Doing Psychology Flashcards

Question

What are objects of psychological knowledge?

Answer 1

Described in terms & definitions (in line with current assumptions) --> Measured to obtain data

Answer 2

Determines what is being studied & what the data means · If PO change = Has impact on data & what is being studied o E.g. Studying ‘what we think’ can mean judgements, opinions, beliefs etc. · Concerns have shaped the kind of things psychologists have made claims about

Answer 3

Determines what is being studied & what the data means · If PO change = Has impact on data & what is being studied o E.g. Studying ‘what we think’ can mean judgements, opinions, beliefs etc. · Concerns have shaped the kind of things psychologists have made claims about

Answer 4

o Fundamental psychological category after WW1 o ‘Learning’ previously known as conscious process rather than concept: § Gaining of knowledge § First state of memorisation (Ebbinghaus) § Gaining of new knowledge o Learning was looked at in different ways (e.g. rats in mazes & children in schools) o Woodworth – ‘the work of psychology must consist very largely in the investigation of learning’ o Behaviourism helped develop the concept of learning (especially in US): § Behaviourism = Learning adaptive behaviour rather than mental process § Aim of behaviourism to predict and control behaviour § Included humans & animals in beliefs but excluded mind § Behaviourism not the acquisition of knowledge

Answer 5

o Memory à storage/inscription of information o Different metaphors of memory suggest different ways of how information is stored o Wundt didn’t think memory wasn’t a specific mental thing Ebbinghaus Bartlett Memorising = Performance (e.g. how long) Process rather than performance Memory quantity of units of information Memory = how we remember/distort meaningful information – not about capacity Studied memory via word lists Meaningful narratives studied = Closer to real life events Argued memory wasn’t learning – effects of stimuli on the behaviour of an organism · Computer metaphor à Memory (encoding, storage & retrieval) o Long-term & short-term storage o Prompted new questions – e.g. capacity of STM · Memory not just part of brain= Part of ‘extended mind’ e.g. via alarm clocks

Answer 6

o Became a fundamental category after WW2 o ‘Attitude’ used to refer to physiology § Bodily expression of inner state (in art & theatre) § Physical expressed of emotion (Darwin) § Motor responses (psychophysiology) § Titchener described it as a mental state o 1930s = ‘attitudes’ psychological concept & not ‘observable behaviour’ o Attitude = mental disposition caused behaviour o Emergence of ‘attitude’ = Linked to the how and why o Measuring attitudes (Thurstone) § Definitions & measures of ‘opinions’ & ‘attitudes’ are ambiguous so… § Attitudes à Individual mental dispositions § Assumed opinions = Expression of attitudes § Created attitude variable (Likert developed attitude as more or less) o Demand for knowledge about ‘attitudes’ § 1920s US = wanted by governments and businesses to find out reasoning of behaviour § E.g. in WW2 created attitude measurement

Answer 7

o Different psychologists researching different things § Psychology of judgment, quantity, quality etc. § Psychology of belief and its relationship to emotion o Definitions of these things are overlapping o Same assumption – expressed opinions are indication of inner disposition or mental state

Answer 8

o Definition = Wrong & undesirable o Aim = To change minds o Measures = Content shaped by views considered undesirable Assumption = Expressions indicate prejudice/conceal prejudice

Answer 9

Psychology of superstition Paranormal belief Definition False beliefs Belief Aim To reduce paranormal belief To improve success rate Measures Of beliefs considered false Of beliefs considered relevant Assumption Equally false Only these relevant · Psychology of superstition = Explaining why people had such beliefs and trying to change their minds

Answer 10

Structured list of questions Self-administered

Answer 11

Large sample Wide geographical distribution Relatively short time Standardised Anonymity Useful for examining phenomena that can be assessed through self-observation (attitudes, values and perceptions)

Answer 12

Potential misunderstanding or misinterpreting questions or response choices In interviews the researcher can clarify such misinterpretations Unknown accuracy or motivation of respondents

Answer 13

Obtain background information about participation Measurement of independent or dependent variable

