Unit II – Research Methods – Duez – Research Methods

Intro to Research – How do psychologists ask and answer questions? In your own words, what are the two purposes of the unit?

Scientific Method1. ________________________ some aspect of the universe.

2. A theory is also known as a ___________________________________.

3. Use theory to make ___________________________________.

4. Test predictions through further observation and ___________________________.

5. In light of your results, ________________________________ the theory.

6. Go back to predictions, if necessary. (Step 3)

7. Draw ______________________________________.

8. Report your _____________________________________.

Hypothesis A theory is tentative because it has not yet been _______________________________.

What are operational definitions?

Proving a hypothesis is ___________________________________________.

Types of Research1. 2. 3.

Comparing Research Briefly describe the purpose of each of the three research methods:

Descriptive research Three types of descriptive research

o

o

o

Descriptive does not talk about ________________________, it just describes (it’s not correlational.)

Any research that _____________________________________ and ________________________________.

Also called: “___________________________________ ________________________________”

Descriptive Research: 1. The Case Study What is the purpose of a case study?

What are the weaknesses of a case study?

Descriptive Research: 2. The Survey Method Give a scenario where you might use a survey or questionnaire?

Used in both _____________________________ & ________________________________.

Discuss some limitations to conducting surveys:

Using the survey method, the researcher does not manipulate the _______________________________ variable.

In your own words (IYOW), define False Consensus Effect:

Descriptive Research: 3. Naturalistic Observation

Observing and recording behavior in a __________________________________ environment.

IYOW, what is the goal of Naturalistic Observation?

Share one positive and negative benefit/detriment to Naturalistic Observation:

o Pro:

o Con:

What is the Hawthorne Effect?

Experimental Research: Explores ____________________________ and _____________________________ relationships.

Experiments are the only research method that ____________________________ cause and effect!

Experimental Terminology (Must Know!) Independent Variable (IV): factor that is ________________________________________

Dependent Variable (DV): factor that is ________________________________________

Extraneous Variable: factors that ____________________________________ DV, that are not IV

Experimental Group: Group ____________________________________ to IV

Control Group: Group NOT _____________________________________ to IV

Placebo: inert substance that is IN PLACE of IV in _______________________________ group

Experimental Terminology (cont’d) Define the following:

o Valid:

o Reliable:

o Sample:

o Population:

o Random Selection:

o Random Assignment:

o Stratified sampling:

o Participant-relevant confounding variable:

o Situation-relevant confounding variable:

o Placebo method (on other slide):

o Placebo effect(on other slide):

o Hindsight Bias (at end of video):

o Overconfidence (at end of video):

How do psychologists view the idea of “random”?

Experimental Method Only _____________________________________________ can identify cause and effect relationships

What is experimenter bias?

What is the difference between single and double-blind experiments?

Experiment (please pay close attention to these concepts in action as you will be designing your own experiment in class.)

What are confounding variables and why are they detrimental to an experiment?

Quasi-Experiments Studies that have the same ‘___________________________’ as experiments yet do not include the random

assignment of ________________________________.