research methods (test 2)

Face Validity

does measure appear to be appropriate?

Construct Validity

does measure relate appropriately to other measures

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

An Internet website address.

Institutional Approval

-All research involving human or animal participants must be approved by institutional review board -Review board should be made up of wide cross-section of researchers, other university members, and community members -Board decides whether risks to participants outweigh potential gains

Informed consent

-As much as possible, researchers should describe procedure to participants, obtain informed consent -Separate informed consent must be obtained for recording

Passive deception

-Concealed observation/recording -Provocation of negatively evaluated behavior -Undisclosed participant observation -Use of projective techniques -Unrecognized conditioning of behaviors

Types of Validity

-Face Validity -Construct Validity -Convergent Validity -Discriminant Validity

Platykurtic Graph

-Flat distribution -Standard deviation is larger -Mean deviation and variance are also larger.

Active deception

-Misrepresenting the purposes of an investigation -Untrue statements about the identity of researcher -False promises -Violation of promise of anonymity -Incorrect explanation of equipment and/or procedures -Use of confederates -Use of placebos or secret application of drugs

Benefits of Sharing Data

-Other researchers might test their own hypothesis with your data. -Prevention of data fabrication.

Deception

-Participants can be deceived only when there is no other viable way to test hypothesis -When deception is used, full disclosure must take place in debriefing

Protection from harm

-Psychologists must take steps to avoid harming their research participants -Harm may be psychological or physical -Sometimes short-term harm is unavoidable; in such cases, psychologists must justify use of harm

Ways to assess reliability

-Test-retest -Interitem -Interrater -Replication

When an author submits a manuscript to a journal, what is the general process by which the decision is made whether or not to publish the paper?

1. The author submits copies of his or her paper to the editor of a relevant journal. Most journals have an online system where the author can submit the paper in a word processing file. 2. The editor then sends a copy of the paper to two or more peer reviewers who are known to be experts in the field. 3. Each reviewer reads and critiques the paper, evaluating all areas of paper including analyses, results, interpretations, and contribution to the field. 4. Then the editor after reading the reviewers' comments makes one of four editorial decisions: First, publish paper as it is. Second, accept paper, but inform the author of certain revisions. Third, The editor may decide not to accept the paper for publication, but provide recommendations for resubmission for reconsideration. Last, the editor rejects the paper with no opportunity of resubmission.

Research Proposal

A description of research that an investigator would like to conduct written to convince.

Poster Session

A session at a professional conference at which researchers display information about their studies on posters.

Paper Session

A session at a professional conference in which researchers give oral presentation about their studies.

Abstract

A summary of a journal article or research paper

Personality psychology

Across people

Social psychology

Across situations

Types of deception:

Active Deception and Passive deception

Why do researchers care how much variability exists in a set of data?

All aspects of the research process revolve around the concept of variability. The design studies help us describe and understand variability in a certain behavior. The measures we use are an attempt to capture numerically the variability we observe in participants behavior.

Confidentiality

All information obtained must be held in strict confidence, unless consent is obtained to make it public. Anonymous- People cannot sees which info or data is connected to who. Only researcher can see the data.

Self-Report Measures

Ask people. Ex: ask people at a political rally who they support.

Why should authors avoid using gender-biased language?

Authors should avoid gender-biased language because of two reasons. First, the careless use of gender-related language can create sexism. Second, sexist language can create ambiguity.

Direct Object Identifier (DOI)

The unique number assigned to a journal that assists with its retrieval from electronic databases and on-line sources.

Why should we be cautious about reports of research that are published in the popular media and posted on the World Wide Web?

Because some styles of referencing have become outdated, and new methods have become necessary.

Interitem

Between states. Consistency across different items. Self-reports agree between different items.

PsycINFO

Computerized literature search service.

Reliability

Consistency of a measure.

Author-Date System

In APA style, the manner of citing previous research by providing the author's last name and the date of publication.

Scientific Fraud

Data fabrication, plagiarism, duplicate publication (the same article cannot be published in different journals), publication credit, sharing data.

Distinguish between descriptive and inferential statistics

Descriptive statistics are used to describe the behavior of participants in a study and inferential statistics are used to draw conclusions about reliability of one's findings.

Nominal

Different categories and you can only be one or the other. No specific order. Ex: male or female, hair color, political affiliation.

Staple

Famous researcher. He primed people by showing them money and they became greedy. He fabricated data on SPSS.

APA Style

Guidelines set forth by the American Psychological Association for preparing research reports.

HARKing

Hypothesizing after the results are known. This is scientifically dishonest. Very common in the field.

Why is peer review so important in science?

If the research paper passes the peer review process, we have at least minimum assurance that other experts viewed it as acceptable.

Distinguish between a paper session and a poster session

In a paper session, the author has the chance to present the research for 15-20 minutes and answer questions from the audience after that. A poster session is where the author creates a poster and stands next to it to talk about it and answer questions; the author also has a copy of the paper that can be passed out to the audience.

IACUC

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

Discussion

Interpret results, relate to hypothesis and previous research. Talk about possible methodological limitations. Speculate on importance and generalizability of results. Suggest future research.

Introduction

Introduce research topic. Provide concrete examples. State specific problem studied and the purpose of the study. End with a preview to the method by providing a specific hypothesis.

Convergent Validity

Is it related to things it should be related?

Discriminant Validity

Is it related to things it shouldn't be related?

What does the scale determine?

