Study Guide: 120L Spring 2013

Lecture 1: Introduction and Ethics

Describe the four scientific cycles: theory-data cycle, basic-applied research cycle, peer review cycle,
journaljournalism cycle.
Theory-data cycle
Scientist collect data to test, change or update their theories.
Taking systematic steps to solve a problem and depending on how the problem is solved
determines the next solution
Basic-applied research
The goal is to understand basic processes of behavior in order to solve a common problem
peer review cycle
When scientists want to tell the scientific world about the results of their research, whether
basic or applied, they write a paper and submit it to a scientific journal


Three general principles guide ethical research: Respect for Persons, Justice, Beneficence. What do
these three concepts refer to?


Beneficence
The belief that you should have the welfare of the participants in mind when performing the
research
Justice
Treat people justly and fairly. Do not look for specific participants and do not have the cost
of the research outweigh the benefit.
How are the 3 principles applied in research? For example, how do these principles guide informed
consent? What is informed consent? How do the 3 principles guide the selection of participants? How
do the 3 principles guide the assessment of risks and benefits? What do risks and benefits refer to?
Is this part of the APA ethics code? Psychologists do not fabricate data .
They show respect to the participants by letting them know what they are participating it as well as
being fair to them by informing them of any risks that it may involve. Risk of the study versus their
overall benefit to society.

Lecture 2: Research Designs

Distinguish between descriptive, qualitative, correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental
studies.
All they do is describe certain attributes of a given population, a census would be a good
analogy to it
Qualitative are studies done on special cases or limited populations usually through interviews
to get a large amount of data on their specific circumstances
Non-experimental research that is designed to find a correlation between variables
Experimental research seeks to find causality between two events, it must meet certain criteria
Manipulation of IV(s) the cause
Random assignment of groups or conditions (levels of IV)
Measurement of DVthe effect
Control of extraneous variables
Quasi-experimental
Comparison of pre-existing groups
Assignment not random
 Less control of extraneous variables
Do not manipulate IV
Does not allow for causal conclusions

In a quasi-experimental design IVs are not manipulated. Give an example of an independent variable
that cannot be manipulated.
IV of cigarette smoking

The next four questions refer to choices A. B. C. and D. below:

Describe why C is the best example of a question best answered with correlational analysis out of the
four
choices below.
How many levels are there in the IV in D.?
What kind of statistical test would you use to test A?
Is prosocial behaviors in B a continuous or categorical variable? Distinguish between a continuous
vs.
categorical variable.
A. Are psychology majors more social than engineering majors? Pearson Correlation between their
major and social behaviors.
B. Do children who watch Sesame Street show more prosocial behaviors (rated as 1 7, 1= not
prosocial to 7 = very prosocial) than those who watch Sponge Bob?
1. Continuous, it is sorted by those that watch Sponge Bob versus Sesame Street
C. Does a persons height relate to her/her income earned?
1. You can't manipulate participants height at random. And so you would thus need to pull
from a random pool of subjects and survey their income.
D. Do parents who do yoga exhibit more patience with their young children compared to parents who
dont do yoga?
1. 2 Parents that practice yoga and those that do not
What is the pearson correlation coefficient? Explain why correlation does not imply causation.
r, correlation is merely the relationship between two things it does not state whether one thing causes
another causation has three criteria;
Internal validity
Temporal precedence
Covariance
Two problems for why correlation does not imply causation are the directionality problem (reverse
or bidirectional causation), and the third variable problem. What do these two problems refer to?

It could be that one thing causes the other in the opposite direction such as being social causing one to
be a psychology major and vice versa depending on how you study it. And then the third variable could
be something that causes the relationship that is not controlled for, such as saying age causes ice cream
consumption but testing this during a heat wave.
What kind of study do we need to do to claim causality? Experimental
What kind of study uses manipulation of IVs and random assignment of conditions? Experimental
In the Two Group study in class (Group 1 was supposed to give a mini-lesson while Group 2 was
supposed to listen), the independent variable was level of stress (Group 1 = high, Group 2 = low). What
kind of manipulation check could you do to test whether the manipulation (telling half the class they
would have to give a mini-lesson) actually worked? Ask them how really feel, nervous or what have
you.
Distinguish between a between-subjects design and within-subjects design
 1. Between-subjects: People are in different conditions with defined groups such as the control
group and so on
2. Within-subjects: People are in all conditions
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a within-subjects design?
1. Less random errors
2. Less people needed
3. People can be their own controls
1. Order bias
2. Contamination
3. Counterbalancing these effects

