Research Methods Lecture

Question 1

our perception is ___ from others

Answer 1

unique

Question 2

why is psychology a hub science

Answer 2

it bridges natural science (biology, neuroscience) and social sciences (sociology, economics) together

Question 3

what are some of the assumptions/biases in western psychology

Answer 3

1. individuality = thoughts and behaviours are independent of their social environment
2. Experiment-based empiricism = when ppl think that experiments are enough to understand something
3. Quantification = to understand something by always measuring it
4. objectivity = that knowlegde and observations can be recorded without bias
5. nomothetic approach = coming up with principles that govern human behaviour
6. male dominance = historically only men were contributing to psych

Question 4

who created voluntarism

Answer 4

wilhelm wundt
- founding experimental psychology
- that we have voluntary control over what we pay attention to or perceive

Question 5

who is emma barker

Answer 5

the first canadian woman to get a phd in psych

Question 6

who created structuralism and what does it mean

Answer 6

Edward Titchener
understanding the universe around us by using elemental compounds like electrons, protons, neutrons
- breaks down mental conscious into smaller pieces like feelings and sensations
- it quickly fell out of favour bc it didnt explain mental disorders, highly subjective meaning that the results varied by person and it only relied on personal experience, the rise of functionalism moved ppl away from structuralism

Question 7

who created functionalism and what is it

Answer 7

william james
- influenced by darwin and natural selection about brains evolving
- focused on explaining why we think and feel
- watched behavioural observation
critics: less experimental, hard to measure the adaption

Question 8

who created behaviouralism and what is it

Answer 8

John Watson and B.F Skinner and Ivan Pavlov
said that psych should study observable behaviour and not the mind
- said that behaviour was shaped by the environment
- Pavlov’s dogs (salivation - learning)
- Skinners operant conditioning
critics: ignores mental processes + emotions + free will

Question 9

who creared humanism and what is it

Answer 9

Carl Rogers (therapy) and Abraham Maslow
- positive psych, helped people be the best versions of themselves, focusing on personal growth and self-actualization
- used therarpy, self reporting

Question 10

who created gestalt psychology and what is it

Answer 10

max wertheimer
school of thought that emphasizes that the mind perceives objects as whole patterns rather than just the sum of their individual parts
- we separate objects from their background, we group similar looking objects together, objects closer in proximity are grouped together, we prefer continuous patterns rather than abrupt changes, we fill in missing gaps to complete a image, objects moving in the same direction are grouped together
Critics: explains perception but not the brains mechanism, based on observation and not controlled experiment, no deep cognitive or emotional processes

Question 11

who created psychoanalysis and what is it

Answer 11

sigmund freud
behaviour is influenced by unconscious desires and childhood experiences
critics: unscientific, hard to test empirically, overemphasis on sexuality

Question 12

what and who created cognitive psychology

Answer 12

Jean Piaget
- the mind works like a computer, processing information, memory, perception and problem solving
- uses experiments and MRI - brain imaging
critics: ignores emotion and social context

Question 13

who created and what is biopsychology/neuroscience

Answer 13

Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga
said that behaviour is driven by brain structures, neurotransmitters, genetics, focusing on the biology part of behaviour
- uses MRI and EEG
critics: say that it is reductionist approach and it oversimplifies behaviour to biology alone

Question 14

who created and what is evolutionary psychology

Answer 14

David Buss
mental traits evolved for suvivral and reproduction
critics: say that it is hard to test evolutionary hypotheses

Question 15

who created and what is sociocultural psychology

Answer 15

Lev Vygotsky and Albert Bandura
behaviour is shaped by social interactions, cultures and norms
they use observational studies and cross-cultural research
critics: overlooks the biological aspect

Question 16

what do scientific theories usually help with

Answer 16

explain the relationship between 2 or more variables

Question 17

what are the 3 criterion that a scientific theory needs

Answer 17

1. needs to be testable - currenly using avaliable research techniques
   needs to falsifiable - must be possible to make 2. the propostiion to be false, even if that observation has not been made
2. parsimonious - simplificity

Question 18

what is a variable

Answer 18

a characteristic or condition that changes or has different values for different individuals