Answer 14

Can be descriptive Analysis can be quantitative and qualitative Close-ended questions → A fixed answer response Open-ended Numeric open-ended Text open-end Advantages - Allow respondents to write full answer Allows for unanticipated answers Rating scales Categorical scales (nominal measurement) - e.g. which area of psychology do you like Continuous scales - Interval, ratio or ordinal values - e.g. years of experience Agreement (likert scale) - Before exams i feel uneasy Semantic differential Rank-order - ranking options

Answer 15

Tested and validated for various populations No need to develop questionnaire yourself Examples = Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT test) Often more than one test available for measuring the variable you are interested in Often longer and shorter versions of standardised tests available

Answer 16

How do you know the respondent has answered carefully and truthfully? Do answers relate to the concept you’re interested in? Check whether respondents read questions carefully and answers consistently - e.g. include the same question twice but worded slightly differently Split ballot - divide sample randomly in sub-samples - administer different versions/questions of questionnaire Internal checks - Different questions on same subject; same answer not always on same end of rating scale Logical consistency - logical sequence of questions Check with other sources of information Construct validity - questions reflect dimensions of construct validity

Answer 17

Recognise sensitivity of questions Mutually exclusive MC answer categories - Make sure answer not excluded by certain category types (e.g. with age) Allow don’t know or not applicable where appropriate Recognise if questions are sub culturally specific (e.g. GCSE) Avoid Question that require prior knowledge Leading questions Hypothetical questions Questions that rely too much on memory Minimise social desirable answering Order of questions Start with factual questions - move to attitudes and sensitive questions Start with easier, quicker questions ‘Funnel’ techniques - broad to narrow questions ‘Filter’ questions - exclude from further questions

Answer 18

Self-administered Presented by researcher to individual respondent (respondent left alone to fill in questionnaire) High response rate May introduce bias if researcher is present Group-administered Given to whole group at one time Contamination between participants

Answer 19

A statistical method of combining the results of at least 2 primary studies carried out for the same general purpose Not simply a summary of related literature A type of research that tests hypotheses and leads to valid conclusions, to revision and proposal of theory It is the single estimate of the intervention effect or relationship between variables

Answer 20

Combining primary studies = Result based on a much larger overall sample size = More precise estimate of effect By considering all studies conducted on a topic = ‘Bigger picture’ & Avoids over-reliance on any one primary study More objective and transparent than a narrative view Follows a set of standardised procedures that are full documented in the research report Less risk of researcher bias

Answer 21

Primary studies must be quantitative in nature Must address the same constructs and effect E.g. All studies look at the same group difference or relationship between variables Must be at least 2 studies

Answer 22

- Specify research questions Literature search Extract eligible results Compute and combine effect size Explore the heterogeneity of effect

Answer 23

In order to combine the results from multiple studies, the results first need to be converted to the same metric Effect sizes = Express quantitative results in terms of standardised metrics that can be compared across studies Different effect sizes available but only a handful used in practice Best choice of effect size depends on design of studies being meta-analysed

Answer 24

Standardised mean difference (Cohen’s d) For comparing groups on a continuous outcome variable = mean difference as a proportion of standard deviation Correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) For associations between two continuous variables Odds ratio, hazard ratio, relative risk For binary variables (e.g. hypertension Yes/No) 1 indicates no effect

Answer 25

Common metric of effect size is extracted from each study Each study receives a weight Overall effect is calculated

Answer 26

Standard error decreases as the sample size (and precision) increases Larger studies, receive larger weights

Answer 27

The overall and primary study effect sizes are often displayed in a forest plot (as it looks like a forest)

Answer 28

Forest plot tells us if effect sizes are all quite similar → Smaller arms = Greater accuracy Can quantify the heterogeneity using statistics such as the Q statistic Heterogeneity can be due to: Different population studied e.g. children/adults Different study designs e.g. pre-post vs RCT Different treatment variations, duration, dose, level of experience practitioners Different measures: e.g. different scales used, different duration of follow-up Differences in quality of the study

Answer 29

Subgroups can be participants e.g. males or females or location etc.

