Chapter 2: Research Methods

Question 1

what is the CRITICALLY THINKING PROCESS?

Answer 1

questions of cause & effect, quality, and value to be used to evaluate any claims

Question 2

ways to apply CRITICAL THINKING?

Answer 2

-what are you being asked?
-is the evidence that is being presented valid?
-are there alternative ways to interpret evidence?
-what additional info do you need to interpret evidence?

Question 3

describe the process of SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Answer 3

-observation
-hypothesis: a testable prediction
-operational definitions: turning concepts into something measurable
-collect data (sometimes this leads back to your observation)
-theory: set of statement

Question 4

name some RESEARCH METHODS and their pros and cons?

Answer 4

-naturalistic observation: watching without intruding (p:natural behavior/c:can’t observe everything)
-case study: focus on one individual or situation (p:good in rare situations/c: may not generalize)
-survey: questionnaires or interviews (p:lots of answers/c:could be inaccurate)
-correlational studies: how 2+ variables are related (correlation)

Question 5

types of VARIABLES in experiments?

Answer 5

-dependent: what is expected to change
-independent: what we change

Question 6

what is an EXPERIMENT?

Answer 6

we change one variable to see what happens to other variables

Question 7

what is the importance having REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLING?

Answer 7

participants of the sample reflect characteristics of the population

Question 8

difference between MEAN, MEDIAN, and MODE?

Answer 8

mean: average of sample
median: middle value
mode: most common value

Question 9

Causation doesn’t equal…

Answer 9

Correlation

Question 10

if the correlation= -0.94, this means that…

Answer 10

there is a strong, inverse relationship between the two variables