Chapter 2-Research Methods

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If data collected in a study do not confirm a hypothesis, which of the following is likely to happen?

The researchers will change the theory a little bit, and test the revised theory in a new study

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee at each institution where research is conducted to review every experiment for ethics and methodology. must approve the plan

p-hacking

A family of questionable data analysis techniques, such as adding participants after the results are initially analyzed, looking for outliers, or trying new analyses in order to obtain a p value of just under .05, which can lead to non replicable results

Statistical significance

A process of inference that applies rules of logic and probability to estimate whether the results obtained in a study's sample are the same in a larger population low p-value: doesn't mean hypothesis is true just means the data are unlikely to occur under the null hypothesis high p-value: does not mean hypothesis is false, it means the data is fairly likely to occur until the null hypothesis

measured variables

Asking people how happy they are on a scale, 1 (extremely unhappy) to 10 (extremely happy) scale and record their answers Gender is always a measured variable also depression, ethnicity, or disease status is almost always measured

You read a headline on your newsfeed that states, "Study finds that women are better drivers than men." You find the original study and read that the study was conducted on a sample of 16-year-olds who just earned their drivers' licenses and is based on how high they scored on the written and driving portions of their exams. Which of the following questions would be related to your concern about the study's external validity? How big is the difference between the scores or male and female drivers? Can the results of the study say something about all drivers? Can you really measure "good driving" based on how well they did on these two tests? Could the sex difference in god driving be related to whether girls are more likely to study and prepare for these exams?

Can the results of the study say something about all drivers

A developmental psychologist is conducting a study on children's interest in attending college. Which of the following variables could a researcher measure but not manipulate? Grade point average, Participation in an afterschool program, # of books read this week, Exposure to college posters in the classroom

GPA

3 questions to access validity

How well did the researchers operationalize the variables? Are the people they studied representative of the population of interest? Can we rule out the most plausible alternative explanations?

Saying that a finding is "statistically significant" means that it Is unlikely to have happened by chance if the null hypothesis is true, had been replicated, represents a large effect, is the result of a meta-analysis

Is unlikely to have happened by chance if the null hypothesis is true

Preregistration is an important aspect of high-quality science because

It allows researchers to publicize their hypotheses before collecting data

Which of the following explains why conclusions provided by psychological science are better than those reached by people's intuition or personal experience?

Psychological science systematically tests ideas using controlled methods and multiple people Psychological science collects information systematically and from multiple people, overcoming any one person's bias or overconfidence.

Reliability

consistency of measurement ex: put flour on a scale, if you get the same weight each time with the same act of flour it is reliable

Variability statistic

described by the spread of its sampling distribution which the scores in a batch differ from one another

three types of research to test theories

descriptive, correlational, experimental

Sensitivity

does your measure detect meaningful differences ex: can you measure a fake smile vs a real smile

internal validity

extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study and rule our alternative explanations also 3rd criterion for deciding whether a study can support a casual claim ex: alternative could be students who took notes by hands were already better students than those who took notes on laptops--if better students also tended to take notes by hands, their greater abilities would be an alternative explanation for why they seem to learn more rule out alternatives and internal validity by performing a well designed experiment

external validity

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings major issue for a lot of research ex: if you find results regarding mice can you generalize them to humans

manipulated variable

factor in an experiment that a scientist purposely changes; also known as independent variable

controlled group

group in an experiment that is exposed to the same conditions as the experimental group except for one independent variable

When looking at graphs presented in the popular press, which of the toolkit questions might you need to especially focus on? How strongs is the result? What am I being asked to believe? Are they making a causal claim? Has the study been replicated?

how strong is the result

harking

hypothesizing after results are known

random assignment

in which a random method is used to decide which participants will be in which group. (ex. Picking out of a hat) only used in experiments

Ruling out alternative explanations, or confounds, enhances which aspect of a study?

internal validity

self-report

people's answers to questions about the topic of interest themselves usually through a survey or interview

