Exam1Study Guide - Lecture notes 1-4 PDF

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PSYC2015 Unit 1 Exam Study Guide Chapter 1 

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Producers of science o Research assistants o Prepare for grad school o Prepare for a career o Contribute to societal knowledge Consumers of science o Student, TA, reader/internet user, employee, patient o Be a better student, read and think critically, compare therapies and interventions, prepare you for applied careers Empiricism o A method for research that involves collecting data systematically and using it to develop, support, or challenge a theory Theory-data cycle o Theory  A set of statements that describe general principles about how variables relate to one another  Predicts events in general terms  Based on prior research  Can produce multiple hypotheses  A good scientific theory:  Is supported by data  Leads to falsifiable hypotheses  Is parsimonious o Research question  Basic  Expands existing body of general, fundamental knowledge  Translational  Asks if principles can be used in a particular domain  Applied  Solve a specific practical problem within a domain o Hypothesis  A prediction about the specific results or outcomes a researcher expects to observe based on theory  Makes a specific prediction about a certain set of circumstances  Has yet to be tested  A good scientific hypothesis is:  Logical  Testable  Falsifiable

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 Positive  Simple  Specific o Ways to strengthen a theory  Extend  Who, what, when, which circumstances?  Replicate  Replication, multiple methods  Rule out alternative explanations  Test the theory’s limits Merton’s scientific norms o Universalism  Everyone has access o Communality  Knowledge is shared o Disinterestedness  Truth should be objective o Organized skepticism  Question everything Communicating with the public o Journal articles  Advantages:  Peer-reviewed  Primary source  High “fidelity”/ unfiltered conclusions  Disadvantages:  Jargon filled, arcane  File drawer problem o Lay publications  Advantages:  More accessible  Useful for practical information  Disadvantages:  Secondary source  Possibly inaccurate, exaggerated, or oversimplified interpretations

Example exam questions: 1. Which is an example of being a producer of science? a. Applying a new therapy technique b. Writing an opinion article about a psychological study c. Administering an anxiety questionnaire d. Undergoing a brain scan

2. Dr. Knepp studies Extrasensory Perception (ESP) which is the ability to perceive things through telepathy or clairvoyance. She theorizes that ESP exists but only in people who believe it exists and who are not skeptical of ESP. She surveys a large number of adults about their beliefs in ESP and, as expected, only adults who believe in ESP report having those abilities. What is true about Dr. Knepp’s theory? a. It does not have a hypothesis. b. It is not translational research. c. It is provable. d. It is not falsifiable.

Chapter 2 

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Ways of forming beliefs o Experience  Disadvantages:  Lacks comparison  Confounded o Intuition  Disadvantages:  Bias o Compelling emotions and interesting stories o Availability heuristic  Tendency to weight evidence that we can recall more easily o Present/present bias  Focusing only on evidence in the presence of a “treatment” and the presence of a positive effect o Confirmation bias  Seeking only evidence that supports one’s own beliefs o Bias blind spot  Belief that one is immune to bias o Authority figures  Disadvantages o Empirical research  Advantages  Controlled and systematic  Probabilistic  Use observable data  Make conclusions from data Types of scientific articles o Empirical  Report of findings from scientific research study  Written by study authors o Review  Narrative summary of published studies on a single topic o Meta-analysis  Summary of published studies on a single topic that quantifies the effect size Parts of empirical journal article o Abstract o Introduction

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Methods Results Discussion References

Example exam questions: 1. Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following? a. availability heuristic b. confirmation bias c. overconfidence d. present/present bias 2. What is the primary difference between researchers and non-researchers? a. Researchers test their intuition with systematic, empirical observations. b. Researchers rely on personal experience and intuition. c. Researchers rely exclusively on logic. d. Researchers are strongly influenced by authority figures

