that measures muscle contractions under the surface of a person’s skin

71
Q

what must good measures have?

A

validity - the extent to which a measurement and a porperty are conceptually related

reliability - tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing

power - the ability of a measure to detect the concrete conditions specified in the operational definition

72
Q

what can expectations influence?

A

observations and reality

73
Q

what is frequency distribution?

A

graphic representation of measurements arranged by the number of times each measure was made

74
Q

normal distribution

A

frequency distribution in which most measurements are concentrated around the middle

also known as bell curve/ Gaussian distribution

75
Q

central tendency

A

statements about the value of measurements that tend to lie near the center or midpoint of the frequency distribution

76
Q

mean

A

average value of all measurements

77
Q

median

A

value in the middle

78
Q

mode

A

the value of the most frequently observed measurement

79
Q

range

A

value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the value of the smallest measurement

80
Q

standard deviation

A

statistic that describes the average difference between the measurements in a frequency distribution and the mean of the distribution

81
Q

what does the correlation coefficient measure?

A

both direction and strength of the relationship between 2 variables

82
Q

matched samples technique

A

a technique whereby the participants of 2 groups are identical in terms of third variable

83
Q

what is an experiment? what are the 2 key features?

A

technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables

key features are manipulation and random assignment

84
Q

manipulation

A

creation of an arificial pattern of variation in a variable in order to determine is causal powers

85
Q

self-selection

A

problem that occurs when anything about a person determines wether he or she will be included in the experimental or control group

86
Q

population

A

the complete collection of participants who might possibly be measured

87
Q

sample

A

partial collection of people drawn from a population

88
Q

case method

A

method of gathering scientific knowledge by studying a single individual

89
Q

random sampling allows us to

A

generalize from the sample to the population

90
Q

what are the most important rules of conducting research?

A

informed consent - written agreement

freedom from coercion

protection from harm

risk-benefit analysis

deception

debriefing - verbal description of the true nature and purpose of the study

confidentiality

91
Q

protection of animals

A

procedures must be supervised by pyschologists

must minimize discomfort, infection, pain, illness

only use pain when there is no alternative

proper anesthesia

92
Q

what does pyschology work on?

A

the honors system

*can’t fabricate results, mislead by omission

*obligated to share data and give proper credit where needed

Pysch (15 decks)

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