Psychology General
What is the definition of psychology?
The scientific study of human behaviour and mental processes.
The type of observation where the researcher takes part in activities with the participants in their usual environment.
A naturalistic participant observation. If it is with the consent of the individual, then it is overt; without consent, it’s covert.
Name one type of experimental research design
Independent groups; repeated measures; matched pairs.
The group in an experiment that receives a treatment that is expected to have an effect is called the ....(what)... group?
Treatment/experimental group
A study looked at the effect of television on aggression in children. Aggression levels were measured before television was in the community and then one year later. What type of experiment is this?
A natural experiment.They both try to explain how variables influence behaviour.
What is a disadvantage of using a repeated measures design?
Fatigue effects or Order effects
What is it called when you give someone a treatment (e.g. pill or injection) that has no biological effects, but may have an effect if the person believes it will?
A placebo.
What is the name given to a variable that might affect the dependent variable, but is not what the researchers are interested in studying?
Extraneous variable.
What is one limitation of a covert observation?
It may violate ethics. Or, if it is a participant observation, it means that notes have to be taken in private, which means that notes rely on the memory of the researcher.
When testing the difference in memory skills for two groups, one group ended up having more non-native English speakers in it than the other. What type of confounding variable is this?
Participant variability
When a participant acts in a specific way to avoid looking bad or dishonest in front of the researcher.
Social Desirability Effect.
Why are laboratory experiments used to investigate causal relationships?
Because extraneous variables can be controlled in a laboratory, so the IV can be isolated as the only variable influencing the DV.
Name one limitation of carrying out an overt observation.
demand characteristics; reactivity; social desirability effect; expectancy effect.
What sampling technique makes use of a pre-existing group?
Convenience/opportunity sampling
The problem that arises when the controls are so good that the researcher can no longer predict behaviour in a natural environment.
Low ecological validity.
What is one reason why we might not be able to conclude a causational relationship from a study?
1) There are too many extraneous or confounding variables. 2) We do not know the direction of the relationship in the study (i.e. which variable is affecting which).
What is one limitation of a focus group?
Difficult to maintain confidentiality; conformity effects; not good for sensitive or private questions; there may be status or gender influences. Sometimes difficult to facilitate. Someone may dominate.
The sampling method which can be generalized to the widest, most general population is:
random sampling
Why it is important to replicate research.
To establish the reliability of the study.