Flashcards for:
Overview of Psychological Research Methods

The limitations of case studies include potential lack of generalizability, as findings from a single individual may not apply to broader populations. They may also be subject to researcher bias.

Wording can lead respondents toward certain answers, and poor sampling can result in non-representative data, both distorting the accuracy and reliability of survey and interview findings.

Avoiding overconfidence is crucial because intuition can often be misleading, leading to incorrect conclusions about human behavior and phenomena.

A hypothesis serves as a testable prediction derived from a theory, guiding the design and direction of studies to examine specific outcomes.

While it describes behavior in natural contexts, naturalistic observation may be misleading as it cannot explain behavior or determine causality.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe, after an event has occurred, that we knew the outcome all along. It affects psychological intuition by making us overconfident in our ability to predict past events, leading to misleading assumptions.

A double-blind procedure ensures that neither participants nor researchers know whose receiving the treatment versus the placebo, helping prevent bias from affecting the results.

Replication allows researchers to repeat studies to verify results, ensuring that findings are consistent across different studies and contributing to the reliability and validity of conclusions drawn.

Control groups serve as a baseline that is not exposed to the independent variable, allowing researchers to compare changes in the experimental group where the variable is modified.

Correlation indicates a possible relationship between variables but does not establish causation. For example, while eating old pizza and hallucination might correlate, other variables could be causing this effect.

Operationalization is crucial because it allows researchers to convert broad questions into specific, testable propositions, which are essential for forming hypotheses and conducting empirical research.

It refers to the tendency for people to perceive patterns or causal relationships in random sequences of events, leading to flawed reasoning or conclusions.

The independent variable, caffeine dosage in this experiment, is what researchers manipulate to observe its effect on the dependent variable, maze completion speed.

Random assignment is crucial because it helps ensure that participants in an experiment are placed into groups impartially, minimizing the influence of confounding variables.

Clear language and defined parameters ensure precise communication of methods and findings, reducing misinterpretations and increasing the study's replicability and reliability.