Psych/Soc MCAT

Steps to a good experimental design

1. Select the population (if applies to one set of a population, doesn't mean it applies to all) 2. Operationalize the independent and dependent variables (independent variable is the one the researchers control, dependent is the one that they measure) (specify what they mean) 3. Carefully select control and experimental groups (A CONTROL MUST BE PRESENT) (as similar as possible) 4. Randomly sample from the population (if not, selection bias) 5. Randomly assign individuals to groups (randomized block technique) 6. Measure the results 7. Test the hypothesis

five functions of families

1. reproduction and monitoring of sexual behavior 2. protection 3. socialization- passing down norms and values of society 4. Affection and companionship 5. social status

Hawthorne effect

A change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied

Ethical experiments

Consent, debrief, confidential, can't hurt the subject

Correlation does not equal causation

Correlation does not mean cause and effect. A correlation of 1 between two variables does not mean that one necessarily causes the other. A correlation of 0 does not mean that one prevents the other. For example, height and weight in people have a positive correlation. However, the height does not cause the weight or vice versa. It's just that they are most likely to be strongly related. (COULD BE THIRD FACTOR CAUSING IT, OR RESULT COULD BE CAUSING START (B CAUSES A))

founders of sociology

Durkheim, Marx, Weber

Social institutions (examples)

Family, Government and economy, religion, education, health and medicine

major criticism of conflict theory

Focuses too much on competition and does not recognize the role of stability within society

Herbert Spencer

Functionalism can trace its roots to him, postulated that various structures and institutions of a society work together to keep that entire society functioning and regulated, contended that societies were subject to evolutionary pressures and could evolve in response to these pressures just as organisms do

I and me

I- individualistic self, part that acts on other people and things and has its own autonomy and will me- social self, when others are acting and interpreting our behavior and we are the object of their actions and interpretations

how the self is developed for interactionists

Language- most prominent system of symbols in all human interactions and incorporates all modes of communication including body language and interpretation of meaning Play-spontaneity and freedom with minimal social rules and limited stakes Games- much stricter set of rules and offer greater stakes

nuclear family

Mother, father and children living as a unit

How to say A causes B?

Must do an experiment (and follow a good setup for it)

rationalization of society

Our increasing concern with efficiency (achieving the maximum result with the minimum amount of effort)

social facts

The elements that serve some function in society, such as the laws, morals, values, religions, customs, rituals, and rules that make up a society.

predictive validity

The success with which a test predicts the behavior it is designed to predict, does it tell us about the variable of interest?

Is a control necessary for an experiment?

YES, a control must be used to verify that the results are due to what you are testing Without one, causal relationships cannot be drawn and a study is not experimental

Meta-analysis

a big-picture analysis of many studies to look for trends in the data

Twin Studies

a common method of investigating whether nature or nurture affects behavior, best way to measure heritability looking at twins in same environment, and if differences shows it's genetic if twins in different environments, shows it's environmental because same genes, studies twins reared together and apart

significant difference

a measured difference between two groups that is large enough that it is probably not due to chance

operational definition

a specification of precisely what researchers mean by each variable

Protestant/Puritan work ethic

a widely held religious belief that lauded the morality of hard work for the sake of Godliness, Weber believed it was a critical factor in the success of the capitalist system in replacing the feudalist system that preceded it in Western Eurpose.

power

ability to pick up (detect) an effect if one is actually present in an experiment

stocks of knowledge

allow us to classify objects and actions we observe quickly and routinely structure our own actions in immediate response in a process called typification

self-fulfilling prophecy

an expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true.

Archival studies

analyze already collected data from historical records and authentic original documents

mixed methods research

any combination of different research techniques, such as within-subjects and between subjects, or qualitative and quantitative

Observational studies

any study in which individuals are observed and outcomes measured with no attempt to control the outcome CANNOT SHOW CAUSAL RELATIONSHIPS

social constructionism

argues that people actively shape their reality through social interactions; therefore, it is something that is constructed, not inherent claim that social attributes such as race gender sexuality class status power and others are constructs of society, also money, wealth age and time argues that the reality people see when they consider things like depression or higher education is actually socially constructed examines the constructs of society from both macro and micro sociological perspectives

Pearson Correlation

assigns a number from -1 to +1 to a pair of variables, if neg, neg relationship, does NOT SHOW CAUSALITY, just a relationship

null hypothesis

assumption that there is no causal relationship between the variables and any effect scientists measure is due to chance, must be disproven to show a causal relationship

utilitarianism

based on two assumptions: 1. that individual humans are rational in their actions 2. in every human interaction, individuals will seek to maximize their own self-interest