After discussing the original correlational study examining social media usage and life satisfaction, you and your roommate have decided to create an experiment to determine if there is a causal link between the two variables. You have chosen to manipulate how many minutes people spend using social media by creating three groups (0 minutes, 15 minutes, and 30 minutes on social media per day) and then measure people's life satisfaction. Which of the following is necessary to ensure that the three groups are equally satisfied with life at the beginning of the study? Multiple experimental groups, Making the experiment "blind" to participants and researchers, a Control group, Random Assignment

random assignment

random sampling or assignment or neither The American Automobile Association (AAA) conducted a survey using a random-digit phone-dialing system to call a national sample of 2,000 U.S. drivers. Drivers were asked whether they had ever talked on a cell phone while driving. Did this study use random sampling or random assignment?

random sampling

using the 3rs for using animals for research

replacement: find alternatives if possible refinement: modify experimental procedures and other aspects of animal care to minimize or eliminate animal distress reduction: adopt designs and procedures that require the fewest animal subject

d statistic

represents differences between groups, useful for comparing research results across multiple studies. .5=avg response of the 2 groups different by half a standard deviation .2=small .5=medium .8=large

what are important when drawing conclusions rather on relying on experience or intuition especially if life or death is on the line

scientific methods

the stronger the correlation is ....

the better the predictions will be

Validity

the extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to the appropriateness or accuracy of some claim or conclusion

construct validity

the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure

Operationalization and state 3 types

the process of assigning a precise method for measuring a term being examined for use in a particular study assigning a method to a variable you are trying to measure self-report, direct observation, technology

descriptive statistics

these statistics summarize participants' differing responses in terms of what was most typical and how much people's responses varied from the average

placebo effect

In an experiment, a group or condition in which people expect to receive a treatment but are exposed only to an inert version, like a sugar pill

experimental group

In an experiment, the group that is exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

sample

Smaller group of participants in the research (sample is selected from the larger group known as the population of interest)

Variable

Something of interest that can vary from person to person or situation to situation can be measured or manipulated

Scientific Method Steps

Theory-data cycle. theory, hypothesis, design, data, compare

underreporting nonsignificant effects

This practice becomes a problem if, in writing about the research, the researcher only reports the variables that showed strong effects, and does not mention the others

double-blind procedure

This technique, in which both participants and the researcher who has contact with them are unaware of condition assignment → having participants blind to their condition assignment ensure they act spontaneously

Technology

Used to operationalize variables that are not easily observable by researchers or participants themselves ex: recording a persons BAC

psychologists strive to _______

isolate other causes ex: separating the effect of talking on the phone from the factors that could influence driving

Measured or Manipulated In a study on phobias, a researcher hooks people up to a skin conductance device to record their stress levels while they view photos. Some participants see photos of spiders, some see snakes, and some see puppies. The type of photo is

manipulated

Measured or Manipulated Researchers have participants solve anagrams. Some participants solve difficult anagrams, some solve easy anagrams, and some solve medium-difficulty anagrams. Anagram difficulty is

manipulated

Measured or Manipulated The researcher dyes some people's hair black and other people's hair blond. Hair color is

manipulated

independent variable

manipulated variable

dependent variable

measured variable

Measured or Manipulated The researcher stands at an intersection and records whether or not drivers are using cell phones. Driver behavior is

measured

random sampling or assignment or neither A research team in Utah placed trained observers at a local intersection with a four-way stop sign. The observers recorded two pieces of information about each driver: whether the driver stopped legally behind the stop sign, and whether the driver was using a hand-held cell phone while driving. Did this study use random sampling or random assignment?

