Research Designs
The technique whereby a researcher observes people and systemically records measurements or impressions of their behavior
what is an observational method?
The method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one thought to have a causal effect on peoples responses)
What is Experimental Method?
Agreement to participate in an experiment, granted in full awareness of the nature of the experiment, which has been explained in advance
What is informed consent?
A concept developed by Charles Darwin to explain the ways in which animals adapt to their environment
What is evolutional theory?
A number calculated with statistical techniques that tells researchers how likely it is that the results of the experiment occurred by chance or not because of the independent variable or variables
What is the probability level (p-value)?
The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside without imposing any preconceived notions they might have
what is ethnography?
The extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life
What is psychological realism?
Misleading participants about the true purpose of the study or the events that will actually transpire
What is deception?
The process by which heritable traits that promote survival in a particular environment are passed along to future generations; organisms with those traits are more likely to produce offspring
What is natural selection?
The level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data; by showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual
What is Interjudge Reliability?
A form of the observational method in which the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (e.g., diaries, novels, magazines, and newspapers)
what is archival analysis
A description of the purpose of a study, given to participants, that is different from its true purpose and is used to maintain psychological realism
What is cover story?
A group made up of at least one scientist, one non-scientist, and one member not affiliated with the institution that reviews all psychological research at that institution and decides whether it means ethical guidelines
What is an institutional review board (IRB)?
The attempt to explain social behavior in terms of genetic factors that have evolved over time according to the principles of natural selection
What is Evolutionary Psychology?
Making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions
What is Internal Validity?
A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another – for example, how well you can predict people's weight from their height
What is Correlational Coefficient?
The technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed
What is Correlational Method?
The variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable
What is Independent Variable?
Research conducted with members of different cultures, to see whether the psychological processes of interest are present in both cultures or whether they are specific to the culture in which people were raised
What is Cross-Cultural Research?
A process ensuring that all participants have an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment; through random assignment, researchers can be relatively certain that differences in the participants' personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions
What is Random Assignment to Conditon?
Research in which a representative sample of people are asked(often anonymously) questions about their attitudes or behavior
What is Surveys?
A way of ensuring that a sample of people is representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample
What is Random Selection?
The variable a researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent variable
What is Dependent Variable?
Studies that are designed to find the best answer to the question of why people behave as they do and that are conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity
What is Basic Research?
The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people
What is External Validity?