Methods of Knowing
Accepting information because it “feels right.”
What is intuition?
Experts evaluate a study before publication.
What is peer review?
Describe, predict, explain.
What are the goals of psychology?
Assigning numbers to represent psychological variables.
What is measurement?
Consistency of a measurement across time or items.
What is reliability?
Accepting information because an expert says it’s true.
What is authority?
The treatment of medical conditions using natural substances that have been diluted sometimes to the point of no longer being present.
What is homeopathy?
Turning a broad idea into a testable prediction.
What is developing a hypothesis?
A variable that cannot be directly observed and must be inferred.
What is a construct?
Whether a measure appears to assess, on the surface, what it claims to.
What is face validity?
Using logic and reasoning to acquire new knowledge.
What is rationalism?
Activities and beliefs that are claimed to be scientific by their proponents—and may appear to be scientific at first glance—but are not.
What is pseudoscience?
Choosing a design, selecting participants, and planning procedures.
What is designing a study?
A specific way a researcher defines and measures a variable.
What is an operational definition?
Cronbach's alpha.
What is a common measure of internal consistency?
Acquiring knowledge through observation and experience
What is empiricism?
A scientific claim must be testable and potentially disprovable.
What is falsifiability?
Summarizing and examining data to evaluate the hypothesis.
What is analyzing the data?
Subtle cues that reveal how the researcher expects participants to behave.
Whether a measure predicts relevant future behavior.
What is predictive validity?
The systematic collection and evaluation of evidence to test ideas and answer questions.
What is the scientific method?
Preferring the simplest explanation that fits the data.
What is parsimony?
Interpreting results, noting limitations, and sharing findings.
What is drawing conclusions and reporting results?
A scale that categorizes data without implying order.
What is a nominal scale?
Whether a measure relates to different constructs in theoretically expected ways; "we are not the same".
What is discriminant validity?