Research in Psychology
Terms
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- anecdotal evidence
- evidence from a single case that illustrates a phenomenon; when relied on exclusively, as in pseudoscience, faulty conclusions easily can be drawn
- authority
- a way of knowing proposed by Peirce in which a person develops a belief by agreeing with someone perceived to be an expert
- availability heuristic
- social congnition bias in which vivid or memorable events lead people to overestimate the frequency of occurrence of these events
- belief perseverence
- unwillingness to consider any evidence that contradicts a stongly held view; similar to Peirce's principle of tenacity
- confirmation bias
- social cognition bias in which events that confirm a strongly held belief are more readily perceived and remembered; disconfirming events are ignored
- control
- a goal of science in which basic prinicipals discovered through scientific methods are applied in order to solve problems
- data-driven
- belief of research psychologists that conclusions about behavior should be supported by data collected scientifically
- descriptions
- a goal of psychological science in which behaviors are accurately classified or sequences of environmental stimuli and behavioral events are accurately listed
- determinism
- an assumption made by scientists that all events have causes
- discoverability
- an assumption made by scientists that the causes of events can be discovered by applying scientific methods
- effort justification
- after expending a large amount of time or effort to obtain some goal, people giving the effort feel pressured to convince themselves that the effors was worthwhile, even if the resulting outcome is less positive than originaly thought
- empirical questions
- a question that can be answered by making objective observations
- empiricism
- a way of knowing that relies on direct observation or experience
- explanation
- a goal of science in which the causes of events are sought
- introspection
- method used in the early years of psychological science in which a subject would complete some task and then describe the events occurring in consciouness while performing the task
- laws
- regular, predictable relationships between events
- objectivity
- said to exist when observations can be verified by more than one observer
- predictions
- a goal of psychological science in which statements about the future occurrence of some behavioral event are made, usually with some probability
- pseudoscience
- a field of inquiry that attempts to associate with true science, relies exclusively on selective anecdotal evidence, and is deliberately too vague to be adequately tested
- statistical determinism
- an assumption made by research psychologists that behavioral events can be predicted with a probability greater than chance
- tenacity
- a way of knowing proposed by Peirce in which a person maintains a biased view and refuses to alter it in the face of contradictory data
- subject
- name traditionally used to refer to a human or animal research participant; humans volunteering for research are now referred to as research participants, while nonhuman animals are still typically referred to as subjects
- pilot study
- during the initial stages of research it is common for some data to be collected; problems spotted in this trial stage enable the researcher to refine the procedures and prevent the full-scale study from being flawed methodically
- reliable
- the extent to which measures of the same phenomenon are consistent and repeatable; measures high in reliability will contain a minimum of measurement error
- replication
- to repeat an experiment; exact replications are rare, occurring primarily when the results of some prior study are suspected to be erroneous
- representative sample
- a sample with characteristics that match those same attributes as they exist in the population
- research participants
- any person who takes part in and contributes data to a research study in psychology
- research teams
- a group of researchers (professors and students) working together on the same research problem
- sample
- some portion or subset of a population
- population
- all the members of an identifiable group
- serendipity
- the process of making an accidental discovery; finding X when searching for Y
- self-selection problem
- in surveys, when the sample is composed of only those who voluntarily choose to respond, the result can be a biased sample
- standard deviation
- a measure of the average deviation of a set of scores from the mean score; the square root of the variance
- stratified sampling
- a probability sample that is random, with the restriction that important groups are proportionately represented in the sample
- systematic variance
- variability that can be attributed to some identifiable source, either the systematic variation of the independent variable or the uncontrolled variation of a confound
- theory
- a set of statements that summarizes and organizes existing information about some phenomenon, provides an explanation for the phenomenon, and serves as a basis for making predictions to be tested empirically
- Type I error
- rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true; finding a statistically significant effect no true effect exists
- Type II error
- failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is false; failing to find a statistically significant effect when the effect truly exists
- valid
- in general, the extent to which a measure of X truly measures X and not Y (e.g., a valid measure of intelligence measures intelligence and not something else)
- variance
- a measure of the average squared deviation of a set of scores from the mean score; the standard deviation squared
- debriefing
- a postexperimental session in which the experimenter explains the study's purpose, reduces any discomfort felt by participants, and answers any questions posed by participants
- deception
- a research strategy in which participants are not told of all the details of an experiment at its outset; used for the purpose of avoiding demand characteristics
- deduction
- reasoning from the general to the specific; in science, used when deriving research hypotheses from theories
- dehoaxing
- that portion of debriefing in which the true purpose of the study is explained to participants
- descriptive statistics
- provide a summary of the main feature of a set of data collected from a sample of participation
- desensitizing
- that portion of debriefing in which the experimenter tries to reduce any distress felt by participants as a result of their research experience
- effect size
- the amount of variability in the dependent variable that can be accounted for or attributed to the independent variable
- error variance
- nonsystematic variability in a set of scores due to random factors or individual differences
- ethics
- a set of principles prescribing behaviors that are morally correct
- experimental realism
- refers to how deeply involved the participants become in the experiment; considered to be more important than mundane realism