neither

which operationalizations are better

observational and physiological because self-report may not be completely accurate

naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

A researcher decides to measure the variable of how self-focused people are by counting the number of times a person says "I" or "me" in a 10-minute recorded conversation. This specification of how this variable will be measured is known as which of the following? Observational measurement, Measured variable, Quantification, Operational definition

operational definition

Inferential Statistics

use sample results to infer what is true about the broader population A set of procedures used to estimate whether a pattern of results represents a true relationship or difference in the population ex: If we see a difference between two conditions for example is it in fact a reliable difference, is it real, or is it due to chance We use inferential statistics to differentiate patterns that are likely due to chance to that that are likely to occur

experience

using experience to draw conclusions about behavior of others ex: you have drove while talking on the phone and never got into an accident ex: dad has bluetooth and never got into an accident problem: our personal experiences do not show us all possible events, can be more than one explanation...cant base our answer just on this

descriptive research

what do people do? focus on one measured variable at a time with the goal of describing what is typical measuring how people typically think, feel, or behave cannot test relationships among variables can measure many variables

correlational research

what kinds of people do this? the study of the naturally occurring relationships among variables ex:The republicans are engaging in the self-reporting less than the Democrats based on their beliefs -This is an association (correlation) between political beliefs and how much you're doing something (engaging in protective behaviors) measuring how variables are related to one another cannot identify casual direction of the relationship can measure many variables

in order to conclude one variable causes another you have to satisfy what 3 criteria

1. The two variables have to be correlated or associated with each other 2. We must know for certain which variable came first in time -third variable: something that causes them to be related but not one of the two main variables 3. no reasonable alternative explanation for the pattern

meta-analysis

A process in which researchers locate all of the studies that have tested the same variables and mathematically average them to estimate the effect size of the entire body of studies

preregistration

A researcher's public statement of a study's expected outcome before collecting any data Pre Registration allows others to verify that findings are not the results of Harking or p-hacking and that all variables are reported

A cognitive psychologist hypothesizes that people who exercise more will also have better memories (e.g., be able to recall more words). Which of the following scatterplot patterns would provide support for her hypothesis?

Dots that slope upward from left to right (more exercise = better memory)

In a field experiment, Middlemis, Knowles, and Matter (1976) wanted to test how an invasion of personal space might affect people's physiological responses. They set up an experiment on a college campus in a men's public restroom with three urinals. When men entered the restroom to use a urinal, there was a confederate in the restroom who, by random assignment, used the urinal either directly next to the man who entered or the one two urinals away (they used an "out of order" sign on the remaining urinal). The researchers hypothesized that men would take longer to begin urinating when someone was standing directly next to them. To measure the delay in urination, another researcher hid in a bathroom stall and, using a mirrored periscope focused on the target's midsection, recorded how long the man took to start urinating. The observer did not see the faces of the participants. None of the 60 users of the restroom were aware they had been participants in an experiment. As hypothesized, when the confederate was standing in the neighboring urinal, men took longer to begin to urinate, compared with when the confederate was standing two urinals away. Does this reflect beneficence?

Having someone stand next to them in the bathroom certainly seemed to make the participants uncomfortable, but there is a reasonable chance of this occurring regardless of the experiment.

Researchers wanted to know whether seeing positive news online makes people feel more positive emotions. They manipulated 700,000 Facebook accounts by withholding certain positive news posts from some users' feeds for a few hours and withholding certain negative posts from others' feeds. Later, they counted how many positive and negative emotion words people used in their status messages. They found that people used fewer positive emotion words when their positive news had been temporarily withheld and used fewer negative emotion words when negative posts had been temporarily withheld (Kramer, Guillory, & Hancock, 2014). Facebook users consent to having their accounts analyzed when they sign up for an account, so the researchers did not ask people for consent to participate in this study. Does this study reflect the ethical principle of autonomy?

In this study, participants did not consent to participate, so one could argue that this violated their autonomy. However, because users on Facebook agreed to the terms of service agreement, and this study was conducted by Facebook itself, others say the company had no obligation to obtain informed consent.

