Biological Bases of Behavior Flashcards
Clinical/Case Study
Focuses on one or a group of individuals
Gives in-depth research
Cannot be generalized to the larger population
Naturalistic Observation
Looks at research interests in their natural environment
Cannot control the behaviors of the research interests
Structured Observation
Research interests observed while doing a set of tasks
Observer Bias
The tendency for observers to observe what they want to fulfill research goals
Inter-rater reliability
An assessment used by looking at the observations across multiple observers to block out bias
Surveys
A list of questions sent out to samples
Can be generalized to the larger population
Not as in-depth
Responses can be biased (i.e. tendency to answer as a model person would)
Archival Research
Using past data sets to find new relationships
No control over how data set were obtained and can make comparing them difficult
Longitudinal Research
Following a person or group of people over the course of many years
Leads to attrition, people tend to drop out towards the later years of the study
Cross-Sectional Research
Looking at multiple groups of people at the same time
Confirmation Bias
The tendency to favor evidence that supports one’s viewpoint
Operational Definition
Precise definition of a variable and how it is being measured
Experimental Bias
Tendency for the experimenter’s expectations to skew results
Placebo Effect
Tendency for one’s own expectations to determine one’s own experiences
Random Sample
People from a population are randomly selected to participate in the experiment
Random Assignment
People are randomly assigned to the control/experimental groups
