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.