Social Psychology Alive Ch 2

Front 1

Theories

Back 1

we have an idea about a phenomena explaining why outcome or event happens.

Front 2

Hypotheses

Back 2

what you would expect to see if the theory were true

Front 3

Operational definitions

Back 3

researchers have to define their concepts in ways that they can get meaningful (specific and observable) responses

Front 4

Socially desirable responding

Back 4

some experiments provide subtle suggestions to the participants as to what the "right" answers or behavior is, which can really mess with the data. It could be explaining the "goal" of the research in its entirety (Ch 2 calls this DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS)

Front 5

Unobtrusive measures

Back 5

when participants aren't aware that they are being measured

Front 6

Psychometrics

Back 6

subdiscipline of psychology which has the goal of setting definitions and measures for the ongoing research in psychology

Front 7

Reliability

Back 7

consistency/stability of scores on a measure (p61)

Front 8

Validity

Back 8

are scores measuring what is meant to be measured, like the "underlying concept they are supposed to represent." (p61)

Front 9

Correlational Research

Back 9

Examines whether two or more concepts are associated with one another (p61) Cannot establish causal connections

Front 10

REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

Back 10

a group of participants that accurately represents larger population

Front 11

RANDOM SAMPLING

Back 11

Often used to create a REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE, sampling in a way that everyone in the population has the same chance of being selected (p61)

Front 12

Archival Research

Back 12

Looks at how social psychology trends have appeared in historical data, records, articles, public data

Front 13

OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES

Back 13

researcher watches participants and codes measures from observed behavior" (p61)

Front 14

PARTICIPANT-OBSERVATION RESEARCH

Back 14

researcher actually joins an ongoing group to observe the members' behavior" (p61)

Front 15

Experimental Research

Back 15

empirical investigations in which researchers manipulate one or more concepts and assess the impact of the manipulation(s) on one or more other concepts.

Front 16

INDEPENDENT VARIABLES

Back 16

Manipulated factors

Front 17

DEPENDENT VARIABLES

Back 17

Concepts measured by researcher and may be affected by independent variables

Front 18

EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES

Back 18

these variables are possible sources of error that "should be controlled" (p61)

Front 19

STANDARDIZED PROCEDURES

Back 19

participants are processed in the same way across the board regardless of how different one participant is from another

Front 20

RANDOM ASSIGNMENT

Back 20

helps control extraneous variables because it randomly assigns different participants to separate parts of the experiment

Front 21

DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS

Back 21

cues in the experiment that encourage SOCIALLY DESIRABLE RESPONDING from the participants

Front 22

INTERNAL VALIDITY

Back 22

How much did the research produce clear and causal data?
"Correlational studies tend to have low internal validity"
"Experiments tend to have high internal validity"

Front 23

EXTERNAL VALIDITY

Back 23

How much can the results be used to generalize "beyond the sample, setting, and other characteristics in the study" (p61)

Front 24

SINGLE-FACTOR EXPERIMENT

Back 24

One independent variable

Front 25

FACTORIAL DESIGN EXPERIMENT

Back 25

2+ independent variables, then the "experiment is said to have factorial design" EXAMPLE: Study on source credibility on sleep advice (gym teacher vs. nobel laureate)

Front 26

INTERACTIONS

Back 26

factorial designs make it possible to test whether there are any interactions between independent variables... the level of another manipulation depends on the level of another manipulation (p61) (clue: imagine tables) (common)

Front 27

EXPERIMENTAL REALISM

Back 27

How much does the experiment feel realistic/involving to the participants? This "elicits spontaneous behavior." (p62)

Front 28

MUNDANE REALISM

Back 28

How much the experiment's setting resembles the outside world

Front 29

FIELD EXPERIMENTS

Back 29

experiments done outside a laboratory
increases mundane realism (usually)
increases external validity (usually)

Front 30

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Back 30

committee that must approve the research to protect the participants from undergoing "unacceptable harm"

Front 31

INFORMED CONSENT

Back 31

protects participants by informing them what they can expect in the study and telling them they can withdraw at any time

Front 32

DEBRIEFING

Back 32

protects participants by giving them "a full and complete description of the study's design, purpose, and expected results ... after the study is completed." "If the study involved deception, it must be identified and explained in debriefing" (p62)