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Constant o A factor or component in an experiment that remains the same throughout Variables o A factor or component in an experiment that changes o Levels o Types of variables  Continuous  Variable with infinite number of values  Discrete  Quantitative variable with whole integer values  Categorical  Qualitative variable that describes attributes o Measured v. manipulated  Measured  Variable that is only observed  Manipulated  Variable which levels are changed and controlled by the researchers  Some variables can only be measured (cannot be manipulated)  Inherent characteristic  Barriers/ difficult to change  Ethics o Construct  conceptual definition  operational definition Claims (for each: number of variables, names of variables, relevant types of graphs/quantities, relevant validities, etc.) o Frequency  Argument about a rate or degree of a single variable  1 variable  Variable is measured  Pie charts, percentages, proportions, bar graphs o Association  Argument about a level of one variable being correlated to a level of another variable  2 variables  Scatterplots  X axis: predictor  Y axis: criterion  Both predictor and criterion variables are only measured, never manipulated o Causal  Argument that one variable causes another variable to change

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2 variables Bar graphs and line graphs X axis: independent variable (cause) Y axis: dependent variable (effect) The independent variable is always manipulated while the dependent variable is always only measured  Correlation ≠ causation because:  Unknown direction of relationship  Third variable problem  coincidence  Requirements to establish causation  Covariance o As one variable changes, so does the other o Establish through relationships or mean differences among conditions o Eliminates possibility of coincidence  Temporal precedence o First variable must change before the second o Establish by manipulating the independent variable o Establishes direction of relationship  Internal validity o Ensures no other explanation for change in second variable o Establish by randomized, controlled experiments o Minimizes possibility of third variable Validities: validity = appropriateness, accuracy, reasonableness (applies to claims/conclusions and measurements) o Construct  How well the operational variable approximates the conceptual variable o External  How well the study results can generalize to larger populations and different contexts o Statistical  How well the quantitative analyses support the conclusion o Internal  How well one variable – rather than another – predicts changes in a second variable  Doesn’t apply to frequency or association claims

Example exam questions: 1. Two out of five Americans say they worry every day. What type of claim is this? a. Frequency b. Association

c. Causal d. None of the above 2. If you are asking the question “How did you control for alternative explanations?”, you are questioning the _____ validity. a. internal b. external c. construct d. statistical

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Belmont Report o Respect for people  Informed consent  Autonomy  Special protections for vulnerable populations  Must state purpose of study, risks and benefits, amount of time, and compensation  Must avoid coercion, especially with vulnerable populations o Beneficence  Risks-benefits analysis  Do no harm  Ensure well being  Psychological  Deception and debriefing  Physical  Data/privacy  Anonymous studies  Confidential studies o Justice  Justifications for study sample  No one group should bear undue burden of participation APA ethical standards o Extension of Belmont principles  Fidelity and responsibility  Integrity o Ethical Standard 8  Institutional Review Board  Group of people responsible for ensuring that all human subject research conducted by an organization is done ethically  Includes scientists, non-scientists, and community members  Informed consent  Exempt: o Usually not required  Expedited: o Usually required  Full review: o Consent always required  IRB determines status  Study description  Risks and benefits  Researcher and IRB contacts

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 Signature for consent  Use and protection of data plan Deception  Intentionally misleading of participants in a study about the nature of a study; lying  2 methods: o Commission o Omission  Pros: o Sometimes necessary  Situations that don’t occur naturally  Participants would behave differently otherwise o Evidence that participants are not adversely affected  Cons: o Morally wrong o Negative reputation o Behavior affected for future studies o Potential distress Debrief  Communications with participants immediately following participation in a study  Describe study goals and hypothesis  Give insight into research process  Offer to share results  Explain deception and restore trust  Thank participants for time Fabrication  Inventing data Falsification  Influencing study results Plagiarism  Representing someone else’s work as one’s own original work

Example exam questions: 1. In considering whether research is ethical, which of the following are balanced against each other? a. inconvenience to participants versus benefit to the researcher b. time investment of the study versus complexity of the study c. importance of the research versus financial cost to conduct the study d. risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained

2. Dr. Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Dr. Kushner plans to tell his participants that the reason he is waking them up during the night is to recalibrate the EEG machine. This would be an example of which of the following? a. b. c. d.

deception through omission deception through commission deception through permission deception through exception

Additional Lab Topics 

Quasi-experimental studies: o Quasi-experimental studies o Quasi-experimental studies o...