Psychology Test 3

the big three

(Elements of Informed consent)_____ _____ _________: 1. risk and benefits 2. right to withdraw or not respond to any question 3. Confidentiality

Operational definition

1. A statement of procedures used to define research variables. 2. Allows us to speak same language and understand abstract concepts in the same way. 3. Allows research to be replicated

Hypothesis

1. A testable prediction 2. An if/then statement 3. Often implied by a theory

Longitudinal design

1. Eliminates cohort effect because all participants are of the same influence of history. 2. Study that researches changes as people grow old. 3. Cannot enroll more people once it has started 4. can result in attrition

Random assignment

1. Randomly sorting participants to experimental and control conditions by chance. 2. eliminating election bias 3. equal distribution 4. Experimentation related

Overconfidence

1. Systematic error in thinking 2. Tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions.

Hindsight bias

1. Systematic error in thinking 2.Tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecasted known outcomes. (happen same way all the time) (We think we know more than we really do.)

Critical thinking

1. Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. 2. Examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions. 3. Draws conclusions based on evidence presented

Naturalistic observation

1. Watching behavior in real-world settings without trying to manipulate or control the situation. 2. CAN ONLY OBSERVE AND RECORD (describe behavior not explain)

Attrition

1. participants dropping out of study before its completed. 2. Problem for longitudinal design

Prototype

A mental image or best example that incorporates all the features we associated with a category. (Draw bird) We judge the likelihood of an event based on its similarity to this.

Scientific method (toolbox of skills)

Allows us to test specific hypotheses derived from broader theories of how things work. (theories are never proven but hypotheses can be disconfirmed) Counteracts our tendency to fool ourselves.

Theory

An explanation using integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations.

Central tendency error

An unwillingness to provide extreme ratings. (low or high.. more towards middle) (Ratings data)

Confounding variable

Any difference between the experimental and control groups; makes independent variable effects uninterpretable. (allow for alternate explanation) (experimental)

Mean

Average; measure of central tendency

Observer bias

Beliefs about the participant that may influence the observers judgement. ( Can be controlled with good operational definitions and well trained observers)

Inferential research

Conclude from evidence (draw cause and effect) Control is the key to cause and effect.

Reliability

Consistency of measurement (research) (whether the research did what it meant to or not)

Demand characteristics

Cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researchers hypotheses

Existence proofs

Demonstration that a given psychological phenomon can occur.

Descriptive research

Describes situations, behaviors and data sets.

Range

Difference between the highest and lowest scores; A measure of variability.

Naturalistic and structured

Disadvantages of ________ and _______ observation: Too many uncontrollable influences (poor internal validity)

Control group

Does not receive the manipulation (comparison group)

Cohort

Effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time.

Validity

Extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure.

Statistical significance

Findings that are not likely due to change, random occurrence of error.

Nocebo effect

Harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm,

External validity

High degree of _____________ - extent to which we can generalize our findings to the real world. (advantage of naturalistic observation)

Sample

How many participants.

Placebo effect

Improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement.

Internal validity

Low degree of _________- Extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study. (disadvantage to naturalistic observation)

Survey

Measure opinions and attitudes (type of self report)

Heuristics

Mental shortcuts or rules of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world. (Reduces cognitive energy to solve problems)

Median

Middle score in the data set.

Mode

Most frequent score in the data set

Intuitive

Our first impressions are at times surprisingly accurate. _________ thinking is quick and reflexive and consists mostly of "gut hunches" and relies a lot on heuristics.

Hawthorn effect

Phenomenon in which participants know they are being studied, can affect their behavior. (Ratings data) (when people know they are being watched they change their behavior)

Experimental research design

Pitfalls of ______________: 1.Placebo effect 2.Nocebo effect 3.Experimenter expectancy effect 4.Hawthorne effect

Quasi-experimental

Problems in _____________ design: As we move away from strict experimental control (lab setting) we increase the risk of the introduction confounding variables and bias.