- extension
- replicating part of a prior study but adding some additional features (e.g., additional levels of the independent variables)
- face validity
- occurs when a measure appears to be a reasonable measure of some trait (e.g., as a measure of intelligence, problem solving has more face validity than hat size)
- falsification
- research strategy advocated by Popper that emphasizes putting theories to the test by trying to disprove or falsify them
- falsifying data
- manufacturing or altering data in order to bring about a desired result
- field research
- research that occurs in any location other than a scientific laboratory
- frequency distribution
- a table that records the number of times that each score in a set of scores occurs
- histogram
- graph of a frequency distribution in bar form
- hypothesis
- an educated guess about a relationship between variables that is then tested empirically
- induction
- reasoning from the specific to the general; in science, used when the results of specific research studies are used to support or refute a theory
- inferential statistics
- used to draw conclusions about the broader population on the basis of a study using just a sample of that population
- informed consent
- the idea that persons should be given sufficient information about a study in order to make their decision to participate as a research subject an informed and voluntary one
- Institutional Review Board
- University committee responsible for evaluating whether research proposals provide adequate protection of the rights of participants; must exist for any college or university receiving federal funds for research
- measurement error
- produced by any factor that introduces inaccuracies into the measurement of some variable
- measurement scales
- ways of assigning numbers to events; nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
- median
- the middle score of a data set; an equal number of scores are both above and below the median
- median location
- the place in the sequence of scores where the median lies
- mode
- the most frequently appearing score in a data set
- mundane realism
- refers to how closely the experiment mirrors real-life experiences; considered to be less important than experimental realism
- nominal scale
- measurement scale in which the numbers have no quantitative value, but rather serve to identify categories into which events can be placed
- normal curve
- a theoretical frequency distribution for a population; a bell-shaped curve
- null hypothesis
- the assumption that no real difference exists between treatment conditions in an experiment or that no significant relationship exists in a correlational study (H0)
- operational definitions
- a definition of a concept or variable in terms of precisely described operations, measures, or procedures
- operationism
- philosophy of science approach proposed by Bridgman that held that all scientific concepts should be defined in terms of a set of operations to be performed
- ordinal scales
- measurement scale in which assigned numbers stand for relative standing or ranking
- parsimonious
- a theory that includes the minimum number of constructs and assumptions in order to explain and predict some phenomenon adequately
- partial replication
- repeats a portion of some prior research; usually completed as part of a study that extends the results of the initial research
- plagiarism
- deliberately taking the ideas of someone and claiming them as one's own
- power
- The probability of rejecting H0 when it is false; affected by alpha, effect size and sample size
- productivity
- with reference to theory, this refers to the amount of research that is generated to test a theory. Theories that lead to a great deal of research are considered productive
- programs of research
- series of interrelated studies in which the outcome of one study leads naturally to another
- qualitative research
- a category of research activity characterized by a narrative analysis of information collected in the study; can include case studies, observational research, and interview
- quantitative research
- a category of research in which results are presented as numbers, typically in the form of descriptive and inferential statistics
- range
- in a set of scores, the difference between the score with the largest value and the one with the smallest value
- ratio scale
- measurement scale in which numbers refers to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero denotes the absence of the phenomenon being measured
- alpha level
- the probability of making a Type I error; the significance level
- alternative hypothesis
- the researcher's hypothesis about the outcome of a study (H-1)
- applied research
- research with the goal of trying to solve some immediate real-life problem
- assent
- to give assent it to say "yes." In the SRCD code of ethics for research with children, assent refers to the willingness on the part of the child to participate in the study
- basic research
- research with the goal of describing, predicting, and explaining fundamental principles of behavior
- biased sample
- a sample that is not representative of the population
- cluster sampling
- a probability sample that randomly selects clusters of people having some feature in common (e.g. students taking history courses) and tests all people within the selected cluster (e.g. all students in three of the nine history courses available)
- construct
- a hypothetical factor (e.g. hunger) that cannot be observed directly but is inferred from certain behaviors (e.g., eating) and assumed to follow from certain circumstances (e.g., 24 hours without food
- construct validity
- in measurement, it occurs when the measure being used accurately assesses some hypothetical construct; also refers to whether the construct itself is valid; in research, refers to whether the operational definitions used for independent and dependent variables are valid
- convenience sample
- a nonprobability sample in which the researcher requests volunteers form a group of people who meet the general requirements of the study (e.g., teenagers); used in most psychological research, except when specific estimates of population values need to be made
- converging operations
- occurs when the results of several studies, each defining its terms with slightly different operational definitions, nonetheless converge on the same general conclusion
- creative thinking
- a process of making an innovative connection between seemingly unrelated ideas or events
- criterion validity
- in a regression analysis, this is the variable that is being predicted from the predictor variable (e.g., college grades are predicted from SAT scores)
- critical incidents
- method used by ethics committees that surveys psychologists and asks for examples of unethical behavior by professional psychologists
- interval scales
- measurement scales in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero is just one of many points on the scale and does not denote the absence of the phenonmenon being measured