Notes taken on Research Method

Hindsight Bias: the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.

Overconfidence: we tend to think we know more than we do. 

The Barnum Effect: it is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterization of themselves and take them to me accurate. 

Applied v. Basic research: applied research has clear, practical applications. 
Practical applications: 
  • Applied: has clear practical applications, you can see it!!!
  • Basic: explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be. 
Independent variable: whatever is being manipulated in the experiment, hopefully brings out change. 

operational definitions: explain what you mean in your hypothesis. 
dependent variable: whatever is being measured in the experiment, it is the dependent of the independent. 

Experimental method: looking to prove causal relationships
Cause= effect

Sampling: the sample must be representative of the population you want to study. 

Random assignment:  experimental Group v. Control group.

Hawthorne Effect: just the fact that you know you are in the Experimental can cause change, another confounding variable. Not a conscious act. 

Double- blind Procedure
  • single: one group is unaware of the experiment. 
  • double- neither the experimenter nor the participate is aware of who's receiving the treatment.  
Placebo Effect: a harmless pill medicine or procedure prescribed more for a psychological effect than psychical effect. To learn more: Placebo Effect

Correlational method:  
  • correlation express of a relationship between two variables, does not show causation. 
                                  Types of correlation
Positive correlation   
Negative correlation
The variables go in the same direction
The variables go in the opposite direction

Survey Method: Most common type of study in psychology, measures correlation cheap and fast, needs a good random sample low response rate.

Naturalistic Observation: watch subject in their natural environment. The bad is what we see can never really show cause and effect

Correlation Coefficient: a number that measures the strengths of a relationship, Ranges from -1 to 1, number get weaker the closer you get to 0.

Case Studies: a detailed picture of one or few subjects, does not give correlation data.

Cross Sectional Research: analyzes a sample of the population at one point in time.

Longitudinal: analyzing the same people over a period of time.

Descriptive Statistics: just describes sets of data
Mean: average
Mode: most common
Median: number of the middle, numerically arranged.



Comments

  1. I agree with most of the information presented on the topic of "Research Methods". I feel as if you explained this concept very well and summarized to the point where it's easy and efficient for the readers to retain and learn information from. However, there is one small thing I disagree on, which is your definition of a "Single Blind Procedure". You stated that this procedure is defined as when "one group is unaware of the experiment". Your answer is partially correct but it is vague and does not give the full definition of this term. A single blind procedure is instead when only the researchers know the participants, and not any group in general. But other than that, I really enjoyed this blog entry, and I look forward to coming back and reading more of your posts.

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  2. i agree on your concept on research method, especially with the descriptive statistics and the different types

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  3. I agree with your notes and I love the way they are set up. It makes reading it very easy to comprehend and to follow. However maybe you could have added some examples just in case a student were to read your notes and still didn't understand the topic.

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