Dev Res Quiz 1

APA Ethical Principles

� Beneficence & Nonmaleficence: - Strive to benefit those with whom we work and take care not to do harm (including animal subjects)
- Strive to be aware of the possible effect of our own physical and mental health on our ability to help those with whom w

Risks and Benefits

� Risk-benefit analysis
- Direct benefits and material benefits (e.g., educational gain, monetary rewards, etc.)
- Physical harm and psychological stress (e.g., administer drug, fear and anxiety, etc.)
� Must debrief participants to address concerns
� Con

Basic Research

- Research that attempts to increase scientific
knowledge
- Explores fundamental bases of human behavior
- E.g., How does attachment quality differ between
children of divorced parents and children of married
parents?

Applied Research

- Research that addresses practical, real-world
problems
- E.g., Clinical psychology

goal of descriptive research methods

The goal is to describe people's behavior in their natural setting.

examples of descriptive research methods

� Case Studies: Observing and gathering information to compile an in-depth study of an individual or small group
� Naturalistic Observation: Gathering data about behavior, watching but not intervening
� Systematic Observation: A situation is set up to eli

Time Sampling vs. Event Sampling

� Time Sampling
- Record whether or not a behavior happens in a short interval. Ex: in 10 seconds record if a pair (a couple) held hands, then select a different couple and observe and record wether or not they held hands for 10 seconds. Marshmallow test

Limitations of Observations

� Observer bias: Tendency for observer's expectations to influence the results
� Example
- Studying aggression and expect that little boys will be more aggressive than little girls
- Ambiguous behavior - does the gender of the child influence how you scor

assumptions of survey

Involves gathering individuals' thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors through self-report
� Assumption: Individuals are willing and able to respond truthfully
- What are some examples of topics for which participants might not respond truthfully?

response set

Tendency to respond to all questions from a particular perspective rather than providing answers that are directly related to the questions
- Social desirability: More likely to overreport desirable behaviors and underreport undesirable behaviors
- Yea-sa

types of survey questions

Attitudes and beliefs: What do they think about the topic?
- E.g., Should children be required to go to preschool?
� Facts and demographics: Characteristics about the
sample
- E.g., What is your gender?
� Behaviors: Both past and future behaviors - E.g.,

questions. It make the question difficult to understand if...

- unfamiliar or vague terms are used
- a confusing sentence structure
is used
- the phrasing is too complex
- the question contains
misleading information

how to make questions easy to understand

� Simplicity
- Generally speaking, the simpler the wording, the better! Make things clear for the reader
- Avoid esoteric, technical terms
- If an unfamiliar term is used, define it
- Specify or "operationalize" for participants
� E.g., Have you had any c

what kind of questions to avoid?

� Double-barreled Questions
- Avoid questions that ask about two things at once
� E.g., Do you believe that this make up item is affordable and appealing?
- Solution: Separate into two questions
� E.g., Do you believe that this make up item is affordable?

survey questions are either?...

- Close-ended questions: Responses are restricted to a few
choices
� More structured
� Easier to code
� Same types of responses across participants
- Open-ended questions: Questions can be answered freely
� Time-consuming to code
� Difficult to interpret

Correlational Studies

� Measure the relationship between two variables
� Typically used with survey studies
� Example:
- Do the number of books at home relate to children's reading scores?

Predictor Variable

x
The variable that is used to predict changes in another variable
- E.g., # of books at home

Criterion Variable

y
- The outcome variable - E.g., Reading ability

correlation coefficient

a number representing the strength and direction of correlation.

The strength of the relationship refers to

how close the dots are to a straight line, which means one variable changes exactly as the other one does; this number varies from 0.00 to +/- 1.00.

The direction of the correlation can be

positive (both variables increase together) or negative (as one variable increases, the other decreases).
no correlation

Limitations of Correlations

CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION!
� Directionality problem
� Third-variable problem
�Measurements must be on a continuous, numerical scale
� Often relies on self-report
� Random selection/sampling for accurate generalization
- illusory correlations
-

probability sampling

All individuals in the population has an equal chance of being selected to be in sample
- Simple random sampling - Stratified random
sampling
- Cluster sampling

Nonprobability sampling

The probability of an individual being selected for a sample cannot be calculated
Haphazard sampling - Purposive sampling
- Quota sampling

simple random sampling (prob)

Every member of population has an equal chance of being selected for sample.
- E.g., Researcher uses computer program to select sample from all students at UCLA to ask about their opinions about the school.

stratified random sampling (prob)

Population divided into subgroups and random sampling is used to select participants for each subgroup
- E.g., Researcher divides UCLA students by major and then uses computer program to randomly select a certain number of students from each major

cluster sampling (prob)

Sample from clusters or groups rather than individuals. First identify clusters in population and then randomly select clusters. All individuals from clusters participate.
- E.g., Identify groups of psychology majors throughout California (i.e., schools).

haphazard sampling (np)

Sample is gathered in the most convenient way. Can lead to sample biases and limit generalizability.
- E.g., Researcher asks students survey questions as they pass by student union during lunch time.

purposive sampling (np)

Sample is limited to certain criterion and then haphazard sampling is used.
- E.g., Researcher asks survey questions to everyone that passes by location who seems young.

quota sampling (np)

Percentage of each subgroup is pre-selected to be representative of the population and then haphazard sampling is used.
- E.g., Percentage of each age group predetermined. Then researcher finds participants near them to fill those age groups.