Psychology 2036A/B Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Raquel Turner, Psych, Moses
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Psychology 2036A/B
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Psych of Health 2036 Raquel Moses
Conducting Research
Conducting research in Health Psychology:
Correlational Designs:
- Only conclude that measures are associated with a condition because subjects aren’t randomly
allocated to condition
Experimental designs:
- Investigator allocates subjects randomly to condition
- Possible to make causal statements because all variables not controlled by the investigator are
presumably evenly distributed across conditions preventing a bias in any measured differences that
night be observed
Health Psychology:
- Applied discipline
- Less focus on developing theories
- More focus on using theories to explain real life
Applied research has many challenges:
- Must be relevant (practical outcomes)
- Occurs in real-life settings (hospital, clinic) –intrusive to practitioners and patients
- Involves incontrollable variables
Observational Methods –Learning by Looking:
- Looking: fundamental way to learn about phenomena in health psychology
o Collect data about phenomena by looking without manipulating (associational)
- Challenges with observational research:
o Obtrusive –need patient and physician consent
o Videotape/technology: less obtrusive, but difficult to know what to observe
Case Studies (associational) –One Person at a Time:
- Case studies are narrative in nature
o Provide details about one person’s life
o Can also be used at a sociological level
- Case studies present individual things –i.e. history, symptoms, treatment
o Provide rich sources of data
o Personalized, not dehumanized
o Not generalizable to others
▪ Due to the fact that any given subject can be an outlier in the population
Survey Method (associational):
- Survey methods:
o Take snapshots of large samples with open or close-ended questions, or rating scales
- 2 fundamental questions:
1. what do you want to know?
2. Who do you want to ask?
- Must strike balance between relevance of survey questions and acceptable time limit
Correlational Methods: (another word for association)
- Correlational research is very common:
o Statistical analysis data to determine whether variables co-vary (data for one variable
increases or decreases as data from another variable does so)
o Can be positive, negative or no correlation
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Psych of Health 2036 Raquel Moses
Conducting Research
- Does not lead to causal conclusions
o Possibility of 2 causal directions and 3rd variable explanations
o The association between 2 variable may be due to a third unmeasured variable driving the
2 variables of interest
- Factor Analysis: uses correlations to group variables into “factors” that tap into one thing/concept
Experimental Method (causal):
- Components of experimental research:
o Independent variable (manipulate) –there’s usually a random allocation of subjects
o Dependent variable –measure that depends on the manipulation
o Experimental group –gets treatment
o Control group –no treatment
o Random assignment –critical to groups
- Main effects: variable causes change in DV
- Interactions: Independent variables combine to produce an effect (this is common)
Quasiexperimental Designs:
- Studies conducted in real-life settings
o Increase ability to generalize results to applied settings
o Involved categorical variables in which subjects belong to but are not randomly allocated
such as in being diabetic or not
o Can’t control all variables –“noise” or also known as confounding variables
Random Clinical Trial Studies:
- Participants are randomly assigned to treatment conditions
o Inclusion criteria to participate in study
- Different types of research, each with pros and cons
o Longitudinal: 1 group over time
o Cross-sectional: more than 1 group, different times
o Retrospective: trace back history
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
