Research Quiz 2

Formality, Scope, Theoretical approach

Describe three dimensions along which theories in psychology vary

Researcher constructs a theory Researcher creates hypothesis Researcher conducts empirical study to test hypothesis Researcher reevaluates the theory in light of the new results and revises it if necessary

Describe what occurs during each step comprising the hypothetico-deductive method

Human behavior is extremely complex Even from the same perspective, there are different ways to "go beyond" the phenomena of interest

Explain why there are usually many plausible theories for any set of phenomena.

Formality

Extent to which the components of the theory and the relationships among them are specified clearly and in detail

Having any of these three conditions happen can minimize a studies reliability and validity. Participants will answer in ways that are not accurate to how they feel and will skew the data.

How can reactivity, social desirability, and demand characteristics adversely impact the validity of a research study?

use existing measure or create your own?

It is a good idea to use an existing measure that has been used successfully in previous research. The benefits include saving time and trouble, already having evidence of the measures validity, and results can be more easily compared and combined. You should create your own if there is no existing measure of the construct you are interested in or existing ones are too difficult or time consuming to use. It should also be used if you want to use a measure specifically to see whether it works in the same way as existing measures.

Self-reported measure

Participants report on their own thoughts, feelings, and actions

Organize phenomena Predict new situations Generate new questions

Purpose of scientific theories

Scope

The number and diversity of the phenomena they explain or interpret

Operational Definition

a variable or construct in terms of precisely how much it will be measured. 3 categories, self-reported measure, behavioral measure, and psychological

Psychological construct

a variable that cannot be observed directly because it represents a tendency to behave in certain ways or a complex pattern of behavior and internal processes. Ex: personality traits, political party, attitudes and abilities

Theory

coherent explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena

Conceptual definition

description of a variable or construct in terms of the behaviors or internal processes that are involved, along with how that construct related to other variables. Ex: Neuroticism

Theoretical approach

explains psychological phenomena in terms of their function or purpose

Validity

extent to which the scores from a measure represent the variable they intended to. assessed through face validity, content validity, discriminant validity, and criterion validity

Reliability

extent to which the scores on a measure are consistent across time, across multiple items on the same measure, and across researchers when a measure has an element of subjective judgement assessd through test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and inter-rater reliability

Demand characteristics

features of a study that cue participants as to how the researcher expects them to behave

Phenomenon

general result that has been observed reliably in systematic empirical research. Usually established to answer a research question

Ratio

involves assigning scores in such a way that there is a true 0 point that represents the complete absence of the quantity

Ordinal

involves assigning scores so that they represent the rank order of the individuals

Interval level

measurement involves assigning scores so that they represent the precise magnitude of the difference between individuals, but 0 does not represent an absence

Behavioral measure

participants behavior is observed and recorded

Reactivity

participants reactions to the fact that they are being measured

Social desireability

participants responding in ways they believe to be socially appropriate rather than in ways that reflect their actual thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

criterion validity

people's scores on a measure correlated with other variables

Psychological Measure

recording any of a wide variety of physiological processes

Discriminant Validity

tests whether concepts or measurements that are not supposed to be related are, in fact, unrelated

internal consistency

the consistency of people's response across items

Content validity

the extent to which a measure covers the construct of interest

face validity

the extent to which a measurement method appears on its face to measure the construct

inter-rater reliability

the extent to which different observers are consistent in their judgement

Nominal

used for categorical variables and involves assigning scores that are category labels

Four levels of measurement

used to assign scores to individuals that provide increasing amounts of quantitative information about the characteristic being measured Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio

test-retest reliability

when a measure should remain consistent across time