Researchers wanted to know whether seeing positive news online makes people feel more positive emotions. They manipulated 700,000 Facebook accounts by withholding certain positive news posts from some users' feeds for a few hours and withholding certain negative posts from others' feeds. Later, they counted how many positive and negative emotion words people used in their status messages. They found that people used fewer positive emotion words when their positive news had been temporarily withheld and used fewer negative emotion words when negative posts had been temporarily withheld (Kramer, Guillory, & Hancock, 2014). Facebook users consent to having their accounts analyzed when they sign up for an account, so the researchers did not ask people for consent to participate in this study. Does this study reflect the ethical principle of beneficence?

It is possible that increased negative emotions in someone's daily life may have serious negative consequences. However, the knowledge gained here about the emotional effects of social media is extremely valuable to the scientific field.

Population of Interest

Larger set of individuals that the researcher is trying to understand

You and your roommate are discussing the results of a self-report study that measured the number of minutes spent on social media during a person's first week of college and their satisfaction with life during their fourth week of college. Which of the following changes could be made to the study to change it from a correlational study to an experimental study? Manipulating how many minutes people spend on social media during the first week of college, Measuring both social media usage and life satisfaction at both time points, Collecting the social media usage data with observational methods rather than self-report methods, Adding other measured/dependent variables (ex. Satisfaction with college)

Manipulating how many minutes people spend on social media during the first week of college

random sampling

Randomly selecting people to be their sample tested can be used in any study--a study, observational study, correlational study, or an experiment

In a field experiment, Middlemis, Knowles, and Matter (1976) wanted to test how an invasion of personal space might affect people's physiological responses. They set up an experiment on a college campus in a men's public restroom with three urinals. When men entered the restroom to use a urinal, there was a confederate in the restroom who, by random assignment, used the urinal either directly next to the man who entered or the one two urinals away (they used an "out of order" sign on the remaining urinal). The researchers hypothesized that men would take longer to begin urinating when someone was standing directly next to them. To measure the delay in urination, another researcher hid in a bathroom stall and, using a mirrored periscope focused on the target's midsection, recorded how long the man took to start urinating. The observer did not see the faces of the participants. None of the 60 users of the restroom were aware they had been participants in an experiment. As hypothesized, when the confederate was standing in the neighboring urinal, men took longer to begin to urinate, compared with when the confederate was standing two urinals away. Does this reflect the ethical principle of autonomy?

Participants did not consent to participation in the study, so their autonomy seems to have been violated. Arguably, however, this study could not have been conducted accurately if informed consent was granted.

Which type of data would be better collected by observational methods than by self-reported methods? The number of times a person has donated blood this year, A person's attitude toward helping strangers, The emotion a person feels when seeing a person in distress, The amount of time it takes to help a person pick up dropped papers

The amount of time it takes to help a person pick up dropped papers

confound

The experiment is said to have a confound when the experimental groups accidentally differ on more than just the independent variable Ex. A group drinks alc and orange juice and the other is water, the confound = not know whether the higher aggression was caused by the alcohol or by the taste or ingredients in the orange juice

You read a headline on your newsfeed that states, "Study finds that women are better drivers than men." To consider this study's construct validity, you would want information about which of the following? The # of males and females in the study, The operational definition of "good driver", the size of the difference between men and women's "good driving", and whether the study's author was male or female

The operational definition of "good driver"

Which of the following relationships between a sample and a population of interest would allow us to have confidence in the results of a survey?

The people in the sample closely resemble the people in the population

open science

The practice of sharing one's data, materialis, analysis plans, and published articles freely so others can collaborate, use, verify, and learn about the results

You and your roommate are discussing the results of a study that found a negative relationship between the number of minutes people spend on social media during a person's first week of college and their satisfaction with life during their fourth week of college. Which criterion for causation prevents you from concluding that social media usage causes lower life satisfaction? It is unclear which variable comes first, There may be an alternate explanations for the relationship between social media usage and life satisfaction, There is not a correlation between the social media usage and life satisfaction, and It is unclear who the people in the original study were

