Multicultural Research
This term describes aspects of behavior that are specific to a particular culture.
What is emic?
A one-sentence prediction identifying the variables and the expected relationship between them.
What is a research hypothesis?
This process gives each observation in a population an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
What is random sampling/random selection?
One is manipulated by the researcher; the other is the measured outcome.
What are the independent and dependent variables?
Participants score differently on a posttest simply because they remember questions from the pretest. Name the validity threat.
What is testing?
Race, ethnicity, age, and generation status are commonly examples of these variables because they describe group membership but do not directly explain a psychological phenomenon.
What are distal variables?
The population to which a researcher ultimately wants to generalize the results of a study.
What is the target population?
A sample that systematically differs from its population because some observations do not have an equal opportunity for selection is called this.
What is a biased sample?
One means rejecting a true null hypothesis; the other means failing to reject a false null hypothesis.
What are Type I and Type II errors?
Participants selected because they had extremely high scores initially, scored closer to average when tested again.
What is regression toward the mean?
Ethnic identity, acculturation, worldview, values, and familial roles are examples of these variables, which provide more direct psychological explanations.
What are proximal variables?
The group of individuals who meet the definition of the target population and are actually accessible to the researcher.
What is the participant pool?
Random selection primarily supports this type of validity by improving the basis for generalizing from the sample to the population.
What is external validity?
One process determines who enters the sample; the other determines which condition participants enter.
What are random selection and random assignment?
A study fails to detect a real treatment effect because the sample is too small. Identify the statistical problem and likely error.
What are low statistical power and a Type II error?
One variable answers “when” or “for whom” a relationship changes, while another answers “how” or “why” the relationship occurs. Name both.
What are a moderator and mediator, respectively?
The degree of confidence a researcher has in their ability to successfully perform research-related tasks.
What is research self-efficacy?
A researcher randomly selects 100 people from a population and then randomly places them into treatment and control groups. Which process addresses generalizability, and which addresses causal inference?
What are random selection for generalizability/external validity and random assignment for causal inference/internal validity?
One validity question asks, “Did A cause B?” while the other asks, “Does the finding generalize?”..
What are internal validity and external validity?
A researcher studies “anxiety” using a measure that captures physiological arousal but fails to assess important cognitive and emotional components of anxiety. Which construct validity problem is illustrated?
What is construct underrepresentation?
Researchers find that one ethnic group has higher depression scores than another and conclude that ethnicity explains the difference. What is the major problem with this conclusion?
What is relying on a distal variable as an explanation rather than investigating proximal psychological or contextual variables?
The process through which knowledge develops across multiple studies, with later research refining findings and addressing limitations or validity threats from earlier studies.
What is programmatic research?
A researcher wants a highly diverse sample to increase generalizability, but the increased participant variability also creates more error variance. What fundamental research problem does this illustrate?
What is the trade-off between heterogeneity/generalizability and control/statistical power?
One construct concerns confidence in performing research tasks. The other concerns actually possessing the knowledge and skills necessary to perform them.
What are research self-efficacy and research competence?
A researcher finds that stress predicts depression, but the relationship is much stronger for participants with low social support than for participants with high social support. What role does social support play?
What is a moderator variable?