Answer 30

Not all studies translate into a publication Peer review has many advantages but it may select out studies with non-significant results = Authors might be less motivated to publish the study Alters our view - only influenced by papers that have been published & found significance If studies reporting some results are not getting published, then we get only part of the story Our overall effect size measure will overestimate the size of effect We can examine whether publication bias is evident among the studies included in meta-analysis

Answer 31

Garbage in - garbage out Meta-analysis is only as good as the studies in it Not all studies are equally methodologically sound (might be systematic bias in the field) Relies on the quality of reporting in primary studies = Some studies may lack information on a moderator you want to test Solution Seek additional information on study features by emailing study authors Exclude poor quality studies from meta-analysis Group studies by quality and compare results Comparing apples and oranges No two studies are the same Need to be sufficiently similar (that's subjective) through question & methodologies Including studies that are too different might obscure real effects Solution - Assess heterogeneity & its study on sources File-drawer problem Some studies do not get published (not accessible) Good practice to seek out and include unpublished studies in meta-analysis No real solution available but there are ways of estimating the magnitude of the problem More objective than a narrative review but still many subjective decisions (e.g. eligibility criteria, exclude poor quality studies) Might miss or need to exclude some studies (e.g. if effect sizes can’t be calculated from information in the paper) Some study designs difficult to compute effect sizes from and impossible for qualitative studies Focuses on ‘bigger picture’ but may miss important nuance

Answer 32

Anderson, Lindsay & Bushman (1999) = Meta-analysis 28 pairs of lab field comparisons R = .73 so indicates lab conditions do a good job of eliciting real world behaviour Mitchell (2012) 217 lab field comparisons r = .71 = Indicates what above study does R.83 = Personality traits R. 82 = Gender focussed comparisons R = .53 overall (excluding organisation psych) External validity differs across study division

Answer 33

avelsbergh et al. (2005) → Investigated gaze behaviour of goalkeepers during a video simulation of a penalty kick - Had to choose whether to save left or right Found expert novice differences Experts had fewer but longer fixations Experts looked at the non-kicking foot Limitations = 2D, limited resolution, size of display, unnatural responses, constrained head movements Dicks et al. (2010) replicated Savelsbergh et al.’s (2005) study but with the inclusion of a real world condition Dicks et al. (2010) observed similar behaviour in the simulation condition to that reported by Savelsbergh et al. (2005) Simulated condition created an artificially high percentage of fixations towards the legs of the penalty taker but in real world they look at the ball Fixation is important at indicating the goal that you have Representative design (Brunswik,1956) We adapt to our natural environment Use experimental stimuli from that environment

Answer 34

studying of behaviour under realistic conditions,originally in animal behaviour Kingstone et al., 2008) Processes that subserve cognition are invariant and regular across conditions (e.g. ATM machine) Situational variability can be reduced or eliminated without affecting the nature of the process being measured

Answer 35

People follow other people’s gaze = Indicates importance Land & Tatler, 2009 → Follow gaze direction and shared gaze shown via a heat map = Shared gaze

Answer 36

Gaze behaviour can be influenced by language and social context (Knoeferle & Kreysa, 2012; Liuzza et al. 2011) In the real world there are a few social interactions without a social context of language = most research ignores this Strong tendency to fixate the faces and eyes of others in static social scenes (Birmingham et al., 2009) When a person* is actually present we look at faces and eyes much less (Laidlaw, Foulsham, Kuhn, & Kingstone, 2011) *in this study the other person is a stranger

Answer 37

McDonald & Tatler (2018) → Tracked gaze of a pair during a collaborative task (e.g. making cake) = People rarely look at each other during an interaction Ho et al. (2015) → People look away when starting to talk and make eye contact when finishing (taking turns talking)

Answer 38

We can perceive things that are not directly fixated on Knoeferle& Kreysa (2012) concluded that gaze cues can be followed and affect language comprehension, even when they are not directly fixed. Participants were more likely to look when a confederate raised his hand to wave than when he raised his hand to put a phone to his ear (Laidlaw, Rothwell, and Kingstone, 2016) Maybe only a small amount of time is needed to successfully identify a gaze cue = More efficient to look at eyes briefly and infrequently, but at appropriate times? Perhaps the eyes are generally not sought out during a task (they had to make batter),but are used during verbal instructions (McDonald & Tatler, 2018)

Answer 39

Too much is uncomfortable, could be a threat (Land & Tatler,2009) Children with autism have less mutual gaze than typical children (Leekham et al. 1997). Klin et al. (2002) found reduced fixations on eyes to be the best predictor of autism.

Doing Psychology Flashcards

(63 cards)