Chapter 1: Why is Methodology important >.<

What are four reasons we need methodology and its components

1: We need consistent methods for acquiring knowledge 2: Needed to identify detect isolate and reveal many of the extremely complex relations that exist in the world 3: Many questions of interest lots of data is needed and to obtain that information very specific procedures should be used 4: We need science to help surmount the limitations of our usual ways of perceiving the environment and reaching conclusions

What is methodologies two major roles drawing valid inferences

Codifying sources of problems, and codyifying solutions

What is Data Evuluation and interpretation

Encompasess all of the methods that will be used to hadle the data, to characterize the sample , to describe performance on the measures, and to draw inferences related to the hypothesis.

What is communication of research findings

Findings can be communicated to other proffessionsls through different venues and media.

What are possible problems in drawing valid inferences and some practices to address them

History and maturation, testing, selection biases, attrition, cues of experimental situation, sample characteristics, samplesizes, questionable reliability and validitiy of the measure

What is cognitive heuristics

How we proccess and organize information; outside of our awareess and serve as menttal shortcuts or guides to help us negotiate many aspects of everyday experience

What problem is posed by attrition ( dropping out)

Loss of particpants over the course of a study can make groups different, the random composition of the groups has changed becuase participants selectivley excluded themselves, the groups may be different from each other leading to a selection bias

What is ethical issues and scientific integrity

Multifaceted component that includes a variety of responsibilities that the investigator has in the conduct of the study and can encompass all of the other componenets Includes multipl responsibilities to participants and adherence to the professional standards of ones dicipline Also includes responsibilities to the scientific community an the public at large

How can questionable reliability and validityof the measure be an issue in a study

No statistically significan t differences were obtained beacuase the measure has considerable error variability or it is not clear that this measure is a very good measure of the construct of interest. If the researcher created a measure it could be that the items do not mesure what you believe or measure it very well

What is the difference between parismony and plausible rival hypothesis

Parsimony in comparison refers to adopting the simpler of two or more explanations that account equally well for the data; a rival hypothesis refers to a different idea that can equally answer the question

What is assessment

Pertains to the measurement strategies and the measures that will be used to provide the data

Define replication and why it is important

Replication refers to repetition or repeatability; it is important for the study to be replicable (replicability of the study) as well as the findings need to be reproduced using the same procedures

What are the five major componenets of scientific methodology

Research design, Assessment, Data Evaluation and interpretation, Ethical issues and scientific integrity, Communication of research findings.

Defin testable hypothesis

Scientifc research depends on putting ideas to a test, meaning making predictions, using systematic measures and evualuating wether the data does or does not support a upothesis

What is Research Design

The experimental arangement ofr plan used to eamine the question or hypothesis of interest; Includes fundamental issues related to who the participants will be, how they are assigned and comparisons

We only see a small spectrum of the world which is reffered to ____ or ___, limiting our visual capabiliites

Visible Specturm, human visual spectrum

Clinical psychologies studies are

Wide in scope, wide in populations, including nonhuman subjects, conducted in diverse situations, and conducted in conjuctions with other methods of reasearch.

Science can be identified as

a way of knowing filled with checks and balances

Correlation only refers to when two variables

are related to each other at some point in time

We understand "seeing is believing" but psychological research provides considerable support for

believing is seeing; meaning our cognitive proccess can bias us in certain ways

Motivted perception or wishful percieving can be explained as

both biological states and psychological states directly guiding how reality is perceived

What problem is reffered to with history and maturation

changes that occur over time as a result of events or proccesses within the individual, meaning the results of the study could be due to these factors and not the experiment

Why is methodological studies important to clinical psychology in particular?

clinical psychology embrases all of the usual features of scientific reasearch, yet research is conducted in labroatory and clinical settings and addressess theoretical and applied issues

How can sample characteristics pose an issue

findings may be restricted to the special sample that was used, the finding was genuine but may not be applicable to other groups

What problems can be caused by cues of the experimental situation

incidental cues of the experiment ( what participants believe, are told, expectations unwittingly conveyed about how they should perform) may explain group differences rather than the expeerimental manipulation, cues may foster a way of responding that accounts for results

How does methodology help to codify sources of problems

methodology providies a list of problems to be wary of, what the inestigator ought to think about before running the first participant, what might go wrong during a study that would interfere with drawing clear conclusions

Sample Size (low power) can cause what issue in a study

no differences were obtained in the study becuase the power (ability to detect a true difference when there is one was too low

As humans we only see

one selective picture of the world

A cause means that

one variable leads to, produces and is responsible for a paticular outcome

Explain Plausible rival hypothesis

refers to an interpretation of the results of an investigation that is based on some other influence than the one the investigator has studied or wants to discuss

Explain Parsimony

refers to the practice of providing the simplest version or account of the data among the alternatives that are available; this does not mean the explanations are in fact simple.

What is the confirmatory bias;

reflects the role of our preconceptions or beliefs and how they influence the facets of reality we see grasp and identify

Repetition of findings is reffered to as

replication

what problems can be caused through testing

taking any test on more than one occasion often leads to changes in performance, studies that assess participants on multipe occassions might show change just because of repeated testing

What are the over arching tenets or principles guiding science and how we gather knwoeldge

testable hypothesis, parismony, plausible rival hypothesis replication and caution and precition of thinking

Science encourages caution and presicion in thinking meaning

that we need to be careful that we are not going beyond the data

Memory refers to , and how do we change memory

the ability to recall information and events, we recode reality in our memories, meaning more often than not we do not recall things correctly

What does Methodology refer to

the diverse principles procedures and practices that overn empirical research

What problem is posed by selection biases

the groups (experimental and control) are different to begin with becuase of how they were slected or formed, any diffeences between groups at the end of the stuy may be due to these difference srahter than to anything the invesitgator does

What is reality monitoring

the name of memory function that differentiates memories that are based on external(the world) versus internal (ones own thoughts and perceptions)

Why is having consistent methods for acquiring knowledge important

there are many sciences that require similialr parrctices, much of reasearch is done in collaboration, scientists from different areas need to be able to speak similarly

The concept of falsifiability has bee

used as part of a notion of testing ides, the idea must be one that can be put to a test and in princible shown to be false