Tags & Description
What are the five Methods of Knowing?
intuition, authority, personal experience, custom and tradition, and rationalism
intuition
relying on your guts and emotions or instincts to guide you/basing what you believe to be true on a feeling
authority
much of what a person believes is true comes from a person of authority that you trust and you buy into
personal experience (empiricism)
forming opinions and 'knowledge' based on your observations and experiences
custom and tradition (culture)
believing something to be true because most people in society believe it to be true and this is they way we've always done it
cognitive conservatism
holding onto beliefs even though there are massive amounts of evidence against it
rationalism
using logic and reasoning to acquire new knowledge
Steps in the Scientific Method are...
Make observations
form tentative hypothesis
make a testable prediction
gather data in a systematic manner
use data to support/refute/refine the hypothesis
Conclusions about the scientific method...
it is empirical
it is systematic (not only picking things that fit your hypothesis)
it is objective (you try to minimize bias or influence)
The Goals of Science are...
describe
predict
explain
informal observation
things in your personal life
practical problems
problems in society
research question
question about the relationship between two variables
hypothesis
a prediction about the relationship between two variables
When do you use a research question or a hypothesis?
research question: if you don't have the research, lit review, or evidence hypothesis: if you have evidence pointing one way
variable
anything that varies
quantitative variables
anything that has a number associated with it
categorical variable
anything that has a quality or label associated with it
operational definition
describes a set of procedures that we use to follow or measure a variable
conceptual definition
terms used to describe a variable, may involve other concepts
sampling
a chunk from the whole population
population
every person within a specific group
probability sampling
each member in a population has a specific chance of being selected
simple random sampling
every person in the population has an equal change of being selected
stratified random sampling
divide population into subgroups and use simple random sampling within the groups
non-probability sampling
there is no specified change of being selected
cluster sampling
identify clusters or groups of individuals and randomly select some groups
convenience sampling
get what i can get however i can get it and whenever i can get it
purposive sampling
when you are looking for a certain type of person for a study
proportional sample
numerical number sample 20% guys and 80% girls
independent variable
the variable that the researcher manipulates (the cause)
dependent variable
the variable the researcher measures (the effect)
confounding variable
systematically varies with the independent variable
beneficiates
maximize benefits and minimize risks
What are risks in a study?
psychological harm, physical harm, loss of privacy
autonomy
participants have a choice of whether to participate
deception
intentionally withholding information or lying to participants about something
debriefing
telling people about the experiment afterwards
honest experiment
taking advantage of a real situation that allows you to study what you want to study
justice
why you select your participants
IRB (institutional review board)
oversees the ethical treatment of research participants
exempt research
doing surveys about things that may not elicit any sort of emotional response
What are examples of exempt research?
surveys, questionnaires, educational test, naturalistic observation-studying, something in public, demographic research
minimal risk research
the risk that participants will be in does not exceed the typical risk in daily life
greater than minimal risk research
research that involves mental, physical stress or serious invasion of privacy (must have protections in place)
What are the levels of measurement?
nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio
What does a nominal level of measurement have in it?
category labels
What does an ordinal level of measurement have in it?
category labels, rank order
What does an interval level of measurement have in it?
category labels, rank order, equal intervals
What does a ratio level of measurement have in it?
category labels, rank order, equal intervals, true zero
nominal
variables whose attributes have only the characteristics of exhaustiveness and mutual exclusiveness
exhaustiveness
covering all the possibilities in a variable
mutually exclusive
you can either be this or that
ordinal
variables whose attributes can be logically ranked
interval
variables whose levels are equally distant from one another
ratio
same is interval but it has a true 'zero' point (starts at zero then equidistant)
What are implications of measurement levels?
higher level = richer data
higher level = more analysis can be done
any level of measurement can be reduced by levels can not be reduced
What is an example of a nominal variable?
college major
What is an example of an ordinal variable?
military rank
What is an example of an interval variable?
1, 21, 41, 61, etc.
What is an example of a ratio variable?
0, 20, 40, 60, etc.