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Ch. 1 Philosophies of Science
Ch. 2 Ethics
Research Process
Measurement I
Measurement II
100
A researchers wishes to understand the minimum effective “dose” of mindfulness meditation needed for positive psychological effects. In her experiment, she first measures participants baseline depression scores before randomly assigning them to 3 groups: 10-minutes of meditation per day, 1 hour of meditation per day, and a control group that just sits silently. She then measures their depression scores after 2 weeks and again at one month. Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable of this study.
IV: Meditation-time DV: Depression scores
100
What is the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
A committee that reviews proposals for research with human participants and assess the ethicality of research and potential for risk to the participants
100
Give an example of a negative correlation (doesn’t have to be real)
Shows understanding that a negative correlation is a covarying relationship between a variable the increases as the other decreases
100
Provide an example of an ordinal variable.
Provides a variable with a level of measurement characterized by numerical hierarchy without equal intervals between levels. For example, Socioeconomic status: low SES, medium SES, high SES.
100
A survey is an example of what kind of measure?
Self-report.
200
Dr. A is a cognitive psychologist studying human memory and problem-solving in her laboratory. Dr. B, an educational psychologist, draws on A's work in his research to improve academic outcomes for students with learning disabilities. Dr. B’s research can be described as more __________ than Dr. A’s.
Applied
200
Name at least two safeguards against ethical violations in research
IRB, Informed Consent, Debriefing, Peer Review, Institutions, Individuals in institution
200
Name and define a common confound
Experimenter effect (e.g., differences in how multiple experimenters implement tasks) Experimenter bias (confound caused by experimenter’s expectations) Demand characteristics (cues inadvertently provided by the researcher, research materials, or research setting that give participants information about purpose of study)
200
What’s the difference between random selection and random assignment?
Random selection describes how participants are chosen from the population whereas random assignment describes how participants are assigned to experimental conditions.
200
What is the difference between interval and ratio data?
Ratio has an absolute zero.
300
Your textbook discusses several terms that characterize strong scientific theories. Name one and explain what it means.
Precision: a scientific theory avoids ambiguity, carefully defines terms, and accounts for alternative explanations Testability: The phenomenon could possibly be disproven Accuracy: hypotheses from the theory have been supported by evidence
300
What ethical guidelines were violated when cancer researchers used Henrietta Lacks’ cells after she died?
Consent and privacy (for both her and her family); Respect as a Belmont Principle is also an acceptable answer, as this includes both consent and privacy
300
Two-part Q: (1) What is the strongest kind of research claim? (2) What kind of study/method is required to make one of these claims?
(1) Causal (2) Experiment (or IV manipulation)
300
Validity and reliability - which is a “prerequisite” for the other?
A measure cannot be valid unless it is reliable, but a reliable measure may not be valid.
300
I want to show that my depression questionnaire actually measures depression, so I show that it has a negative correlation with a well-being measure. Therefore, my depression questionnaire is said to have adequate ____________.
Discriminant Validity.
400
Define deductive and inductive reasoning (hint: they are opposites)
DEDUCTIVE: Theory → hypothesis → gather evidence to assess support INDUCTIVE: Observations made first → formulate theory
400
A psychiatrist is interested in how opiate prescriptions lead to severe addiction. In order to maximize internal validity, he wishes to randomly assign healthy participants to take low, medium, and high doses of opiates twice a day for a year. The IRB denies his proposal on the grounds of which of the three Belmont Principles? Name and define it.
Beneficence (Minimize harms and risks; maximize benefits)
400
Provide a conceptual definition for homophobia OR happiness (pick one) and then operationalize it for a hypothetical research study.
CONCEPTUAL: Disdain for /prejudice against homosexual people. OPERATIONAL: e.g., scores on a homophobia questionnaire, eye-contact with a homosexual confederate, scores on an IAT, found guilty of committing a homophobic hate crime,...etc.
400
In an effort to prove that the SAT measures what it intends to measure, the company hires researchers to show that SAT scores are correlated with college GPA. Such a result shows the SAT has strong ____________. Be specific.
Convergent Validity (Construct Validity = half points).
400
Researchers developing a new intelligence test assert that their test can distinguish between below average, average, and above average intelligence. They are arguing their test has strong ____________.
Criterion validity.
500
Define the three essential characteristics of science.
(1) Systematic Empiricism: Developing knowledge by systematically making observations and conducting experiments. (2) Scientific Knowledge is Publicly Verifiable: scientific findings can be replicated and open to scrutiny (peer review) (3) Science Addresses Solvable Problems. Science can deal only with ideas that can be tested. Questions that can’t be answered using the scientific method are rejected as unscientific.
500
2-Part Question: (1) How is anonymous data different than confidential data? (2) What is the major benefit of anonymous data and what is the major drawback?
(1) ANONYMOUS: Personally identifying information is not linked to participants’ responses/the researcher does not know who participant is. CONFIDENTIAL: Data that is potentially identifiable is secured and access is limited. (2) Keeping data anonymous minimizes ethical risks (+), but limits researchers from collecting variables that may yield important findings (-).
500
We know that the majority of individuals diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are diagnosed with an additional disorder (e.g., anxiety). However, antidepressant research tends to recruit patients with depression only. How might this decision maximize internal validity and minimize external validity?
Shows understanding that recruiting a sample with uniform psychopathology allows researchers to test that the medication (IV) works on depression as a singular disorder (DV). External validity is compromised because the degree to which the findings are generalizable to “real-world” depressed individuals (i.e., people with comorbidities) is unknown.
500
Name and define two types of reliability.
Inter-rater reliability (consistency among raters), internal consistency (the degree of consistency between items on a scale), test-retest reliability (consistency of scores across multiple time points).
500
Name and define two types of validity.
Face Validity (cannot be statistically tested; the extent to which a measure ‘appears’ to measure what it is supposed to measure) Construct Validity (The extent to which the concepts measured within the tool are actually being measured) Criterion Validity (refers to the extent to which a measure distinguishes participants on the basis of a particular behavioral criterion) Convergent Validity (Correlated with other measures that it should be related to) Discriminant Validity (not correlated with measures that it should not correlate with)