Lecture 3: Measurement Issues

What does it mean to operationalize a construct? To give it a value that is testable statistically or in a
meaningful manner (concrete, measurable)
What are frequency claims, association claims, and causal claims? Give an example of each.
1.
2. That there are things that are associated with one another
3. One thing leads to another
What do the four validity refer to: construct, external, internal, statistical.
1. Construct is does it appear to measure what we want it to measure
2. external is does it generalize outside of the testing populations
3. Internal eliminate other possible explanations for the result that you got.
4. Statistical: how well are errors minimized to show actual significance
What are three types of external validity?
1. Population
2. setting
3. task/stimulus
4. temporal/social
Sampling what does WEIRD stand for and how does this acronym relate to sampling issues?
Western Educated Industrial Rich Democratic, people from Western more industrialized nation are
much more likely to be used for psychology experiments thus we are not getting the views of non-
Westerners.
Lecture 4: Statistical Testing
What is the difference between descriptive and inferential statistics?
1. Descriptive: Statistics used to summarize or describe observations
2. Inferential: Statistics used to draw inferences from a observations to a more general population.
For descriptive statistics you would use measures of frequency, central tendency, and variability
know what these are.
1. Frequencies How often something occurs in the data or in a population
2. Central tendency Mean/average, median (middle statistic), mode (most repeated value)
3. Variability - Range
What is: mean, median, and mode?
What is a null hypothesis and alternate hypothesis?
1. Null is if you do not find any significant data, thus it occurs by chance then you have to fail to
reject it.
2. Alternate if the data does not occur by chance then it could have been from the effect of the IV
or a real relationship between variables.
In correlational analysis should the IV and DV be continuous or categorical?
1. Continuous (both)
 According to Cohens conventions what size correlation is small/weak, medium/moderate, and
large/strong?
1. R=.10 is weak, r=.30 is moderate r=.50 is strong
In a t-test should the IV be continuous or categorical? The DV?
1. IV 2 categories, DV Continuous
In an ANOVA should the IV be continuous or categorical? The DV?
1. IV Multiple categories, Continuous
In a chi-square should the IV be continuous or categorical? The DV?
1. IV two or more categories, DV Categorical
What is a directional hypothesis vs. nondirectional hypothesis?
1. Directional states that when you change something in the IV that there will be a direct effect on
the DV
2. Nondirectional states that there will be a change between the IV and DV but does not say which
is the cause for the other.
What does it mean for a correlation to be statistically significant at p < .05?
1. That the results are significant
What is a Type I error and Type II error?
1. Reject the null hypothesis when we shouldn't
2. Fail to reject it when we shouldn't
An independent t-test is used to test whether there is a significant difference between two groups.
An ANOVA is used to test whether there is a significant difference between ________ means. ANOVA
is also used if you have more than two levels of IVs.
When would you use a paired t-test?
To compare two means of two variables for two groups that are related.

What kind of test is used to compare whether observed frequencies in categories differ from what
would be expected by chance? For example, whether there are more females who brushed their teeth
vs. males.
Chi-squares

Lecture 5: Writing an APA paper

In a 2 x 2 design ANOVA design, how many IVs are there? How many levels are in each IV? 2 Ivs at 2
levels
In a 2 x 2 design ANOVA what is the main effect referring to? An interaction? 2 main effects of the two
Ivs and the interaction between them.
What is a mediator variable? Give an example.
1. It explains the relationship between the IV and DV
What is a moderator variable? Give an example.
1. A variable that effects the direction and strength of the IV and DV.
Bem says a paper should follow an hourglass shape. Describe what sections go into this hourglass
shape.
Introduction: General to specific
Methods and Results: Very specific
Discussion: Specific to general

