Experimental Psychology Reviewer - Chapter 1 - PDF

Experimental Psychology Reviewer Measurements - The systematic CHAPTER 1: EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND estimation of the quantity, size, or quality SCIENTIFIC METHOD of an observable event Methodologi...

Experimental Psychology Reviewer Measurements - The systematic CHAPTER 1: EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND estimation of the quantity, size, or quality SCIENTIFIC METHOD of an observable event Methodological Gap - This occurs when current Observation - The systematic noting and research methods are inadequate to explore a recording of events particular question. Replication - the process of repeating 3 Tools of psychological science - Observation, research procedures to verify that the Measurement, and Experimentation. outcome will be the same as before Basic research - research designed to test theories or to explain psychological phenomena in Methodology - the scientific techniques used to humans and animals collect and evaluate psychological data. Applied research - research that is designed to Parsimony - An aspect of good thinking, stating solve real-world problems that the simplest explanation is preferred until ruled out by conflicting evidence; also known as Antecedent conditions - All circumstances that Occam's razor. occur or exist before the event or behavior to be explained; also called antecedents. Pseudoscience - A field of study that gives the appearance of being scientific but has no true Cause-and-effect relationship - The relation scientific basis and has not been confirmed using between a particular behavior and a set of the tools of the scientific method: observation, antecedents that always precedes it—whereas measurement, and experimentation. other antecedents do not— so that the set is inferred to cause the behavior. Psychology experiment - A controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment Commonsense psychology - Everyday, conditions are applied to subjects whose nonscientific collection of psychological data used behaviors are then measured and compared to to understand the social world and guide our test a hypothesis about the effects of the behavior. treatment on behavior Data - Facts and figures gathered from Science - The systematic gathering of data to observations in research. (Data is the plural form provide descriptions of events taking place under of the Latin word datum) specific conditions, enabling researchers to explain, predict, and control events. Empirical data - Data that are observable or experienced; capable of being verified or Scientific method - steps scientists take to gather disproved through investigation. and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate findings. PRINCIPAL TOOLS IF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD Subject - The scientific term for an individual who Experimentation - The process participates in research undertaken to demonstrate that particular behavioral events will occur reliably in Testable - Capable of being tested; typically used certain specifiable conditions in reference to a hypothesis. Good Thinking - Organized and rational Theory - A set of general principles that attempts thought, characterized by to explain and predict behavior of other open-mindedness, objectivity, and phenomena parsimony Treatment - A specific set of antecedent Laws - General scientific principles that conditions created by the experimenter and explain our universe and predict events presented to subjects to test its effect on behavior. CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH ETHICS CHAPTER 3: ALTERNATIVES TO EXPERIMENTATION: NON EXPERIMENTAL Animal rights - The concept that all sensate DESIGN species that feel pain are of equal value and have rights. Archival study - A descriptive method in which already existing records are reexamined for a new Animal welfare - The humane care and treatment purpose. of animals. Case study - The descriptive record of an At risk - The likelihood of a subject being harmed individual’s experiences, behaviors, or both kept in some way because of the nature of the research. by an outside observer. Debriefing - The principle of full disclosure at the Deviant case analysis - A form of case study in end of an experiment; that is, explaining to the which deviant individuals are compared with subject the nature and purpose of the study. those who are not to identify the significant differences between them. Fraud - The unethical practice of falsifying or fabricating data; plagiarism is also a form of fraud. Empirical phenomenology - Contemporary phenomenology that relies on the researcher's Informed consent - A subject's voluntary own experiences, experiential data provided by agreement to participate in a research project study participants, or other available sources such after the nature and purpose of the study have as literature or popular media; a qualitative been explained. approach. Institutional animal care and us committee External validity - How well the findings of an (IACUC) - An institutional committee that reviews experiment generalize or apply to people and proposed research to safeguard the welfare of settings that were not tested directly. animal subjects. Field study - A non experimental research Institutional review board (IRB) - An method used in the field or in a real-life setting, institutional committee that reviews proposed typically employing a variety of techniques, research to safeguard the safety and rights of including naturalistic observation and unobtrusive human participants. measure or survey tools, such as questionnaires and interviews. Minimal Risk - The subject's odds of being harmed are not increased by the research. Focus group - A type of group interview; it is an organized discussion session with a small group of Plagiarism - The representation of someone people, usually led by a trained facilitator. else's ideas, words, or written work as one's own; a serious breach of ethics that can result in legal Internal validity - The certainty that the changes actions. in behavior observed across treatment conditions were actually caused by differences in treatments. Risk/Benefit analysis - A determination, made by an IRB, that any risks to the individual are Naturalistic observation - A descriptive, non outweighed by potential benefits or the experimental method of observing behaviors as importance of the knowledge to be gained. they occur spontaneously in natural settings. Paradigm - The set of attitudes, values, beliefs, methods, and procedures that are generally accepted within a particular discipline at a certain point in time. Participant-observer study - A special kind of field observation in which the researcher actually becomes part of the group being studied.  