chapter 2 Flashcards
(33 cards)
what is the main reason beliefs shouldn’t be based on experiences
we don’t have a comparison group
what are confounds
- there are alternative explanations
- we can’t be sure what caused a change
- think one thing caused an outcome but in fact other things changed
what did Bushman find
- used comparison groups to measure anger
- found opposite results for the catharis hypothesis - venting anger is beneficial
what is a confederate
- a person who is working with the researcher, pretends to be a participant
what does research being probabilistic mean
the findings do not explain all cases all of the time only a certain proportion
what are scientific conclusions based on
patterns that emerge only when researchers set up comparison groups and test many people
what is an example of intuition being incorrect
- the scared straight programme
- assumed teenagers we be deterred from crime by hearing inmates stories
- research found they were ineffective and can even cause more crime
what is the availability heuristic bias
things that pop up easily in our minds tend to guide our thinking
- causes underestimate and overestimate
what is present/present bias
- fail to look for absences
- easy to notice what is present
- reflects failure to consider appropriate comparison groups
- availability heuristic plays a role
what is confirmation bias
- the tendency to look only at information that that agrees with what we want to believe
- cherry picking - accepting only evidence that supports what we think
what did Stahlberg and Frey find that supports confirmation bias
- IQ tests
- if told they had high IQ they spent more time looking at articles that supported IQ tests
- if told they had low IQ they looked at articles that criticised it
what is the bias blindspot
the belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to the other biases
- the biases don’t apply to us
- we are less biased than others
what did Pronin et al find about blind spot bias
- airport travellers said the average american is much more biased then themselves
what do empirical journal articles report
- the results of a research study
- details about the study’s method, statistical tests used, and the results
what do review journal articles report
- summarise and integrate all published studies that have been done in one research area
- mainly uses meta-analysis
what is a meta-analysis
- combines the results of many studies and gives a number that summarises the magnitude or the effect size of a relationship
what is an edited book
- a collection of chapters on a common topic
- each chapter is written by a different contributer
- good place to find summaries
- not peer reviewed as rigorously as journal articles
- only experts invited to write a chapter
- audience is psychologists and psychology students
what is PsycINFO
- database for psychological articles
- updated weekly by APA
- find articles on certain subjects
what are predatory journals
- they sound legitimate but they publish almost any submission they receive, even if flawed
what is the impact factor
- how often a journal has been cited
- should be 6.1
what are the sections of an empirical journal article
- abstract
- introduction
- method
- results
- discussion
- references
what is the abstract
- concise summary of the article
- describes hypotheses, method and major results
what is the introduction
- first section of regular text
- explains the topic of the study
what is the method section
- how researches conducted study
- contains subsections such as pps, materials, procedure and apparatus
- enough detail to repeat the study