It determines what statistics to use.

What are the three primary ways in which scientists share their work with the scientific community?

Journal Publication, Presentations at Professional Meetings, Personal Contact.

Gender-Neutral Language

Language that treats men and women equally and does not perpetuate stereotypes about men and women.

References

List all papers cited in alphabetical order by author.

Test-Restest

Measure same thing twice.

Physiological Measures

Measuring brain activity. Testosterone level in saliva for example. Ex: Measure arousal for aggressive behavior. Someone coming out of the gym may be aroused, but for different reasons.

Observational Measures

Observe direct behavior. Ex: Two children pushing each other at the playground in a playful way is different than an aggressive way. Trump rally supporters- what their signs say, what people wear, facial expressions.

What are the three central characteristics of good writing?

Organization, Clarity, and Conciseness.

Developmental psychology

Over time

What subsections does the method section typically have?

Participants, Materials, Procedure.

Leptokurtic graph

People bunched up in the middle

What is the purpose of the introduction of a paper?

The purpose of a introduction of a paper is to describe to the reader the problem under investigation and present a background context in which the problem can be understood.

What is the range, and why is it no an ideal index of variability?

Range tells us how much the largest and smallest sore vary, but does not take into account the other scores and how much they vary from each other. Range is not an ideal index of variability because two sets of data can have the same range, but one set has smaller variability than the other.

Replication

Repeating an experimental outcome is one way to demonstrate reliability

Results

Report data. Tell how the hypothesis was tested. Do no interpret findings here.

When presenting the results of statistical analyses, what information should be presented?

Researchers are obligated to describe all relevant results, even if they are contrary to their predictions. Generally researchers start by presenting the most important results and then work their way to secondary findings.

Why do researchers want the error variance in their data to be small?

Researchers want the error variance to be small because that is the portion of the total variance that is not related to the variable under investigation.

Sharing Data

Researchers were hesitant about sharing data, but things have changed and researchers are encouraged to share their data.

Title page

Should be less than 15 words. Title should capture essence of paper.

Abstract

Summary of the entire paper. Less than 120 words. Written last.

Method

Tell reader how study was conducted. Subheadings: Participants, Design, Materials, and Procedure. If the reader can replicate the study, they it is a good method section.

Why converging measures are good

The more different way to measure stuff, more null hypothesis passed. Every measure has its own problems.

Peer Review

The process by which experts evaluate research papers to judge their suitability for publication or presentation.

Interval

There is an order and the distance between the points is the same.

Ordinal

There is an order. Ex: Likert scale is ordinal, height.

What information should be included in the method section of a paper?

This section describes precisely how the study was conducted.

List in order the major sections that all research papers must have

Title Page, Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, Reference.

Seven Sections of a Research Paper

Title page, abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references.

Ratio

True zero in whatever you are measuring. Ex: Weight, reaction time, distance.

Interrater

Used when observing behavior. Two observers looking at the same behavior to see if they agree.

Give a definition of variance

Variance is used to indicate the amount of observed variability in participants' behavior.

Why do researchers use meta-analysis?

When researchers conduct a meta-analysis, they examine every study that has been conducted on a particular topic to assess the relationship between whatever variable are the focus of their analysis. Researchers not only determine the degree to which certain variable are related, but also explore the factor that affect their relationship. Meta-analysis is not only used to document relationships across studies, but also explore factors that affect the strength of those relationships.

Bimodal graph

an example of a bimodal graph would be in political issue. Who are you in favor of?

Systematic variance

is that variance related to variables being investigated. Ex: Agression. Correlation. Socially isolated = more aggressive Comparing two means

Error variance

is variance that is NOT explained by variables being investigated.

Benefits of animal research

learning, drug efficiency, functions of the brain, learned helplessness.

Freedom to Withdraw

• All participants must be informed they are free to withdraw from study at any point • If they do withdraw, they will still receive any promised incentives There is social pressure for those who withdraw. Collecting data online is more efficient and popular now.

Guidelines for Debriefing

• Communicate your sincerity as a scientistMake sure participants don't feel like they have been taken advantage of. • Debrief gradually. • Reiterate assurances of confidentiality • Make sure participant isn't giving false assurances of being okay. • Debrief as soon as possible.

Research with Animals

• Procedures not allowed with human participants can be done with animals: - Induced brain damage - Separation of infant from mothers - Testing of drugs

Variability and Psychology

• Psychology can also be defined as the scientific study of variability in thoughts, feelings, & behavior. - Over time (developmental psychology) - Across situations (social psychology) - Across people (personality psychology) • Many psychological traits are normally distributed

Why are many physical and psychological variables normally distributed?

• Quetelet: God's plan, Aristotle's golden mean • Galton: product of evolution Norms may push us closer to the middle. Evolution- What's adaptive? From Statistics: There are multiple causations. Ex: Plinko game. Most chips end in the middle. 50/50 chance. Bell curve is formed.

Measuring variability

• Range R = H - L • Mean deviation md = Σ|(X-M)|/N • Variance S2 = Σ(X-M) 2/N • Standard deviation S = square root(Σ(X-M) 2/N)

Validity

•Extent to which an instrument measures what it is intended to measure •Match between conceptual and operational definition Are we measuring what we are supposed to be measuring? Has to be reliable

Scales of measurement

•Nominal •Ordinal •Interval •Ratio

Types of measures

•Observational measures •Physiological measures •Self-report measures