Research in Action
Dr. Chen is studying how neurons fire in the brain, with no immediate practical application in mind. What type of research is she conducting?
What is basic research?
Professor Garcia develops a new teaching method and tests its effectiveness in improving student grades. What kind of research is this?
What is applied research?
Emma needs to find peer-reviewed articles on childhood obesity for her term paper. Which resource should she use?
What is an academic database like PsycARTICLE?
When studying association claims, what type(s) of relationships between variables allow us to make the strongest predictions?
What is both strong positive associations and strong negative associations?
Mark is reading a psychology article that cites many other studies. Where in the article can he find these referenced studies?
What is the references section?
In a study on the effect of caffeine on memory .
What is the IV & DV?
IV: Amount of caffeine given to participants
DV: memory
Chen's study on workplace stress uses a questionnaire that doesn't actually measure stress, but rather job satisfaction. What type of validity is compromised?
What is construct validity?
Sarah notices her friends who meditate seem less stressed. She designs a study to test this observation. What role is Sarah taking on?
What is being a producer of research?
Professor Taylor believes her new teaching method is superior. She designs a study to test it but doesn't include a control group. What scientific principle is she violating?
What is the need for comparison or control groups in experiments?
Dr. Lee wants to quickly understand the main findings of a research paper without reading the entire article. Which section should she focus on?
What is the abstract?
Dr. Chen is conducting an experiment on how different lighting conditions affect reading speed. All participants read the same passage in different lighting environments. In this study, what is a constant?
What is the passage being read?
Maria believes that wearing her lucky socks helps her win tennis matches. She remembers all the times she wore them and won but ignores the times she won without them or lost while wearing them. What type of bias is she demonstrating?
What is present/present bias?
Professor Taylor wants to ensure that differences in test performance are due to her new teaching method, not pre-existing student abilities. What should she do?
What is randomly assign students to different teaching method groups?
Sarah conducts a study on exam performance using only students from her small liberal arts college. What type of validity might be limited?
What is external validity?
Lisa hypothesizes that eating chocolate improves mood. She surveys people about their chocolate consumption and mood. What crucial aspect is missing from Lisa's approach?
What is establishing causation (she's only establishing correlation)?
A team of researchers can't agree on how to measure "creativity" in their study. What research concept are they struggling with?
What is operational definition?
Dr. Lee's research shows that as hours of sleep decrease, stress levels increase. What type of association is this?
What is a negative association?
Jamal is researching memory strategies for a psychology project. He finds one article in a peer-reviewed academic journal and another in a popular magazine. What is a key difference between these two sources?
What is 'scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed, while popular magazine articles are not'?
Emma is confused by conflicting findings in individual studies about the effectiveness of a new therapy. What type of article might help her understand the overall trend?
What is a meta-analysis?
In Dr. Kang's experiment on emotion and memory, this factor makes the study an experiment rather than another type of research.
What is the manipulation of a variable (emotional content of words)?
Emma's research on decision-making uses a very small sample size, making it difficult to detect real effects. What type of validity is compromised?
What is statistical validity?
Professor Brown's theory about social media and loneliness isn't fully supported by his data. What should he consider doing?
What is amending or refining his theory?
Emma believes video games cause aggression. She only pays attention to news stories that support this belief. What bias is Emma demonstrating?
What is confirmation bias?
Sarah finds an article claiming a new supplement cures depression overnight. The journal isn't listed in academic databases and charges authors to publish. What might this journal be?
What is a predatory journal?
A study suggests that people who own pets are less likely to experience loneliness. What type of claim is this, and what validities are most relevant?
What is an association claim?
Validities Needed: Construct, Statistical, & External Validity
A scientist conducts a study testing a popular biological explanation for a mental health condition but does not find the expected results. Instead of rejecting all prior research, what should they consider as a possible reason for their findings?
What are unexamined factors or alternative explanations?
When Jenny reads about a study linking sexism and racism, the researchers' understanding of "perceived prejudiced attitudes" represents this type of definition.
What is a conceptual definition?
In a study on prejudice, participants' self-reported race on a questionnaire would be considered this type of variable.
What is a measured variable?
In psychology, when research findings align with a hypothesis, what is the most scientifically accurate way to describe the relationship between the data and the theory?
What is 'the data provide support for the theory'?
Jake reads that meditation reduces stress. He tries it for a week and feels less stressed. His friend Alex participates in a controlled study on meditation and stress. Whose evidence is more convincing and why?
What is Alex's, because it comes from a controlled scientific study rather than personal experience?
A psychologist decides to investigate a widely accepted claim about a treatment because no strong empirical research exists to support it. This reflects which of Merton’s scientific norms?
What is organized skepticism?
A study found that exposure to bright light in the morning improves focus throughout the day. What type of claim is this, and what validities should be prioritized?
Causal Claim → Construct, Statistical, External, & Internal Validity (Internal is most important!)
Psychological research does not claim to predict every individual’s behavior with certainty. Instead, it identifies general trends that apply to most people. What is this characteristic of behavioral research called?
What is probabilistic research?
When Mrs. Raynor calculates that 17.4% of students have concerning behaviors, with a range from 13.2% to 27.6%, this range represents the study's ______.
What is the confidence interval?
Professor Nguyen did not use random assignment in his experiment on learning strategies, allowing preexisting differences in participants' prior knowledge to affect the results. What type of validity does this threaten?
What is a threat to internal validity?
Tom believes his lucky socks help him ace exams because he wore them for his last three tests and got A's. What cognitive bias is Tom exhibiting?
What is the availability heuristic?
Robert Merton identified these four scientific norms as crucial for the progress of science. Name three of them and provide a brief example of each in action.
What are universalism (e.g., evaluating claims based on merit, not source), communalism (e.g., sharing data openly), disinterestedness (e.g., avoiding personal bias in research), and organized skepticism (e.g., peer review process)
In a study on exam performance, students are randomly assigned to either study with lo-fi music or in silence. Their exam scores are then compared. This design allows researchers to conclude that any difference in scores is caused by the study condition.
What is the IV & DV? - What about this allows you to make a causal claim?
What are the independent variable (study condition: lo-fi music or silence), the dependent variable (exam scores), and experimental design allowing for causal inferences?
To establish internal validity in an experiment, three key criteria must be met. Name these three criteria and briefly describe what each one means."
Covariance – The study’s results show that as Variable A changes, Variable B changes as well.
Temporal Precedence – The study ensures that A happens before B in time.
Internal Validity – The study eliminates alternative explanations, ensuring A is the only thing causing the change in B.
A study measures "job satisfaction" using a single question: "How happy are you at work?" Critique the construct validity of this measure and suggest a more comprehensive approach.
What is: Single-item measures often lack construct validity for complex concepts. A better approach would be using a multi-item scale that assesses various aspects of job satisfaction, such as pay, work environment, relationships with colleagues, and personal fulfillment.
Dr. Larson wants to study the impact of social media use on teenage self-esteem. Provide a conceptual definition and an operational definition for "social media use."
Conceptual definition: The extent to which an individual engages with and uses social media platforms for communication, content sharing, and information gathering.
Operational definition: The average number of hours per day spent on social media apps as recorded by a smartphone tracking app over a two-week period.
Dr. Larson plans to conduct this study with students from a single high school and use the results to make claims about all teenagers. Identify and explain which type of validity is most at risk in this scenario, and suggest one way to improve it.
To improve external validity, Dr. Larson could expand the study to include multiple high schools from different geographic areas and socioeconomic backgrounds, creating a more representative sample of the teenage population.