Question 19

what is an independent variable

Answer 19

a variable that is manipulated in order to see its impact on the dependent variable

Question 20

what is the dependent variable

Answer 20

a variable that is measured in order to see how it is impacted by the manipulated independent variable

Question 21

what does it mean to have a conceptual definition vs operational definitions

Answer 21

conceptual: dictonary or textbook definition which explains the meaning of the term
ex: agression - the intentional behaviour to harm someone

operational: definitions of theoretical constructs that are stated in term of concrete, observable procedures - something that can be measured like height/weight which is easy to measure and sometimes they are difficult to measure and cannot be done directly

Question 22

what are constructs

Answer 22

INTERNAL characteristics that cannot be directly observed but are useful for describing and explaining behaviour

Question 23

what are the three big categories of research methods

Answer 23

1. descriptive methods - single variable interested
2. correlational methods - associations between 2+ variables
3. experimental methods - cause and effect relationships between 2+ variables

Question 25

explain descriptive methods

Answer 25

involves the systematic observation and classification - not looking for relationships just information from: surveys, focus groups, case studies (focuses on a specific person or small group), observational research

Question 26

what are the strengths and weaknesses of descriptive approaches

Answer 26

STRENGTHS case studies and observational research can provide important insight and stimulate further reseaech to test specific hypotheses - surveys = large amounts of info fast and quickly - focus groups/interviews can provide rich and detailed information from open ended questions WEAKNESSES - Hawthorne effect - when people know they are being watched they change - self-report bias - trying to be socially accepted so they change - the observer may have personal biases so they need multiple observes to cancel out bias - participants may chose to better or worsen the hypothesis

Question 27

what are the types of observation

Answer 27

1. naturalistic observation" observers do not change or alter ongoing behaviour - not intentionally 2. participant observation - active observation where the research is actively involved int he situation 3. laboratory observation - systematic observations are made in lab settings to mimic real world situations

Question 28

explain correlational methods

Answer 28

involved examining how variables are related WITHOUT manipulating any of the variables - needs a single group of participants and needs at least 2 variables - this allows researchers to make claims about associations between variables - these associations are not causal EX: seeing is laptops become a distraction to students in class as they multitask - is it associated with lower GPA? - they aren't manipulating anything just collecting data and seeing how getting off task related to GPA

Question 29

what are the types of correlations you can have in correlational research

Answer 29

no relationship positive relationship = variables move in the same direction (the increase of V1, increases V2) negative relationship = variables are inverse of each other (the increase of a variable, decreases the other variable)

Question 30

what is a correlation coefficient

Answer 30

is it a number that explains the strength and direction of correlation 0 = no relationship large negative = strong negative correlation (-100) large positive = strong positive correlation (+100)

Question 31

T/F correlation = causation

Answer 31

false correlation studies do not tell us whether one variables causes the change in the other there can be directionality and a third variable in play multitasking on the laptop may not be the only reason why they get a low GPA - other family issues or study methods

Question 32

explain experimental methods

Answer 32

involves manipulating an independent variable in order to determine its impact on a dependent variable (which we measure) - they are tightly controlled and take place in a lab - participants are randomly assigned to certain conditions in the lab - like randomly assigning people for the placebo or real caffeine pill

Question 33

what are confound variables

Answer 33

anything that may unintentionally vary along with the independent variable - anything that may weaken validity - is there anything else that might be different between the experimental conditions - like if your measuring studying, (alone, music, desk) - confounds are the reason why we cannot make causal claims

Question 34

what is random assignment vs random sample

Answer 34

random assigment = each participant gets an equal chance of being assigned any conditions in the study = allows different groups in ur research are equivalent - flipping a coin to assign participants for placebo or caffeine - reduces selection bias like intelligence, skin colour random sample = each member of the population you are interested in has an equal chance of being chosen or participate - prevents bias or causal claims - picking 100 random students at school

Question 35

what is a double blind experiment

Answer 35

where the participants and the experimenters are unware of which condition the participants are in - unaware if someone is has had the placebo or not

Question 36

what is a single blind experiment

Answer 36

where the researchers know but the participants don't know whether they got the placebo or not

