Flashcards in Test 1: Research Methods Deck (28):
Three things that make people especially difficult to study:
Complexity, variability, reactivity
-Detailed description of an individual
-Observations, formal psychological testing, drawings, clinical interviews, questionnaires, family interviews
Researcher observes, measures, records behavior while trying to avoid intruding on the people being observed
observe people in natural setting (home, school)
researchers have more control over situation
Problems with Observational Studies?
-Mere presence of researchers and equipment will change how people behave
-only correlational and not causal
Psychological Tests (Assessments)
Measure personality traits, emotional states, IQ, abilities
Give people the same test twice
Give people two versions of the same test
produce same result across time, place, and scorer
it must measure what it sets out to measure
items broadly represent the trait in question
ability to predict other measures of the trait in question, related traits
the ability of a measure to detect differences
questionnaires and interviews that gather info by asking people directly about their experiences, attitudes, opinions.
a group of participants that accurately represents the larger population the researcher wishes to describe.
Problems with Surveys?
a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena
a measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another.
Pero, correlation does not establish causation
a controlled test of a hypothesis in which a researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.
Need a control group to be sure that the behavior you are interested in would not have occurred anyway
-Experimenters can influence the results of a study (facial expressions (smile), tone of voice)
-“maze bright” and “maze dull” rat
participants don’t know which group they are in (still have EEs)
Double blind study
both tester and subject are blinded
statistical procedures that organize and summarize data
allow researchers to draw inferences about how statistically meaningful a study’s results are.
A study in which subjects of different ages (or any groups) are compared at a given time.