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Three things that make people especially difficult to study:
Complexity, variability, and reactivity.
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Measurement consists of two tasks:
Defining (process by which properties are linked to operational definitions) and detecting (process by which operational definitions are linked to measures)
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Prerequisites for accurate measurement:
Validity, power and reliability.
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A frequency distribution can have any shape, but it commonly takes teh shape known as:
Normal Distribution (aka bell curve)
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There are two kinds of descriptive statistics:
1. Descriptions of central tendency - the three most common are mean, median, and mode.
2. Descriptions of variability - using range
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There are two reasons why naturalistic observation cannot by itself solve the problem of demand characteristics:
- 1. Some of the things psychologists want to observe don't occure naturally.
- 2. Some of the things psychologists want to observe can only be gathered from direct interaction with a person.
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Expectations can influence ______ and ______.
Observations and reality.
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Although scientific research always begins with the careful measurement of properties, its ultimate goal is:
To typically the discovery of causal relationships between properties
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Doing an experiment involves three critical steps:
- 1. Manipulate the independent variable.
- 2. Having created a pattern of variation in one variable, now measure the pattern of variation in another variable - the dependent variable.3. Check if both patterns are synchronized.
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An experiment is internally valid when,
- 1. An independent variable has been effectively manipulated.
- 2. Participants have been randomly assigned to the groups that this manipulation created.
- 3. A dependent variable has been measured in an unbiased way with a valid, powerful, and reliable measure.
- 4. A correlation has been observed between the pattern of variation created in the independent variable and the pattern of variation measured in the dependent variable.
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Although we can't automatically generalize from nonrandom samples, there are three reasons why this is not a lethal problem for the science of psychology:
- 1. Sometimes generality does not matter. An experimental result can be illuminating even when its generality is severely limited.
- 2. Sometimes generality can be determined.
- 3. Sometimes generality can be assumed. If we had a reason to suspect they would, then the experimental method would provide a way for us to investigate that possibility.
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Code of ethics:
- 1. Informed Consent
- 2. Freedom from Coercion
- 3. Protection from Harm
- 4. Risk-Benefit Analysis
- 5. Debriefing
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