Question 37

what is the difference between population and sample

Answer 37

population = the group that u want to be able to generalize your findings to sample = the group of individuals form this population who are part of your study

Question 38

what are quasi experiments

Answer 38

experiemental design where random assignment is not possible - they do not undergo random assignment - they work with pre-existing groups - there is a risk of potential confounds - this limits the claims that the researchers can make - it is helpful foe studying variables that raise ethical issues for random assignment

Question 39

what are field experiments

Answer 39

experiments that occur in real world setting instead of the lab - random assignment is possible but they have less control over the stufy - ppl are usually unaware that they are in the study - water score mailing out - getting a happy face or sad face - will they change their intake of water

Question 40

difference between reliability and validity

Answer 40

relability = consistency of a test or measurement validity = how valid are the measures used in the study - how accurately have the variables been operationalized

Question 41

what is interrater raliability and test-retest reliability

Answer 41

interrater = different observes, judges, researchers give consistent scores or assessments when measuring the same thing - if all the judges give the same score or same assessment = high interrater reliability test-retest = when a test or measurement is taken mutliple times under similar conditions - taking the same IQ test 3 months later - if similar scores = high test-retest reliability

Question 42

what are the types of validity

Answer 42

construct validity = operationalizations = trust worthyness, being able to measure something - when measuring depression thru a questionnaire - it should actually measure depression not sadness or stress external validity = do the results generalize - the extent that the results of a study apply to real world settings and different populations - a memory experiment done with college students in a lab may not work with adults in a noisy office internal validity = how well has the study established a cause-and-effect relationship between variables - how well the independent variable caused the change in the dependent without outside interference/ confounds - are there plausible alternative explainations for the differences?

Question 43

what are the 2 types of statistics

Answer 43

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS organize data into meaningful patterns and summaries they describe data %s, averges, correlations INFERENTIAL STATISTICS - allow us to extend conclusions to a broader population from a sample to a population - allow us to make inferences based on data - always probabilistics - extend the graph to make predictions about the future

Question 44

difference between reproductibility and replicability

Answer 44

reproductibility = a study can be duplicated in method and/or analysis - needs a lot of transparency repliciability = a study about a phenomenon which produces a similar result from a previour study of the same phenomenon - exact replications = repeat a study as precisely as possible using the same methods and materials - testing reliability - conceptual replication = tests the same idea but with different methods and settings - testing external validity to see if can apply to other findings

Question 45

This approach to psychology arose partly as a rebellion against Freud, as well as the behaviorists.

Answer 45

humanistic psych = abraham maslow - focuses on free will, personal growth, positive psych

Question 46

Dr. Chen is researching the nature of memory loss among people with Alzheimer’s disease. She assesses the memory of 50 individuals from 10 different Alzheimer’s day centres across the country. In Dr. Chen’s research, what do the 50 individuals that she assesses represent?

Answer 46

sample

Question 47

in Dr. Hassan's research study, participants are measured with Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) before and after taking a new antidepressant for two weeks in order to study the effect of the drug on depression. In this research, the BDI score is the:

Answer 47

operational definition of depression

Question 48

Xiang is manipulating the length of words and measuring participants’ recall of the words following a 24-hour delay. 50 participants are given a list of short words to memorize and 50 participants are given a list of long words to memorize. what is the independent, dependent and hypothesis

Answer 48

IV = word length DV = word recall hypo = unknown for now IV is being manipulated and the word recall is what is being tested, hence the manipulation of the length depending on the length of the word, will the recall be easier or harder for the participants

Question 49

Which of the following is not a construct? Racial prejudice Beauty Calorie consumption Subjective happiness

Answer 49

calorie consumption can be measure which is what they mean by construct - you cannot measure the amount of racial hate, beauty, subjective happiness

Question 50

Xuan wants to know the effect of a new drug A on depression. Which of the following is required for this experimental design? Confound variable Random assignment All of the listed options are correct Random sample

Answer 50

random assignment - makes sure that participants are randomly assigned to either the control or experimental group - this helps control confounding variables - which are uncontrolled factors to ensure that any differences between the experimental group is bc of the drug random sample would be incorrect because it is not required strictly for a controlled experiment random assignment is used more for cause and effect