IVs, DVs, and Operational Definitions
What is an independent variable? What are the levels (or conditions) of an IV? What is the minimum number of levels we must have? Why?
An independent variable is the variable that the experimenter either manipulates in an experiment or through which the experimenter groups participants. The levels of an IV are the groups in an experiment. There must be a minimum of two levels in order to make comparisons between the manipulated and non-manipulated group or quantitative and qualitative.
We talked about 5 different paths to knowledge. Be able to identify them from a description.
Authority, tenacity, reasoning, experience, and science.
Be able to identify / distinguish between deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.
Deductive reasoning is a process where a person reasons from a set of general principles to specific questions or predictions. Inductive reasoning is when a person reasons from specific cases to general principles.
What is a control group? Be familiar with the different types of control groups.
A control group is selected for comparison with the experimental group. It is identical to the experimental group in all aspects except for the treatment expected to produce a change in the dependent variable. “Straight” control groups (Not exposed to anything), Placebo control groups (Controls for the power of belief), Waiting list control groups (Does not get treatment but they’re promised the treatment after the experiment).
The ethical principles that a psychological researcher must follow encompass 3 main areas. Be able to list and describe these 3 areas
Treat participants appropriately, avoid plagiarism at all costs, be scrupulously honest in the treatment of data.
What is the difference between a manipulated IV and a non-manipulated IV? Which one allows us to infer causality? Why?
Manipulated IVs allow us to infer causality because the manipulation enables control to the researcher, therefore providing the ability to assume that an effect on the DV is because of the manipulation to the IV. A non-manipulated IV is a participant variable that may be used to sort participants into groups because it is a preexisting characteristic of the participant.
What is a theory? What is a hypothesis? What is pseudoscience? Why is it an issue?
A theory is an organized system of assumptions and principles that attempts to explain certain phenomena and how they are related. A hypothesis is a testable prediction derived from theories. A pseudoscience is a collection of ideas that is believed to be based on the scientific method, but it is not.
What is a replication? Understand why replications are important for scientific research.
Replication is reliability, being able to repeat what’s been done in a prior study.
What is experimenter bias? Describe some ways we can try to control for this bias.What is participant bias? Describe some ways we can try to control for this bias.
Experimenter bias is when an experimenter’s expectations influence the outcome of the study. Participant bias is when the behavior of participants is influenced by their beliefs about how they are supposed to behave.
What is informed consent?
Informed consent is when human participants must be given enough information about a study’s purpose and procedure to make an informed decision about whether to participate.
What is a dependent variable?
A dependent variable is the variable the experimenter believes will be affected by the independent variable and is measured in some way.
What is an empirical question? Be able to recognize questions that are, or are not, empirical. What does it mean to be objective? What does objectivity imply?
An empirical question is a question that can be answered through the systematic observations and techniques that characterize the scientific method. Example: does a belief in God increase with age? Are women more likely to demonstrate helping behavior than men? To be objective means that we aim to avoid being influenced by biases and expectations. Objectivity implies that scientific observations can be verified by more than one observer.
Be able to define a fallacy. What are the types of conditional logic we talked about?
A fallacy is a failure in reasoning that leads to a mistaken belief or conclusion. We discussed 3 types of conditional logic: Affirming the antecedent (If X, then Y; therefore Y), denying the consequent (If X, then Y; No Y, therefore, not X), and affirming the consequent.
What is internal validity? What are carryover effects, and how can they be a threat to internal validity? What is external validity? Be able to name and describe some threats to external validity.
Internal validity is the ability to draw conclusions about causal relationships from data. Carryover effects are typically in a within-participants design, where a Ps behavior is affected by their behavior on one area of the variable.This threatens internal validity because it takes away from the pure measurements of conditions. External validity is the degree to which research findings can be generalized beyond the context of the experiment conducted. Some threats to external validity are participant characteristics, volunteer bias, cross-species generalizations, and experimenter characteristics.
What is the difference between consent and assent?
Consent is an agreement when participants are over 18 and not part of a protected population, and assent is when participants are under 18 or a protected population like prisoners.
Understand why it is important to operationally define our variables.
Operational definitions are precise descriptions of operations, measures, and/or procedures. Using operational definitions allows experiments to be replicated and for researchers to come to common conclusions despite using different operational definitions.
Understand what it means when we say that science leads to tentative conclusions. Understand what it means for science to be data-driven.
Science leading to tentative conclusions means that there is no 100% sure or absolute determinism in science; science does not prove anything. Science being data-driven means that conclusions must follow logically from experimentally obtained data and sometimes there are various interpretations of a data set, but you must stick to the data. Data-driven conclusions that are produced by scientific inquiry are subject to future revision based on new research because science does not prove anything, it supports theories.
Which type of reasoning allows us to make a hypothesis? Which type of reasoning allows us to construct theories?
Deductive reasoning allows researchers to make a hypothesis because a hypothesis is drawn from an existing theory, much like deductive reasoning is reasoning from a set of general principles to specific questions or predictions.Inductive reasoning allows us to construct theories because inductive reasoning reasons to general principles from specific cases, like a theory being formed where specific cases together form a general principle (a theory).
What is a placebo effect?
A placebo effect is when a control group takes a treatment, but it is expected to have no effect and controls for the power of belief.
Understand why researchers sometimes need to use deception.
Sometimes researchers use deception to hide the true purpose of a study. Deception must be approved by the IRB because the deception must be absolutely necessary.
Understand what ceiling effects and floor effects are.
Ceiling effects are range restriction on the high end of a scale on a quantitative DV and a floor effect is when there’s range restriction on the low end of a scale on a quantitative DV. Ceiling is when it is too easy, and floor is too difficult.
What are the goals of psychological research? Be able to order the sequence of events in the “circle of science.”
The goals of psychological research are to describe, predict, and explain behavior, and to apply principles to real-life problems. Theory leads to hypotheses, test hypothesis, analyze results, determine if results support hypothesis or not, revise theory if necessary.
Which type of conditional logic is a fallacy? Why?
Affirming the consequent is a fallacy because it is saying yes to something that has not happened because of a conclusion. Just because of Y does not mean X.
What is the difference between an extraneous variable and a confound?
An extraneous variable is any variable not of interest to the experimenter, but which might influence the behavior being studied if not controlled properly and may result in confounds. A confound is any uncontrolled extraneous variable that covaries with the independent variable.
What are the different kinds of plagiarism we discussed? Be able to describe why it is an issue for people to falsify data.
The plagiarism types we discussed are direct, where you are copying someone else’s words verbatim without citation and indirect, where you are paraphrasing without citation. Falsified data is wrong because data is the foundation for science.