Naturalistic observations

Problems of ________: 1. No control over behavior 2. Can't control other influences in the environment 3. Observer may be bias 4. Observer fatigue 5. Watching behavior may change it 6. Hard to replicate 7. Time 8. Cost

Debriefing

Procedure that is conducted in psychological research with human participants after an experiment has been concluded. It involves an interview between the researcher and the subjects where all elements of the study are discussed in detail.

Self report measures

Pros and cons of ___________: pros-Easy to measure and direct assessment cons- 1.Accuracy is skewed for certain groups 2. potential for dishonesty (response sets & malingering)

Experimental group

Receives the manipulation

Replication

Repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.

Experiment

Research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Reviews all research carefully with an eye toward protecting participants from abuse using (research universities and colleges all have one) : 1. Informed consent 2. Justification of deception 3. Debriefing of subjects afterwards

Representativeness

Sometimes the reality doesn't match the prototype.

Cognitive bias

Systematic (non-random) errors in thinking.

Leniency effect

Tendency of raters to provide ratings that are overly generous. (Ratings data)

Response sets

Tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items.

Malingering

Tendency to make ourselves appear psychologically disturbed with the aim of achieving a clear cut personal goal.

Social desirability bias

The participants change their response to a more acceptable or favorable response.

Experiment

To have an ________: 1. Random assignment to condition 2. Manipulated variable

Independent variable

Variable that experimenter *manipulates*.

Dependent variable

Variable that experimenter *measures* to see whether the manipulation has an effect. (Both experimental and control group get)

Humility

We may have to reject our beloved ideas if the evidence doesn't support them. (have to have ______ to be able to understand things may not always go your way)

Intuitive and anayltical

What are two modes of thinking?

Representativeness and avaliability

What are two types of heuristics?

Scientific method

What controls for systematic errors?

Deception

When participants in an experiment are wrongly informed or misled about the aims of the experiment.

Representativeness heuristic

When you judge someone's appearance to make an assumption about them, it is what?

Lewis terman, the kids that he studied

Who conducted the longest longitudinal case study (70 years) and who were the Termites in it?

Cross-sectional

_____ -_________ design- Research that examines people of different ages at a single point in time. - dont control for cohort effects because people who lived in one time are different from people in another

Case study

_____ _______ designs - in depth study, doesn't apply to everyone, only one specific person. Helpful in providing existence proofs ( that a phenomena exists) but can be misleading. *Jeannie story- 13 yrs of abuse

Structured observations

______ are staged opportunities for behavior to occur and make it more likely for the behavior to occur. (describe behavior not explain)

Negative

______ correlation - Reflects an inverse relationship. The factors vary in different directions. (cigarettes a woman smokes increases, birth weight of babies decrease)

Availability

______ estimates the likelihood of an occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our minds. (emotion related, based off other occurrences and not what is happening right now)

Analytical

______ is slow and reflective, takes mental effort and is used when we are trying to reason through a problem or figure out a complicated concept. Allows us to override our gut hunches when they seem to be wrong.

Base rate fallacy

______ occurs when we fail to take into consideration the base rate. (We are drawing conclusions on representativeness)

Illusory

_______ correlation- The perception of a relationship where none exists. (crime and the full moon)

Base rate

_______ is how common a characteristic or behavior is in the general population.

Positive

_________ correlation- Two factors that vary in the same direction. ( edu. increase, vocab increase)

Longitudinal

__________ design- the same individuals are observed and tested repeatedly at different points in their lives.

Correlation

__________ designs - describes the extent to which two variables are related; cannot predict cause and effect. (types=positive, negative, & illusory)

Tuskegee study

___________ performed by U.S. public health service (ethical issues in research design) : 1. African american men living in rural Alabama diagnosed with syphilis. 2. U.S. public health service never informed, or treated men. 3. Only studied course of the disease; 28 men died, 100 related complications, 40 wives infected, 19 children born with it. 4. 1997 President Clinton offered apology

Quasi-Experimental

_____________ research design- Research studies whose designs approx. the control of true experimental design, but include all elements of experimental control. (when things are not perfect; useful when some aspect of the design would represent an ethical concern)

Self-report measures

often called Questionnaires, assessing a variety of characteristics.