Max Weber

best known for refining and critiquing many of Marx's tenets of conflict theory, agreed with Marx that inequalities in a capitalist system would lead to conflict, but Weber did not believer that the collapse of capitalism was inevitable, felt that Marx's focus on economic inequality alone was too narrow and extreme, also felt that Marx did not pay enough attention to the power of values and beliefs to influence, transform, and stabilize societies

Karl Marx

closely identifies with conflict theory, he argued that societies progress through class struggle between those who own and control production and those who labor and provide the manpower for production; he believed that capitalism produced internal tensions which would ultimately lead to self-destruction of capitalist societies to be replaced by socialism (communism); he along with Emile Durkheim and Max Weber are considered the founding fathers of sociology

hegemony

coerced acceptance of the values, expectations, and conditions as determined by the capitalist class, maintains unequal social order

within-subjects design

compare same group at different time points; a research design that uses each participant as his or her own control for example, the behavior of an experimental participant before receiving treatment might be compared to his or her behavior after receiving treatment

between-subjects design

comparisons are made between different groups of participants

social institutions

complexes of roles, norms, and values organized into a relatively stable form that contribute to social order by governing the behavior of people, provide predictability and organization for individuals within a society and mediate social behavior between people, provide harmony and allow for specialization of skills

Feminist theory

concerned with the social experiences of both men and women and the differences between these experiences

latent functions

consequences of a structure that are not officially sought or sanctioned can be beneficial, neutral, or harmful for ex. latent functions of a police department can include providing employment to community residents, raising government revenue by issuing traffic tickets, or even promoting social inequality through selective law enforcement

Mead

considered most important in development of symbolic interactionism

cross-sectional study

data collection or survey of a population or sample at a specific time

dramaturgical approach

developed by Erving Goffman, views people as theatrical performers and everyday life as a stage, people in society choose what kind of image they want to communicate to those they interact with

non-experimental design

do NOT establish a causal relationship, more naturalistic, but lowers internal validity because of reduced control in variables

Biographical studies

exhaustive accounts of an individual's life experience

Reproducibility

experiments must be designed and recorded such that they can be exactly reproduced by other researchers

class consciousness

exploited workers' awareness of the reasons for their oppression

Correlational studies

explore relationship between two quantitative variables

external validity

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

type 2 error

false negative, worse than type 1

type 1 error

false positive, worse than type 2

Durkheim

founder of sociology, extended Spencer's analogy to explain how societies form, grow, persist, and function a society's capacity to maintain social order and stability is paramount to its functional success believed that society should always be viewed holistically, as a collective of social facts rather than the individuals

macro-level theories

functionalism and conflict theory

extended family

grandparents, aunts, uncles and others are included

society

group of people who share a culture and live/interact with each other within a definable area

dynamic equilibrium

healthy societies can successfully achieve and maintain this dynamic equilibrium, unhealthy ones cannot

collective conscience

how people of a shared culture come to think in the same manner due to their shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes, all which operate to unify society

internal validity

if experiment not done well, can leave doubts about the conclusions because of some inherent flaw in the design high if confounding variables have been considered and minimized, and causal relationship can be established

sampling bias

if it is not equally likely for all members of a population to be sampled (like only choosing undergrads for a study)

variable-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. Variable means 2, then 4, then 3 HAS SLOWEST RATE OF EXTINCTION

variable-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

fixed-ratio schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. Fixed means every x responses.

fixed-interval schedule

in operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed

rational choice theory/social exchange theory

individuals seek to maximize the benefits they gain and minimize the disadvantages they sustain in all of their social interactions share the fundamental premise that human behaviors are utilitarian can be macro and micro sociological theories criticized for assuming the inherent rationality of human actions and minimizing the role of culture and subjective meaning in individual and group behavior, advocates claim that rational choice theory provides an integrated theoretical analysis of human behavior that can unify many branches of social science

Reliability

instruments produce stable and consistent results, measure what they're supposed to, and that repeated measurements lead to similar results

Phenomenological Studies

interested in describing phenomena, using the introspective method to explore research questions researchers recording what individuals report about their own personal experience data is subjective, affecting validity, usually small sample sizes so difficult to generalize data

Case studies

involve in-depth exploration of one individual or case difficult to determine how the different variables involved in a phenomenon interact, no control of variables

Longitudinal Studies

involves intervallic measurements of a dependent variable over long time frames, long, expensive, high attrition rates

placebo effect

just believing that treatment is being administered can lead to a measurable result

