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PSYS 284 Mittleman

Terms in this set (25)

internal validity
the degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable
History (internal validity threat)
The threat that some event occurred that impacted the variables other than the independent variable
Maturation (threat to internal validity)
any physiological or psychological changed that occurs in participants during the study and influences the participants scores
Testing (threat to internal validity)
a threat to internal validity produced by a previous administration of the same test or other measure
instrumentation threat (threat to internal validity)
a threat to internal validity that occurs when a measuring instrument changes over time from having been used before
statistical regression threat (threat to internal validity)
a threat to internal validity that can occur when subjects are assigned to conditions on the basis of extreme scores on a test; upon retest, the scores of extreme scorers tend to regress toward the mean even without any treatment
selection (threat to internal validity)
can occur when nonrandom procedures are used to assign subjects to conditions or when random assignment fails to balance out differences among subjects across the different conditions of the experiment
experimental mortality (threat to internal validity)
a differential loss of subjects from experimental and control groups that affects the equivalency of groups; threat to internal validity
experimenter bias (threat to internal validity)
occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
external validity
the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people
Hawthorne effect (threat to external validity)
the tendency for people to behave differently when they know they are being studied
evaluation apprehension (threat to external validity)
concern for how others are evaluating us
demand characteristics (threat to external validity)
cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected
selection threat (threat to external validity)
generalization for a sample to the general population
mortality (threat to external validity)
the differences between treatment groups may be because of the drop-out rate of subjects from a specific experimental group, which would cause the groups to be unequal
construct validity
the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure
content validity
the extent to which a test samples the behavior that is of interest
predictive validity
Refers to the function of a test in predicting a particular behavior or trait.
Reliability of Measurement
consistency of measurement
random selection vs random assignment
Random selection is how you draw the sample of people for your study from a population.

Random assignment is how you assign the sample that you draw to different groups or treatments in your study.
Matching
The procedure where pairs of subjects are matched on the basis of their similarities on one or more variables, and one member of the pair is assigned to the experimental group and the other to the control group
extraneous variable
A variable other than the IV that might cause unwanted changes in the DV.
good experiment
-makes comparisons
-avoids bias
-has enough data
control group
In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
independent variable
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
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