Descriptive Methods

Summary: Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation

describe behaviors.
Correlation: when one trait or behavior accompanies another, we
sat that the two correlate.
o + means that they both go up or down together
o means that they go opposite ways (one up/one down)
Scatterplots: a graph comprised of points that are generated by
values of two variables. The slope of the points depict the
direction
o Perfect negative= -1.00
o Perfect positive= +1.00
o No correlation= 0.00
Correlation and Causation: correlation does not mean causation!
Just because two things go together, does not mean that one can
make a conclusion and guess about two things that correlate
because it not always is true that they will cause each other to
do things.
Illusory Correlation: the perception of a relationship where no
relationship actually exists.
o Parents conceive children after adoption.
Order in Random events: given random data, we look for order
and meaningful patterns
o Poker hand that is dealt (royal hand is just as likely as
random number hand)
o Someone wining the lottery twice on the same day

Experimentation: exploring cause and effect

Experiments manipulate factors that interest us while other

factors are kept under control
Double Blind procedure: when a doctor and a patient both do not
know if the drug administered is a placebo or not
Random Assignment: assigning participants to experimental
(breast-fed) and control (formula-fed) conditions by random
assignment minimizes pre-existing differences between the two
groups
Independent Variable: a factor manipulated by the experimenter.
The effect of the independent variable is the focus of the study.
o Ex: when examining the effects of breast feeing upon
intelligence. Intelligence is the dependent variable

Statistical reasoning: statistical procedures analyze and interpret

data allowing us to see what the unaided eye misses.
Describing Data: a meaningful description of data is important in
research. Misrepresentation may lead to incorrect conclusions.
Measures of Central Tendency:
o Mode: the most frequent number in a set
o Mean: the average of the numbers in a set
o Median: the middle score in a rank-ordered set
Measures of Variation
o Range: the difference between the highest and the lowest
scores in a distribution
o Standard deviation: a computed measure of how much
scores vary around the mean.
Illusion of Control: the chance events are subject to personal
control is an illusion of control fed byo Illusory correlation: the perception of a relationship where
no relationship actually exists
o Regression towards the mean: the tendency for extremes
of unusual scores
Making inferences: a statistical statement of how frequently an
obtained result occurred by experimental manipulation or by
chance
o When is an Observed difference Reliable?
1. Representative samples are better than biased samples
2. Less-variable observations are more reliable than more
variable ones.
3. More cases are better than fewer cases.