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.