Understanding Research Methods: Definitions of Key Terms in Systematic Empiricism, Quizzes of Psychology

Download Understanding Research Methods: Definitions of Key Terms in Systematic Empiricism and more Quizzes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! TERM 1 What are the criteria for scientific investigations? DEFINITION 1 Systematic empiricismPublic verificationSolvable problems TERM 2 Systematic empiricism DEFINITION 2 Rely on systematically-obtained observations to draw conclusions about the world TERM 3 Public verification DEFINITION 3 Findings must be observed, replicated, and verified by other researchers TERM 4 Solvable problems DEFINITION 4 Must study questions that are potentially answerable through systematic empiricism TERM 5 Operational definition DEFINITION 5 Specifies precisely how a concept is measured or manipulated in a particular study TERM 6 Conceptual definition DEFINITION 6 Much like a definition that one would find in a dictionary, but is sometimes too vague or fuzzy for precise scientific communication TERM 7 Post-hoc DEFINITION 7 Making your hypothesis after you know the results TERM 8 A priori DEFINITION 8 The hypothesis should be made before any research is done TERM 9 Can a hypothesis be proven? DEFINITION 9 Hypotheses can be SUPPORTED but not PROVEN TERM 10 Logical Impossibility of Proof DEFINITION 10 Confirming a hypothesis with research findings does not logically indicate that the theory from which the hypothesis is derived is correct TERM 21 Exploratory Research DEFINITION 21 Research conducted for a problem that has not been clearly defined; to look at the relationships between variables and find information for future research TERM 22 Qualities of good scientific writing DEFINITION 22 Organization, clarity (sentence construction and word choice), and conciseness TERM 23 Dependent Variable DEFINITION 23 Variable being observed TERM 24 Independent Variable DEFINITION 24 Variable being manipulated TERM 25 Phrasing according to APA guidelines DEFINITION 25 Organization of paper, phrasing, citations, etc. TERM 26 Example of APA citation style for articles DEFINITION 26 Kellington, M., Tope, S. (2010). This is the title of the article. This is the Title of the Journal, Volume Number, Page Numbers. TERM 27 Example of APA citation style for book chapters DEFINITION 27 Kellington, M. (2010). Title of the book. Location where it was published: Publishers Name. TERM 28 Example of APA in-text citation DEFINITION 28 APA style uses the author-date system, e.g., Kellington (2010); Kellington and Tope (2010); (Kellington and Tope, 2010) TERM 29 What language to avoid in manuscript writing DEFINITION 29 Avoid biased language, labeling people (e.g. "people who are depressed" is preferred over "depressed people"), and being insensitive to racial and ethnic identity TERM 30 Why can masculine language be problematic? DEFINITION 30 Masculine language can be problematic because it implies that all the subjects studied were men. It does not accurately represent the sample. TERM 31 Introduction of a paper should entail... DEFINITION 31 Describe the problem under investigation; discuss relevant aspects of the existing research literature (write in past tense); discuss the purpose and rationale of your research; state explicit hypotheses; but avoid HARKing (hypothesizing after results are known) TERM 32 What sub-sections are part of the Methods section? DEFINITION 32 Participants, apparatus or materials, procedure TERM 33 What is a normal distribution? DEFINITION 33 When graphed, looks like a bell-curve TERM 34 Non-normal distribution DEFINITION 34 Does not have a bell-curve, statistics do not follow characteristics of a normal distribution TERM 35 Is it possible for a distribution to be normal or non-normal depending on the scales used? DEFINITION 35 Yes - the scale can affect if the distribution is shown to be normal or not TERM 46 When the relationship between the two variables is "perfect"... DEFINITION 46 The total variance = the systematic variance TERM 47 Meta-analysis DEFINITION 47 Meta-analysis is a procedure used to examine every study that has been conducted on a particular topic to assess the relationship between whatever variables are the focus of the analysis TERM 48 Effect size DEFINITION 48 A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables; effect size shows the proportion of total variance that is systematic variance TERM 49 Observational Measure DEFINITION 49 Involve the direct observation of behaviorCan be used to measure anything an organism does that can be observedResearchers can either directly observe or use audio and video recordings TERM 50 Observed Score Equation DEFINITION 50 True score + measurement error TERM 51 What factors may contribute to measurement error? DEFINITION 51 Transient states - a temporary, unstable state of the participants (e.g. mood, health, fatigue)Stable attributes - enduring traits of the participant (e.g. illiteracy, paranoia, hostility)Situational factors - characteristics of the researcher or the research settingCharacteristics of the measure - long, difficult, or painful measures (e.g. making a participant answer 100 questions)Mistakes in recording a participant's score - e.g. participant accidentally writes down a '5' instead of a '3' TERM 52 Nominal Scale DEFINITION 52 Numbers assigned are simply labels for characteristics or behavior (e.g. Male = 1, Female = 2) TERM 53 Ordinal Scale DEFINITION 53 The rank ordering of people's behaviors or characteristics (e.g. the order in which runners complete a race, students' ranking from lowest to highest in the class) TERM 54 Interval Scale DEFINITION 54 Equal differences between the numbers reflect equal differences between participants, but there is no true zero point (e.g. IQ scores, Likert scale) TERM 55 Ratio Scale DEFINITION 55 Contains a true zero point (e.g. weight, time it takes to complete a task) TERM 56 Convergent Variability DEFINITION 56 A measure correlates with other measures that it should correlate with, e.g. embarrassibility should be positively correlated with shyness but negatively correlated with self- confidence TERM 57 Discriminant Variability DEFINITION 57 A measure does not correlate with other measures it should not correlate with, e.g. embarrassibility should not correlate with IQ TERM 58 Test-Retest Reliability DEFINITION 58 Consistency of participants' responses on a measure over time, i.e. administer measure on two separate occasions and examine the correlation between the scores obtained on the two occasions, correlation >0.70 indicates acceptable reliability TERM 59 Cronbach's Alpha DEFINITION 59 Equivalent to the average of all possible split half reliabilities Adequate inter-item reliability if alpha exceeds 0.70 TERM 60 Face Validity DEFINITION 60 The extent to which a measure appears to measure what it's supposed to measureJust because something has face validity doesn't mean it's valid