Final Exam

Front 1

What is Naturalistic Observation

Back 1

Observe human behavior in a natural setting.

Front 2

How are naturalistic observations done?

Back 2

They are done over an extended period of time, go out to the real world and observe people

Front 3

Why is naturalistic observation an important method of gathering information?

Back 3

Doesn't inhibit person's behavior

Front 4

Example of naturalistic observation that is better then laboratory research

Back 4

Let's say you want to study the behaviors of teenage boys and girls, you would want to study them in a place where they are hanging out with their friends such as a student event or a park

Front 5

What are major problems with naturalistic observation?

Back 5

Issue of control, since you're not controlling anything it limits how you can generalize it. Can't make casual claims.

Front 6

What is participant observation?

Back 6

A technique of observing a situation wherein the observer takes an active role in the situation.

Front 7

What problems does participant observation involve?

Back 7

observer may lose the objectivity necessary to conduct scientific observation. Could allow the observer to be bias.

Front 8

Disguised Observation

Back 8

Where people are unaware they are being observed, which means there is no informed consent

Front 9

Undisguised Observation

Back 9

The observers know they are being observed.

Front 10

Archival Research

Back 10

using previously complied information to answer research questions

Front 11

What some examples of archival data

Back 11

number of divorce petitions filed, reports of anthropologist, the content of letters to the editor or information contained in databases.

Front 12

Quantitative studies

Back 12

collect numerical data. Advantages: submit to statistical analysis, numbers tend to be easier to work with. Gain general information

Front 13

Qualitative studies

Back 13

collect non-numerical data like reports and describing behaviors. Open information gathering/ no fixed variety. Disadvantages: no control of generalizing findings, more time and effort, not efficiently/ quickly analyzed.

Front 14

What is a survey?

Back 14

Questionnaire format to asses people's opinions Ex: phone or paper survey's

Front 15

What are advantages of a survey?

Back 15

Direct access to information, easier to use for large groups

Front 16

What are disadvantages of a survey?

Back 16

Responses may not always be truthful, they may underestimate their negative behaviors, requires a lot of respondents, difficult to organize data, advanced statistics often required

Front 17

What are advantages and disadvantages of a Mail Survey

Back 17

Advantages: cost/population, Integrity of responses, Representative sample easier to acquire

Disadvantages: Low response rate which could cause the survey to be biases

Front 18

How can you obtain a higher response rate for mail surveys?

Back 18

Cover letter (put where you are from, personal signature, and why it is important), pre-contact participants, send reminders

Front 19

What are advantages and disadvantages of a telephone survey?

Back 19

Advantages: more personal, more honest responses

Disadvantages: Hang up, Harder for respondents to understand question, people are weary of confidentiality

Front 20

What are advantages and disadvantages of Group administration?

Back 20

Advantages: saves time and effort

Disadvantages: Population will be limited, longer time block so people won't be as focused, not necessarily confidential

Front 21

What are random errors?

Back 21

Average of all measurements over trials is close to exact trials, chance fluctuation of measurement

Front 22

What are systematic errors?

Back 22

Error associated with bias, pushes measurements in same direction

Front 23

What are the various methods used to test reliability?

Back 23

Test-retest, alternate forms and internal consistency

Front 24

What is Test-retest reliability?

Back 24

assessed by measuring the same individuals at two points in time. Want a positive correlation.

Front 25

What is the problem with the test-retest procedure?

Back 25

Participants might remember what they answered before, some people want to remain consistent, people tend to drop out from time one to time two.

Front 26

What is alternate form reliability?

Back 26

Use a different form of reliability for each time.

Front 27

What is internal consistency reliability?

Back 27

The assessment of reliability using responses at only one point in time.

Front 28

What is split-half reliability?

Back 28

Way to measure internal consistency, the correlation of the total score on one half of the test with the total score on the other half.

Front 29

What is cronbach's alpha?

Back 29

Way to measure internal consistency, taking several correlations, inner correlates each individual item with every other item to examine how related they are to each other.

Front 30

Why is assessing validity so important?

Back 30

If you are saying you are measuring something but measure something else that can be problematic.

Front 31

What is content validity?

Back 31

Items actually represent what they are supposed to represent. Covers all the bases.

Front 32

What is face validity?

Back 32

the degree that you are measuring the variable you are supposed to be measuring.

Front 33

What is criterion validity?

Back 33

Degree to which the test correlates with some outcome criteria, assesses the potential to do well on something else.

Front 34

What are the two types of criterion validity and their definitions?

Back 34

Concurrent: give both measures at the same time

Predictive: give one and then the other

Front 35

What is construct related validity?

Back 35

Assesses the degree of which peoples scores on a measure reflect their true scores on the underlying construct your measure lines to address. Trying to see if several measures share a common theme.

Front 36

What is external validity?

Back 36

The extent to which findings may be generalized

Front 37

Why does failure to randomly select our population threaten external validity?

Back 37

Because you can't really generalize findings because your population would be biased

Front 38

What is population validity?

Back 38

It is a type of external validity which describes how the sample could be applied to the population as a whole.

Front 39

What population is most available to psychologists?

Back 39

College students

Front 40

What is Ecological validity?

Back 40

the ability to generalize results of a study across setting.

Front 41

When does ecological validity exist?

Back 41

When results require a certain location, researcher or material.

Front 42

What are some of the threats to ecological validity?

Back 42

Experimenter effects (biased experimenter): problem because could have interacted with the attitudes of experimenter and expectancies.

Pretesting effect (influence of administering pre-test could have on treatment): Threatens overall generalizability and threatens internal validity

Front 43

What is Mundane realism?

Back 43

Little resemblance to the real world.

Front 44

What is experimental realism?

Back 44

Situation where individuals actually feel involved, impactful that the situation is taken seriously

Front 45

What is the difference between exact and conceptual replications?

Back 45

Exact replication is when you mirror the original procedures/use same materials.

Conceptual replication is more common and is when you use different materials but are testing for the same thing.

Front 46

What did the study by Sales (1973) show?

Back 46

During poor economic/ social times there were certain personality types that were more prevalent.

Front 47

What are the main limitations of archival research?

Back 47

Must use what already exists, don't know how accurate the data is that was already found.

Front 48

What is content analysis?

Back 48

Picking apart answers for certain content/ must be broken down.

Front 49

When do we use content analysis?

Back 49

Case studies, archival and naturalistic observation, when looking at qualitative data, to have a systematic way to analyze content

Front 50

What is the object of content analysis?

Back 50

To get to final conclusions, to classify words, phrases or other units of text into limited number of meaningful categories relevant to the hypotheses.

Front 51

How do we perform a content analysis?

Back 51

Step 1: decide how you want to break up the text certain words or phrases

Step 2: Define the coding scheme

Front 52

What is a case study?

Back 52

Intense analysis on a single individual, group or event, most common in clinical psych., used for new treatments.