Foundations of Psychology
What are the characteristics of a scientific observation? (name 6)
Empirical inquiry, rhetoric, regulative principals, perceptibility, aesthetics, limited scientific truths
What are the qualities of a good testable hypothesis? (name 6)
Testable, falsifiable, precise, rational, parsimonious, makes a prediction
Scales of dependent level measurements (name 4)
Nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
Requirements for causality (name 4)
Covariation, temporal sequence, eliminating confounds, validity of psychological statement
What is p-hacking and HARKing?
P-hacking is when researchers misreport true effect sizes as significant when they are not. HARKing is hypothesizing after results are already known
What is the difference between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning?
Deductive reasoning is the model of universal laws, the conclusion has to be true if the premises are true. Inductive reasoning is a probabilistic assertion and can be used to describe human behavior
What is the importance of replication?
Replication is an experimental tool to demonstrate that the same findings can be obtained in any other place by any other researcher
External validity refers to how well the research findings generalize to represent a population. Internal validity provides information about causality. To increase internal validity we can use chronbachs alpha as a measure of internal reliability and internal variance. To increase external validity we can have a large N that is well representative of the population.
Factors that threaten internal validity (9 possible answers)
Attrition (participant drop out), confounding variables, diffusion, experimenter bias, historical events, instrumentation, statistical regression, testing
What does null hypothesis significance testing tell us?
The probability that our experimental results are due to chance compared to our actual results. It does not tell us how they are different or indicate direction.
What is a positive bias and what does it threaten?
Positive bias is the tendency to overestimate the possibility of positive outcomes from one study population and generalizing it to a population. It threatens scientific inquiry.
What is the difference between a theory and a hypothesis?
A theory can explain or describe a broad range of behaviors. A hypothesis is a formally stated expectation about how a behavior operates.
What are ways to group/organize data- is grouping data/variables good?
Categorizing dichotomous variables, categorizing ranges into groups, pooling data responses. These techniques distort actual relationships, lead to imprecise measurements, and limit accuracy of conclusions.
What is random sampling and what are its advantages?
Random sampling is a technique where each sample has an equal probability of being chosen. This eliminates researcher bias and aids in drawing conclusions
How can a p-curve be affected by p-hacking?
If a researcher's p-hack yields nonsignificant results the p-curve shape will be altered close to the perceived significance threshold, the curve will have an overabundance of values that are just below .05
What is an availability heuristic?
When we make an assumption based off of what we know/what is available to you.
What is the difference between exact replications and conceptual replications?
What does an internal reliability measure account for?
An internal reliability measure should describe how the covariance in our experiment, it should describe how one variable corresponds with the change in another in measurable terms
What is the current crisis in psychological science and what are ways to self correct the crisis?
What are types of errors one can make by drawing conclusions from NHST?
Type I errors (false positives), type II errors (false negatives), and statistical errors/errors in the validity of our measures
What are surrogates for theory? Give 4 examples
They are vague and imprecise explanations with broad meanings. Examples) one word explanations, re-description, drawing vague dichotomies, and data fitting
What can replication help us control for? (name 5)
Sampling error/reducing the likelihood of making a type I error, control for variables, control for fraud, generalize to larger populations, verify underlying hypothesis
What are two ways to quantify reliability of measures?
Test-retest and split-half reliability
What are the aspects of a rigorous experimental design (according to Fiske, 2016)? (describe 3)
Researcher degrees of freedom are arbitrary choices made by the researcher which can be used for personal gain and can increase type I error rate. This can happen when conducting explorative research without a hypothesis (HARKing), measuring additional variables to use as covariates or independent variables later on, discarding data during data collection in a non-blinded manner, using alternative inclusion/exclusion criteria, failing to assure reproducibility