PSY200 Research Methods in Psychology - Details

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A way of knowing, proposed by Charles Peirce, in which a person develops a belief by reasoning and reaching agreement with others who are convinced of the merits of the reasoned argument.

A priori method

Evidence from a single case that illustrates a phenomenon; when relied on exclusively, as in pseudoscience, faulty conclusions can easily be drawn.

Anecdotal evidence

A goal of science in which basic principles discovered through scientific methods are applied to solve problems.

Application

A way of knowing, proposed by Charles Peirce, in which a person develops a belief by agreeing with someone perceived to be an expert.

Authority

Social cognition bias in which vivid or memorable events lead people to overestimate the frequency of occurrence of these events.

Availability heuristic

Unwillingness to consider evidence that contradicts a strongly held view; similar to Peirce’s principle of tenacity.

Belief perseverance

Social cognition bias in which events that confirm a strongly held belief are more readily perceived and remembered; disconfirming events are ignored or forgotten.

Confirmation bias

Describes the belief of research psychologists that conclusions about behaviour should be supported by data collected scientifically.

Data-driven

A goal of psychological science in which behaviours are accurately classified or sequences of environmental stimuli and behavioural events are accurately listed.

Description

The assumption made by scientists that all events have causes.

Determinism

The assumption made by scientists that the causes of events can be discovered by applying scientific methods.

Discoverability

After expending a large amount of time or effort to obtain some goal, people feel pressured to convince themselves the effort was worthwhile, even if the resulting outcome is less positive than expected.

Effort justification

A way of knowing that relies on direct observation or experience.

Empiricism

Explanation A goal of science in which the causes of events are sought.

Explanation

Method used in the early years of psychological science in which an individual completed a task and then described the events occurring in consciousness while performing the task.

Introspection

Regular, predictable relationships between events.

Laws

Said to exist when observations can be verified by more than one observer.

Objectivity

A goal of psychological science in which statements about the future occurrence of a behavioural event are made, usually with some probability.

Predictions

A field of inquiry that attempts to associate with true science, relies exclusively on selective anecdotal evidence and is deliberately too vague to be adequately tested.

Pseudoscience

A way of knowing characterised by the attempt to apply objective, empirical methods when searching for the causes of natural events.

Science

An assumption made by research psychologists that behavioural events can be predicted with a probability greater than chance.

Statistical determinism

A branch of science primarily concerned with examining human–animal interactions.

Anthrozoology

In research ethics, an agreement by the researcher not to divulge the identity of those participating in a research study.

Confidentiality

A post experimental session in which the researcher explains the study’s purpose to participants, reduces any discomfort they felt and answers any questions they pose.

Debriefing

A research strategy in which participants are not told all the details of an experiment at its outset; used for the purpose of avoiding demand characteristics.

Deception

That portion of debriefing in which the true purpose of the study is explained to participants.

Dehoaxing

That portion of debriefing in which the experimenter tries to reduce any distress felt by participants as a result of their research experience.

Desensitising

A set of principles prescribing morally correct behaviours.

Ethics

Manufacturing or altering data to bring about a desired result.

Falsifying data

University committee responsible for evaluating whether research proposals provide adequate protection of the rights of participants; must exist for any college or university receiving federal funds for research.

Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC)

The idea that persons should be given sufficient information about a study to make their decision to participate as a research subject informed and voluntary.

Informed consent

A tendency for people who have participated in a research study to inform future participants about the true purpose of the study.

Participant crosstalk

Deliberately taking the ideas of someone else and claiming them as one’s own.

Plagiarism

A person who takes part in and contributes data to a research study in psychology.

Research participants

The possibility of the participant experiencing harm, discomfort or inconvenience as a direct result of participating in a study.

Risk

An animal research participant; humans volunteering for research are now called research participants, while non-human animals are typically called subjects.

Subjects

In measurement, construct validity occurs when the measure being used accurately assesses some hypothetical construct; it also refers to whether the construct itself is valid. In research, construct validity refers to whether the operational definitions used for independent and dependent variables are valid.

Construct validity

Occurs when a measure appears to be a reasonable or logical measure of a trait (e.g., as a measure of intelligence, problem solving has more content validity than hat size).

Content validity

Occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct (e.g., self-esteem) are correlated with scores on other tests theoretically related to the construct.

Convergent validity

Form of validity in which a psychological measure is able to predict some future behaviour or is meaningfully related to some other measure.

Criterion validity

Discriminant validity Occurs when scores on a test designed to measure some construct (e.g., self-esteem) are uncorrelated with scores on other tests theoretically unrelated to the construct.

Discriminant validity

Occurs when a measure appears, to those taking a test, a reasonable measure of some trait; not considered by researchers to be an important indicator of validity.

Face validity

Interval scale Measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero is just one of many points on the scale and does not denote the absence of the phenomenon being measured.

Interval scale

Produced by a factor that introduces inaccuracies into the measurement of a variable.

Measurement error

Ways of assigning numbers to events; see nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales.

Measurement scales

Measurement scale in which the numbers have no quantitative value but rather identify categories into which events can be placed.

Nominal scale

Measurement scale in which the numbers indicate rank order, but convey no information about the magnitude of a score or the size of the differences between the measured entities.

Ordinal scale

Measurement scale in which numbers refer to quantities and intervals are assumed to be of equal size; a score of zero denotes the absence of the phenomenon being measured.

Ratio scale

The extent to which measures of the same phenomenon are consistent and repeatable; measures high in reliability contain a minimum of measurement error.

Reliable

In general, the extent to which a measure of X truly measures X and not Y (e.g., a valid measure of intelligence measures intelligence and not something else).

Valid

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