Which of these doesnt belong in the methods section: participants, research design, measures,
limitations of the study, statistical analyses, procedure, hypotheses.
In the results section should you discuss what the results mean? No
We hypothesized that there would be a negative correlation between number of drinks consumed
before a party and self-esteem. The average number of drinks that participants reported consuming was
3.10 (SD = 1.43) and the average level of self-esteem was 6.03 (SD = .68). The results showed a
positive correlation between number of drinks before attending a party and self-esteem (r = ___ , p =
_____). Therefore, the hypothesis was not supported.
Using the table below, fill in the blanks to the paragraph above.
In this results section where you filled in the blanks, what is the inferential statistic that is reported?
In what section of an APA style paper do you report limitations of the study? Discussion
In what section of an APA style paper do you summarize the entire study? Abstract
You have written a method section for an experimental study. If you had conducted a correlational
study, which part of the method section will be most similar? (A. Participants, B. Design, C. Materials,
D. Procedure).
What are three topics that should be included in the Discussion section of an APA paper?
A. Method of research, implications of findings, interpretation of results
B. Justification of analysis, limitation of findings, implications of results
C. Interpretation of results, implications of findings, limitation of study
D. Listing of procedures, limitation of study, description of future research
Lecture 7: Tables and Figures
When should you use a table vs. a figure?
1. Tables; When you have small datasets and to show precise numbers
2. Figures: Larger datasets, to see trends not readily available in tables
Be able to recognize an interaction from a figure. Be able to know what the IV and DV are from a
figure. If you found an interaction in your analyses would a table or graph be better to show the
interaction? A graph
What kind of graph should you never use in an APA style paper? Pie chart
Be able to identify the important components of a good graph (e.g., labels for x-axis, y-axis, title, its
clear what the numbers mean). What are 3 common mistakes made with figures/tables in APA style
research papers?
Duplication in text of material in tables and figures.
Presentation of tables and figures that are unintelligible without reference to the text.
Presentation of tables and figures with no or minimal discussion.
T.A. Presentations:
Hannah presented her research on whether an online intervention reduced adolescents weight and
shape concerns. She used a 2 x 2 mixed design. What does that refer to? What was the intervention?
Did the intervention work?
1. 2 Ivs with 2 levels and a continuous DV.
2. She used an online intervention program that spread knowledge on the pressures that Western
cultures put on people to see if peoples scores on the WCS dropped.
3. It worked for girls, but there was no way to determine the effect on males due to the fact that it
was a measure made specifically for females
Jessica presented her research on the effect of weight salience during exercise. How did she manipulate
weight salience? What did she find? What was her sample?
1. She placed people in front of a mirror while they were exercising or not
2. 60 female Undergraduates that rated themselves above their ideal body weight
3. Weight salience during exercise causes a threat response decreasing desire and self-efficacy to
exercise
Kevin presented his research on understanding disclosure among non-heterosexual Latino men. He is
taking a qualitative approach to his research. What does qualitative research refer to? What does
grounded theory refer to?
1. There is no absolute data that he is collecting, he is working on interviews and more subjective
 data.
2. A theory that is built from the ground up with research building the theory after finding results
Diana presented her research on people experiencing trauma and the working alliance in therapy. What
intervention she was testing? What was the big flaw in her study design that she pointed out?
1. She was testing the importance of daily diaries in the working alliance between clients and
therapists
2.
Elizabeth presented her research on positive emotions and coping styles. How did she manipulate
positive emotion? What were her findings? Did she reject the null hypothesis?
1. She had people watch videos about amusement or love
2. People did not report a difference in the video clips that she had chose for their emotions
3. No she did not.
Labs:
Lab 1: Describe different question types: open-ended(fill in), dichotomous (yes, no), rank-order (rank
things), Likert (scale). What are the advantages and disadvantages of using open-ended and close-
ended questions?
1. Fast, easier to code, use statistics on. Sometimes you do not get the full range of responses. Not
good if you do not understand it.
What type of response scale did the measures of self-esteem and personality use?
1. Likert
2. Dichotomous
Lab 2: What is PsycINFO?
1. Database of research articles
Lab 4: What does it mean to reverse-code an item?
1. You make it so that the upper value such as 7 in a likert scale is what would usually be one on
the scale. This is usually used to prevent nay or yay saying.
What does reliability of a measure refer to?
1. used to describe the overall consistency of a measure. A measure is said to have a high
reliability if it produces similar results under consistent conditions.