Chapter 2 Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are the 2 core beliefs of science?
- the universe operates according to certain natural laws
- such laws are discoverable + testable
Name + describe types of reasoning
deductive resoning
- proceeds from broad basic prinicples to specific situations
- ex. home team usually wins therefore home team will win in this particular game
inductive reasoning
- small specific situations to general truths
- ex. collected data about home + away game wins over several seasons, therefore appears to be home arena effort
hypothetic-deductive reasoning
- scientific method
- ex. I predict that teams playing in home arena will win more likely than not… after collecting data, prediction is confirmed
Compare + contrast psych w/ other natural sciences like bio, chem, physics + pseudosciences
psych is using scientific method to study human behaviour + mental processes
- pseudopsych doesn’t use scientific method when commenting on human behaviour + mental processes
List the steps in the research process
RHDASB
- Research Q. + Background
- Hypothesize + Operationalize
- Design
- Analyze
- Seek Scientific Review, Publish + Replicate
- Build a theory
Describe step 1 (Research Q. & Background)
- asking how we came up w/ the question
- research topics
What makes a hypothesis good?
states prediction in a way that can be tested `
What are the IV + DV of our example?
playing violent video games (IV) will make kid act out violently (DV)
What does it mean to operationalize?
deciding on procedure to collect data of variables
Describe population + sample
What is an important note in creating a sample?
population: entire group that is of interest to researchers
sample: a portion of the population that is selected for the study
must represent the population by eliminating as much bias as possible
State an ex. of a population + sample of our example
population can be
- kids of Canada, B.C., the whole world, etc.
sample can be
- kids from a specific elementary school, 30 kids randomly picked from a city in B.C., etc.
Briefly describe descriptive + experimental research
descriptive: studies that allow researches to demonstrate a relationship between variables, w/out specifying a causal relationship
experimental: controlled observations, researches manipulate presence/amount of IV to see effect on DV
- allow for causal claims about relationships betwen variables
State examples of descriptive research
What is the purpose of descriptive research?
case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys
observe, collect and record data
State pros and cons to descriptive research
pros
- good for developing early ideas
- more reflective of actual bhevaiour than other methods
- easier to collect data
cons
- little to no control over variables
- researcher and participant biases
- cannot explain cause and effect
What is the main function of experimental research?
What is the purpose of experimental research?
manipulation & control of variables
identify cause & effect
What are the pros and cons to experimental research?
pros
- allows researchers precise control over variables
- ability to identify cause & effect
cons
- ethical concerns
- practical limits
- artificiality of lab conditions
- confounding variables
- researcher and participatn biases
What is a case study and what are some pros and cons?
case study: an intensive study on 1 person
- pros: helps develop early idewa of phenomena
- cons: researcher bias, cannot generalize results
What are naturalistic observations?
Pros + cons?
observing people behaving as they normally do
pros
- more reflective on actual human behaviour
cons
- research bias
- hawthorne effect (lie panopticon)
What are surveys?
Pros and cons?
questionnaires/interviews
pros
- gather info that can be obtained from other methods
- may be able to measure relationship strength between variables
cons
- participant bias
- direction of relationship between variables unknown
Describe the 2 groups involved in experimental research
experimental group: group exposed to IV
control group: not exposed to IV - compared to experimental
compare random selection VS random assignment
random assignment: randomly assigning who is experimental and control
random selection: randomly selecting participants of the experiment
describe the type of results that can be analyzed from descriptive + experimental research
descriptive
- correlations inidicate if there is a relationship between variabels
experimental:
- stats indiciate if hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful difference between groups
describe correlation coefficient, positive + negative correlation.
correlation coefficient: strength + nature of relationship between variables
positive correlation: when 1 variable increases, the other increases
negative correlation: when 1 variable decreases, the other increases
What are inferential stats?
What do they use and what do these determine?
help to draw conclusions abotu the data
use t-test or ANOVAs, determine p-value
What are different steps that can be taken in step 5? (seek scientific review, publish + replicate)
- sharing research findings through scientific journal articles
- replication: repeated testing of hypothesis to ensure results from one experiment are not due to chance
- using different types of research