P value of rejecting null hypothesis

less than 0.05

Conflict theory

macro level theory, focuses primarily on large-scale societal structures and their effect on individuals, however, conflict theory views society as a never-ending competition for limited resources and it is diametrically opposed to the functionalist perspective all past and current societies have had equally distributed resources, therefore individual members of these societies must compete for social, political, and material resources such as money, land, power, and leisure macro-level theory social structures and institutions will reflect this competition in their degree of inherent inequality. Those with the most resources, power, and influence will use their relative advantages to amass more resources, power, and influence by suppressing the advancement of others

selection bias

more general category of systemic flaws in a design that can compromise results, includes sampling bias and other selection errors

polygamy

multiple wives or husbands simultaneously

double blind

neither the person administering treatment nor the participants know if they are assigned to the treatment or control groups, helps counter the placebo effect in participant and researcher

no correlation

no LINEAR relationship between the two variables, although a nonlinear relationship is still plausible

p value

number from 0 to 1 that represents the probability that a difference observed in an experiment is due to chance

sample size

number of participants, necessary to have a large enough one to make sure the experiment picks up an effect, usually 30 or more

manifest functions

official, intended, and anticipated consequences of a structure at least arguably beneficial for ex, manifest functions of a police department include enforcing laws against violent crime and property crime

disclosure

outline given to participants before the experiment begins that clarifies incentives and expectations while reminding them of their right to terminate the experiment at any time

functionalism/ structural functionalism

paradigm that conceptualizes society as a living organism with many different interrelated and interdependent parts, each of which has a distinct and necessary purpose macro-level theory recognizes that not all effects of social structures are beneficial fell out of prevailing theory because its focus on structures of healthy society working together to maintain societal order cant account for all the problems today

debriefing

participants are told after the experiment exactly what was done and why the experiment was conducted

attrition

participants dropping out of the study before it is completed, produces a potentially confounding variable

intersectionality

posits that various human aspects subject to societal oppression do not exist isolated and separated from each other, but instead have complex, influential, and interwoven relationships seeks to highlight the ways different identities intersect within individuals and social groups to product unique social positions

survey

problem: person may not answer honestly

social dysfunction

process that has undesirable consequences and may actually reduce the stability of society (dysfunctional police department could routinely commit police brutality) however, functionalist theory predicts that in a healthy society, other social structures such as a free press and a responsive government will, over time, work together to mitigate such dysfunctions

experimental hypothesis

proposition that variations in the independent variable causes changes in the dependent variables

randomized block technique

researchers evaluate where participants fall along the variables they wish to equalize across experimental and control groups, then randomly assign individuals from these groups so that the treatment and control groups are similar along the variables of interest, allowing for random sorting into groups

typification

routinely structure our own actions in immediate response to stuff we observe quickly

Sociology

study of how individuals interact with society

Psychometrics

study of how to measure psychological variables through testing

demand characteristics

tendency of participants to consciously or subconsciously act in ways that match how they are expected to behave (interpret what the experiment is about and subconsciously respond in ways that are consistent with the hypothesis), can threaten internal validity

impression management

the attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen conscious or unconscious process whereby people attempt to manage their images by influencing the perceptions of others, construct images of themselves and want others to see them that way

construct validity

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

homogenous

the same throughout (in context to a control group)

response bias

the tendency for respondents to not have perfect insight into their state and provide inaccurate responses

Thomas theorem

the theory that interpretation of a situation affects the response to that situation

monogamy

two individuals married only to each other

Ethnographic studies

using observation and interviews, ethnographies study people in their natural environments and provide descriptive information about the cultures, behaviors, norms, and values in a given geographical location

Extraneous/Confounding Variables

variables other than the treatment that could explain an experimental result (control for them by making sure the control and experimental groups are similar in these variables)

symbolic interactionism

views society as built up from typical everyday interactions. Rather than considering individuals as entities who are acted upon by the large-scale structures of their society, symbolic interactionism emphasizes the ways by which individuals actively shape their world through their understanding and subsequent behavioral responses to the meanings they attribute to the societal symbols through which individuals define their reality examines the relationships between individuals and society by focusing on the exchange on info through language and symbols in one-on-one and small-group communication. Individuals make sense of the world around them by ascribing meaning to the symbols and language of their shared culture, and these meanings depend on both individual interpretations and social context analyzes society by addressing the subjective meanings that people impose upon objects, events, and behaviors. Subjective is important because people behave based on what they believe to be true, not whether their beliefs are actually true. Society is constructed through human interpretation, people must continually interpret their own behaviors as well as those of others around them, and these interpretations form a social bond. Holds principal of meaning to be the central aspect of human behavior: 1. humans ascribe meaning to things and act toward those things based on their ascribed meaning; 2. language allows humans to generate meaning through social interaction with each other and society; 3. humans modify meanings through an interpretive thought process that observes and considers the reactions of others as well as the social context of these interactions. critics contend that the theory neglects the macro-level of social interpretation and may miss the larger issues of society by focusing too closely on individual interactions