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Chapter 2 - The Methods of Social Psychology

Terms in this set (27)

hindsight bias
people's tendency to be overconfident about whether they could have predicted a given outcome, "I knew it all along"
case study
descriptive research approach to obtain an in-depth analysis of a person, group, or phenomenon: personal interviews, direct-observation, tests, and archival records
observational research
correlational (non-experimental) research in which a researcher observes and describes a subject's behavior
archival research
looking at evidence that can be found in archives of various kinds
survey
asking people questions, done with interviews or written questionnaires
correlational research
research in which there is not random assignment to different situations, and from which psychologists can just see if there's relationship between the variables
experimental research
research in which people are randomly assigned to different conditions, and from which it is possible to make very strong inferences about how these different conditions affect people's behavior
longitudinal study
a study conducted over a long period of time with the same population, which is periodically assessed about a specific behavior
self-selection
a problem arises when the participant, rather than the investigator, selects his or her level on each variable
independent variable
in experimental research, the variable that is manipulated and that is hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome
dependent variable
in experimental research, the variable that is measured and hypothesized to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable
random assignment
assigning participants in experimental research to different groups randomly, so that they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as to another
control condition
a condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one thing hypothesized to produce the expected effect on the dependent variable
natural experiment
empirical study in which individuals exposed to the experimental/control conditions are determined by nature or by other factors outside the control of the investigators
external validity
the extent to which the conclusions from your research study can be generalized to the people outside of your study
field experiment
an experiment set up in the real world, usually with participants who are not aware that they are in a study of any kind
internal validity
occurs when a researcher controls all variables and the only variable influencing the results of a study is the one being manipulated by the researcher
debriefing
before the experiment asking participants if they understood the instructions or found the setup to be reasonable, later used to educate the participants about the questions being studied
reliability
the degree to which the way we measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results
measurement validity
the correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predict
statistical significance
a measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance
basic science
science concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon, with a view toward using that understanding to build valid theories about the nature of the world
applied science
science concerned with solving some real-world problem of importance
intervention
efforts to change people's behavior
IRB (Institutional Review Boad)
a university committee that examines research proposals and makes judgements about the ethical appropriateness of the research
informed consent
legal procedure to ensure that participants are aware of all the potential risks and costs involved
deception research
research in which the participants are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them
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