Research Foundations
This way of knowing systematically tests explanations against empirical evidence.
What is the scientific method?
In an experiment, this is the variable manipulated by the researcher.
What is the independent variable?
This type of validity asks, “Did the independent variable actually cause the change in the dependent variable?”
What is internal validity?
Rejecting the null hypothesis when the null hypothesis is actually true produces this error.
What is a Type I error?
This process places participants into different study conditions by chance and primarily strengthens internal validity.
What is random assignment?
This research paradigm assumes reality exists, but recognizes that researchers can never know it with complete certainty.
What is postpositivism?
A researcher predicts that as stress increases, sleep quality decreases. This is this type of relationship.
What is an inverse relationship?
This type of validity asks whether the variables actually represent the psychological constructs the researchers intended to study.
What is construct validity?
Failing to detect a relationship that actually exists produces this error.
What is a Type II error?
This process selects participants from a population by chance and primarily strengthens external validity.
What is random sampling?
These are the three major dimensions used to distinguish research paradigms.
What are ontology, epistemology, and methodology?
A simple research hypothesis should identify these three basic components.
What are the population or who/what is being studied, the variables, and the expected relationship?
A six-month intervention appears effective, but participants may have improved simply because of normal developmental changes over time. Name the internal validity threat.
What is maturation?
Statistical power is represented by this formula.
What is 1 - β? (β (beta) = Type II error → fail to reject a false null / false negative)
When little is known about how a phenomenon is experienced within an understudied population, this type of research may provide an appropriate starting point before developing complex hypotheses.
What is qualitative or descriptive research?
Constructivism emphasizes that meaning is constructed through experience and interaction. This paradigm adds a particular emphasis on power, oppression, inequity, and social change.
What is critical theory?
A researcher writes, “Mindfulness training will be significantly more effective than CBT.” Give two problems with this hypothesis based on the weekend guide.
What are using “significantly” in the hypothesis and failing to specify the dependent variable/outcome?
During a campus diversity intervention, a discriminatory incident occurs that directly affects only one cultural group in the study. The group's posttest scores subsequently change. Name the threat.
What is local history?
A researcher conducts a large number of statistical tests without specific hypotheses or adjustments for multiple testing. This practice primarily increases the risk of this type of error.
What is a Type I error?
This approach combines quantitative and qualitative methods within the same study and can be particularly useful when researchers need both exploration and greater generalizability.
What are mixed methods?
A counselor observes a pattern in client behavior, develops an explanation, gathers evidence during subsequent sessions, and modifies the explanation based on what occurs. This illustrates this approach to integrating scientific reasoning into clinical practice.
What is the local clinical scientist approach?
Researchers find that workplace prejudice predicts psychological distress more strongly for people with an external locus of control than for people with an internal locus of control. In this model, locus of control serves as this type of variable.
What is a moderator?
Researchers develop a measure of discrimination using one cultural population and assume without additional evidence that the scores have the same meaning when the measure is used with a very different cultural population. Which type of validity should be a major concern?
What is construct validity?
A real treatment effect exists, but a study with a very small sample fails to detect it. Identify both the statistical problem and the resulting type of error..
What are low statistical power and a Type II error?
A researcher chooses ANOVA because it is the statistical procedure she knows best, then changes her research question to make ANOVA fit. According to the chapter, what should have happened instead?
What is allowing the research question, existing knowledge, cultural context, and available instrumentation to determine the research design?