There may be an alternate explanations for the relationship between social media usage and life satisfaction

standard deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Scatterplot

a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables shows correlational studies

false positive

a statistically significant finding that does not reflect a real effect A study with a larger sample will have greater power to detect an effect that actually exists and reduces the risk of finding false positives that do not replicate in later studies

frequency distribution

an arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning use logic, a subjective feeling about what makes sense ex: hands free is the way to go because if you have your hands on the wheels your eyes will be on the road and you are fine problem: ideas "feel right" due to us being overconfidence in what we know and how well we think we understand events...but these feelings are not always accurate easy to see other faults in intuition but difficult to accept fault in our own

case study

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth of a persons experience, abilities, and behavior in the hope of revealing universal principles

direct observation

assessment in which the professional observes the client engaged in ordinary, day-to-day behavior in either a clinical or natural setting

random sampling or assignment or neither A research team invited college students who were taking an introductory psychology class into the laboratory. Students were asked to drive a standard, 15-minute course on a professional-grade driving simulator while having a conversation with a member of the research team. Half of the students were talking via cell phone, and the other half were talking to their conversation partner in the passenger's seat. The researchers flipped a coin to assign students to one of the two conditions. Did this study use random sampling or random assignment?

assignment

Providing informed consent is done to address which of the following ethical principles?

autonomy

random sampling or assignment or neither The American Automobile Association (AAA) conducted a survey using a random-digit phone-dialing system to call a national sample of 2,000 U.S. drivers. The target question was whether or not drivers thought that driving while talking on a cell phone should be illegal. However, before asking this target question, the surveyor told half of the participants that hands-free cell phones are associated with higher accident rates. The other half of the participants were not given this information. The computer used a random method to decide which participants were and were not given the information. The AAA wanted to know if hearing about research on cell-phone-related accidents would prompt people to change their responses to the target question. Did this study use random sampling or random assignment?

both

In what way are means and standard deviations similar to one another? They are both examples of measures of frequency, They are both examples of measures of variability, They are both examples of descriptive statistics, They are both examples of central tendency measures

both descriptive stats bc they summarize participants different responses

how are r and d statistics similar They are both used in experiments, They are both measures of the size of an effect, They are both descriptive statistics, They are both useful for establishing a study's construct validity

both measures the size of an effect

Correlation does not equal

causation

Measured or Manipulated Researchers place volunteers in an fMRI machine, which detects brain activity in the occipital cortex (the back of the brain). The brain activity in the occipital cortex is

measured

effect size

describes the magnitude of the relationship between manipulated or measured variables strength of the correlation or the degree of difference between groups in an experiment

autonomy

did the participants have the chance to review the procedure of the study and decide whether or not they wanted to participate where vulnerable groups protected in this study (children, disabled, prisoners) were they debriefed about the study at the end

Justice

did the sample of participants used in the study resemble the types of people who will benefit from it Only those who participate in research bear the burdens of potential discomfort, pain, or inconvenience, yet the research studies can benefit an entire community of people

Beneficence

did they take care to minimize risks to participants do the fingering of the study offer potential benefit to the community

the coefficient r

direction and strength of a correlation the value of r can range from -1: perfect neg relationship 0: zero relationship 1: perfect positive relationship

reasons a study may not be replicable

false positive, harking, p-hacking, underreports nonsignificant effects

Measured or Manipulated The researcher has participants operate a driving simulator. She assigns some participants to drive while talking on a hands-free phone and others to drive while talking to a "passenger" sitting nearby. Whether drivers talked on a phone or to a passenger is

manipulated

Measured or Manipulated A researcher asks participants how difficult they found a set of math problems to be. Their difficulty ratings are

measured

Measured or Manipulated In a study on phobias, a researcher hooks people up to a skin conductance device to record their stress levels while they view photos of spiders. The skin conductance stress levels are

measured

experimental research

why do people do this? make you more confident that the hypothesis is a good one or a bad one and gives more confidence in the theory testing whether one variable causes another can only examine a few variables in one study, not all variables can be manipulated can establish a casual direction of a relationship


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