PSY 290A Study Guide - Final Guide: Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Falsifiability, Empiricism
4 May 2018
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Psych Research Methods Final Study Guide
Ch. 1: Psychology is a Way of Thinking
•Evidence-based treatments: therapies that are supported by
research
•Empiricism: involves using evidence from the senses(sight,
hearing, touch) or from instruments that assist the senses(such
as thermometers, timers, photographs, weight scales, and
questionnaires) as the basis for conclusions; Empiricists aim
to be systematic, rigorous, and to make their work
independently verifiable by other observers or scientists
•Theory: set of statements that describes general principles
about how variables relate to one another
•Hypothesis: a way of stating the specific outcome the
researcher expects to observe if the theory is accurate
•Data: are a set of observations
•Good theories are supported by data
•Good theories are falsifiable: a theory must lead to hypotheses
that, when tested, could actually fail to support the theory
•Good theories have parsimony: all other things being equal, the
simplest solution is the best
•Theories don’t prove anything, scientists evaluate their
theories based on the weight of the evidence: for and against
•Applied research: done with a practical problem in mind;
researchers hope their findings will be directly applied to the
solution of that problem in a particular real-world context
•Basic research: is not intended to address a specific,
practical problem; the goal is to enhance the general body of
knowledge
•Translational research: the use of lessons from basic research
to develop and test applications to health care, psychotherapy,
or other forms of treatment and intervention
•Scientific journals are peer reviewed—feedback kept anonymous
•Journalism: includes the kinds of news and commentary that most
of us read or hear on television, in magazines and newspapers,
and on Internet sites
Ch. 2: Sources of Information
•Experience has no comparison group: enables us to compare what
would happen both with and without the thing we are interested
in—both with and without tanning beds, online games, or neuro
drinks
•In real-world situations, there are too many confounds:
alternative explanations
•Research is better than experience
•Confederate: an actor playing a specific role for the
experimenter
•Behavioral research is probabilistic: its findings are not
expected to explain all cases all of the time
•Intuition is biased by faulty thinking
•Availability heuristic: states that things that pop up easily
in our mind tend to guide our thinking
•Present/present bias: related to the need for comparison groups
•Confirmatory hypothesis testing: selecting questions that would
lead to a particular, expected answer
•Bias blind spot: the belief that we are unlikely to fall prey
to the cognitive biases previously described
•Empirical journal articles: report the results of a research
study; contain details about the study’s method, statistical
tests used, and the numerical results of the study
•Review journal articles: provide a summary of all the publishes
studies that have been done in one research area
•Meta-analysis: combines the results of many studies and gives a
number that summarizes the magnitude, or the effect size, of a
relationship
Ch. 3: Three Claims, Four Validities
•Variable: something that varies, so it must have at least two
levels, or values
•Constant: something that could potentially vary but has only
one level in the study in question
•Measured variable: one whose levels are simply observed and
recorded; ex: height, IQ, blood pressure
•Manipulated variable: a variable a research controls, usually
by assigning participants to the different levels of that
variable; ex: assigning participants different dosages of a
medication
•Conceptual variable: abstract concepts such as “shyness” or
“intelligence”; sometimes called a construct; must be carefully
defined at the theoretical level: conceptual definitions
•When testing their hypotheses with empirical research, they
create operational definitions of variables, also known as
operational variables
•To operationalize means to turn a concept of interest into a
measured or manipulated variable
•Claim: argument someone is trying to make
1. Frequency Claims: describe a particular rate or degree of a
single variable
“1 in 25 U.S. Teens Attempts Suicide”
44% of Americans Struggle to Stay Happy
2. Association Claims: argues that one level of a variable is
likely to be associated with a particular level of another
variable
“Shy People Are Better at Reading Facial Expressions”
“People Who Multitask the Most Are the Worst at It”
3. Causal Claims: argues that one of the variables is
responsible for changing the other
“Music Lessons Enhance IQ”
“Family Meals Curb Teen Eating Disorders”
•Validity: the appropriateness of a conclusion or decision, and
in general, a valid claim is reasonable, accurate, and
justifiable
•Construct validity: how well a conceptual variable
operationalized
•Generalizability: how did the researchers choose the study’s
participants, and how well do those participants represent the
intended population?
•External validity: how well the results of a study generalize
to, or represent, people or contexts besides those in the study
itself
•Statistical validity: the extent to which a study’s statistical
conclusions are accurate and reasonable. How well do the
numbers support the claim?
•Margin of error estimate: a statistical figure, based on sample
size for a poll, that indicates where the true value in the
population probably lies
•Correlational study: a study that measures two or more
variables
•Type I error: “false positive”
•Type II error: “miss”; miss associations that are really true
Three Criteria for Causation
•Covariance: the first criterion a study must satisfy in order
to establish a causal claim
•Temporal precedence: it comes first in time, before the other
variable
•Internal validity: that a study should be able to eliminate
alternative explanations for the association
•Experiment: one variable is manipulated and the other is
measured
•Independent variable: manipulated
•Dependent variable: measured
Ch. 4: Ethical Guidelines for Psychology Research
•Debriefed: participants were carefully informed about the
study’s hypotheses, and they were introduced to the (unharmed)
learner
Belmont Report
Document Summary
44% of americans struggle to stay happy: association claims: argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable. Shy people are better at reading facial expressions . People who multitask the most are the worst at it : causal claims: argues that one of the variables is responsible for changing the other. 4: ethical guidelines for psychology research: debriefed: participants were carefully informed about the study"s hypotheses, and they were introduced to the (unharmed) learner. 5: identifying good measurement: self-report measure: operationalizes a variable by recording people"s answers to questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview; ex: five-item scale and ladder of. 6: surveys and observations: open-ended questions: can answer in any way they like, forced-choice format: people give their opinion by picking the best of two or more options, semantic differential format: rate using a numeric scale (often.