CHAPTER 4: ALTERNATIVES TO Phenomenology - A non experimental method of EXPERIMENTATION: SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS gathering data by attending to and describing one's own immediate experience. Cluster sampling - A form of probability sampling in which a researcher samples entire clusters, or Qualitative research - Research that relies on naturally occurring groups, that exist within the words rather than numbers for the data being population. collected; it focuses on self-reports personal narratives, and expression of ideas, memories, Content analysis - A system for quantifying feelings, and thoughts. responses to open-ended questions by categorizing them according to objective rules or Reactivity - The tendency of subjects to alter their guidelines. behavior or responses when they are aware of the presence of an observer. Context effects - effects produced by the position of a question; where it falls within the question Retrospective data - Data collected in the present order can influence how the question is based on recollection of past events; apt to be interpreted. inaccurate because of faulty memory, buas, mood, Continuous dimension - The concept that traits, and situation. attitudes, and preferences can be viewed as a continuous dimension, and each individual can fall Systematic observation - A system for recording at any point along each dimension observations; each observation is recorded using specific rules or guidelines, so observations are Convenience sampling - a convenience sample is more objective. obtained by using any groups who happen to be convenient (also called accidental sampling ) Unobtrusive measure - A procedure used to assess subjects’ behaviors without their Interval scale - The measurements of magnitude, knowledge; used to obtain more objective data. or quantitative size, having equal intervals between values but no true zero point. Latent content - The “hidden meaning” behind a question Level of measurement - The type of scale of measurement —ratio, interval, ordinal, or nominal— used to measure a variable. Manifest content - The plain meaning of the words or questions that actually appear on the page Nay-sayers - People who are apt to disagree with a question regardless of its manifest content Nominal scale - The simplest level of measurement; classified items into two or more distinct categories on the basis of some common feature. Nonprobability sampling - Sampling procedures in which subjects are not chosen at random Ordinal scale - A measure of magnitude in which each value is measured in the form of ranks. Population - All people, animals, or objects ghat Simple random sampling - The most basic form have at least one characteristics in common. of probability sampling whereby a portion of the while population is selected in an unbiased way. Position preference - When in doubt about answers to multiple-choice questions, some Snowball sampling - a form of nonprobability people always select a response in a certain sampling in which a researcher locates one or a position, such as answer c. few people who fit the sample criterion and asks these people to locate or lead the researcher to Probability sampling - selecting samples in such additional individuals who fit the criterion. a way that the odds of any subject being selected for the study are known or can be calculated. Stratified random sampling - A form of probability sample obtained by randomly Purposive sampling - the selection of nonrandom sampling from people in each important samples that reflect a specific purpose of the population subgroup in the same proportion as study. they exist in the population. Survey research - A useful way of obtaining data Quota sampling - Selecting samples through about people's opinions, attitudes, preferences, predetermined quotas that are intended to reflect and experiences that are hard to observe directly. the makeup of the population Systematic random sampling - A variation of Random number table - A table of numbers random sampling in which a researcher selects generated by a computer so that every number every nth person from the population. has an equal chance of being selected for each position in the table. Validity - the extent to which a survey actually measures the intended topic and not something Random selection - An unbiased method for else. selecting subjects in such a way that each member of the population has an equal opportunity to be Willingness to answer - The differences among selected. people in their style of responding to questions they are unsure about; some people will leave Ratio Scale - a measure of magnitude having these questions blank, whereas others will take a equal intervals between values and having an guess. absolute zero point. Yea-sayers - People who are apt to agree with a Reliability - The extent to which a survey is question regardless of its manifest content. consistent and repeatable. Representatives - The extent to which the sample responses we observe and measure reflect those we would obtain if we could sample the entire population. Response set - A tendency to answer questions based on their latent content with the goal of creating a certain impression of ourselves. Response style - Tendency for subjects to respond to questions or test items in a specific way, regardless of the content. Samples of subjects - a selected subset of the population of interest Sampling - deciding who the subjects will be and selecting them  CHAPTER 5: ALTERNATIVE TO Negative correlation - The relationship existing EXPERIMENTATION: CORRELATIONAL AND between two variables such that an increase in QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS one is associated with a decrease in the other; also called an inverse relationship. Causal modeling - Creating and tesing models that may suggest cause-and-effect relationships Non-equivalent groups design - A design in among behaviors. which the researcher compares the effects of different treatment conditions on pre existing Coefficient of determination (r²) - In a groups of participants. correlational study, an estimate of the amount of variability in scores on one variable that can be Partial correlation - An analysis that allows the explained by the other variable. statistical influence of one measured variable to be held constant while computing the correlation Correlation - The degree of relationship between between the other two measured variables. two traits, behaviors, or events, represented by r. Path analysis - An important correlation-based Correlational study - A study designed to method in which subjects are measured on several determine the correlation between two traits, related behaviors behaviors, or events. Positive correlation - The relationship between Cross-lagged panel design - A method in which two measures such that an increase in the value of the same set of behaviors or characteristics are one is associated with an increase in the value of measured at two separate points in time the other; also called a direct relationship. Cross-sectional study - A method in which Pretest/posttest design - A research design used different groups of subjects who are at different to assess whether the occurrence of an event stages are measured at a single point in time alters behavior Ex post facto study - A study in which a Quasi-experimental design - Often seem like (as researcher systematically examines the effects of the prefix quasi- implies) real experiments, but pre-existing subject characteristics by forming they lack one or more of its essential elements, groups based on these naturally occurring such as manipulation of antecedents and random differences between subjects. assignment to treatment conditions. Linear regression analysis - a correlation-based method for estimating a score on one measured Regression line - The line of best fit; represents behavior from a score on the other when two the equation that best describes the mathematical behaviors are strongly related. relationship between two variables measured in a correlational study Longitudinal design - A method in which the same group of subjects is followed and measured Scatter plot - A graph of data from a correlational at different points in time; a method that looks for study. changes across time. X - Horizontal Y - Vertical Multiple correlation - Statistical intercorrelations among three or more behaviors, Simple correlation - Relationship between pairs represented by R. of scores from each subject. Multiple regression analysis - A Subject variable - The characteristics of the correlation-based technique that uses a regression subjects in an experiment or quasi-experiment equation to predict the score on one behavior that cannot be manipulated by the researcher; from scores on the other related behaviors. sometimes used to select subjects into groups.