Psy 203 Exam #1

definition: someone influential says so
limitations: if the authority figure declines questions, thought is put to a halt

definition: what everyone knows (or should know)
limitations: often contradictory and confirmation bias

definition: feeling of knowing
limitations: conformation bias, overconfidence, & hindsight bias

definition: knowledge from reasoning/logic (by deduction)
ex: 1) 2.0 needed to graduate 2) person graduates thus person had at least a 2.0
limitations: logically valid argument does not equal accurate knowledge

definition: knowledge acquired through experience/observation
limitations: personal experiences are ignored in science because its selective and subject to: confirmation bias, availability heuristic, placebo effects

tendency to focus on (remember) things that fit (support) your current beliefs

tendency to over estimate the frequency of unusual or memorable events

they are selective & subject to confirmation bias, availability heuristic, placebo effects

-solvable problems
-systematic empiricism: structured data collection
-publicly available information: replication + peer review
-claims and predictions falsifiable

-data collected to remit evaluation of a claim or hypothesis
-structured data collection

provide sufficient information so others can reproduce your methods (and potentially your results)

tendency to report that it works because you expect it

research strategy that emphasizes putting theories to the test by trying to disprove or falsify them

-adopts scientific language
-if challenged, divert by shifting burden of proof
-argues by exclusion = something currently unexplained
-complains of shunning because not mainstream
-misuses rules of evidence

replication and peer review

review proposals for conducting human research

-exempt: no (or minimal) risk
-expedited: minimal or low risk/stress
-full: high risk; use of vulnerable populations

review proposals for conducting non-human vertebrate animals

reduction: use small number of animals as possible
refinement: use methods that minimize pain
replacement: use invertebrates, computers, etc. instead

1) right to safety: freedom from physical harm
2) right to respectful treatment

not coerced; free to withdraw

know what participation will entail prior to decision (consent) to participate

confidentiality and anonymity

information about study provided after participation or after study's completion

revealing any deception

discuss participants behavior with him/her and any negative reactions

confidentiality: data of personal, identifiable nature not made public without consent
anonymity: identity unknown or data and identity kept separate

fraud: making up or doctoring data
plagiarism: representing someone elses work as if it is your own

uniformity in nature: events are orderly and "lawful"
determinism: what we observe reflects cause-effect relations
discoverability: can identify causes of phenomena of interest

1) generate idea (hypothesis) about why something occurs
2) test hypothesis by collecting (new) data
3) evaluate hypothesis by seeing if your data "fit"

induction: specific observation -> general statement
deduction: general statement -> specific observation

specific predictions derived from a theory
if x, then y

if x, then y / observe y

if x, then y / observe ~ y

-confirming evidence NEVER proves the hypothesis
-disconfirming evidence can rule out an explanation or hypothesis

1) if x, then y
2) observe y
3) x (is true)
"all cats have 4 legs, i have four legs, therefore I am a cat" says dog

data that simultaneously confirm one hypothesis and disconfirm another
if x, then y
if z, then ~ y

accidental or unexpected finding

remember incomplete or interrupted actions/tasks

applied: has immediate application or relevance to real-life problems and their solutions
basic: test hypotheses, identify important variables, establish general principles

testable
precise
parsimonious: fewer the # of assumptions/concepts, the better

applies findings from basic research and aims to "translate" findings into applied research

is give assent is to say "yes"

a tendency for people who have participated in a research study to inform future participants about the true purpose of the study

-the degree to which an experiment mirrors real-life experiences
-considered less important than experimental realism

-the depth to which participants become involved in the experiment
-considered more important than mundane realism

quant: results are presented as numbers and typically in the form of descriptive and inferential stats
qual: characterized by a narrative analysis of information

set of general principles or formal model describing a set of mechanisms that explains existing data, brings together diverse phenomena, and generates testable predictions

describing a theory that includes the minimum number of constructs and assumptions in order to explain and predict some phenomenon adequately

theoretical concept that ties together different observations

-defining something in terms of how you measure it, or how you produce it
-needs to be specific and not vague

results from different operational definitions that point to the same conclusion

reliability: consistent and repeatable
validity: actually measures what is supposed to measure

statistical: relatively free of measurement error (uncontrolled factors)
experimental: replicable

direct: exact duplication of a prior study
systematic: similar study but with some minor or irrelevant feature(s) changed
conceptual: study using different manipulation or response measure (i.e., different operational definition)

content: do measures make intuitive sense?
criterion: measure correlates well with other measures of the same construct (how well would this measure "predict" this similar measure)
construct: does it actually measure what we are interested in?

implies that certain other measures are unrelated to the construct

structured
well-defined
precise
free of bias

floor: scores are so low overall, cannot be any lower
ceiling: scores are so high overall, cannot be any higher