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Social and Cross-Cultural Psy (Fach) / Chapter 2 (Lektion)
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- theory a set of abstract concepts (i.e. constructs) together with propositions about how those constructs are related to one another
- construct an abstract theoretical concept (such as social influence)
- variable the term used to refer to the measurable representation of a construct
- hypothesis a prediction derived from a theory concerning the relationship between variables
- participant a person who takes part in a psychological study
- experiment a method in which the researcher deliberately introduces some change into a setting to examine the consequences of that change
- quasi-experiment an experiment in which participants are not randomly allocated to the different experimental conditions (typically because of factors beyond the control of the researcher)
- true randomized experiment an experiment in which participants are allocated to the different conditions of the experiment on a random basis
- random allocation (sometimes called random assignment) the process of allocating participants to groups (or conditions) in such a way that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each group
- survey research a research strategy that involves interviewing (or administering a questionnaire to) a sample of respondents who are selected so as to be representative of the population from which they are drawn
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- sampling the process of selecting a subset of members of a populations with a view to describing the population from which they are taken
- simple random sample a sample in which each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected and in which the selection of every possible combination of the desired number of members is equally likely
- quota sample a sample that fills certain prespecified quotas and thereby reflects certain attributes of the population (such as age and sex) that are thought to be important to the issue being researched
- discourse analysis a family of methods for analysing talk and texts, with the goal of revealing how people make sense of their everyday worlds
- experimental scenario the 'package' within which an experiment is presented to participants
- confederate an accomplice or assistant of the experimenter who is ostensibly another participant but who in fact plays a prescribed role in the experiment
- independent variable the variable that an experimenter manipulates or modifies in order to examine the effect on one or more dependent variables
- operationalization the way in which a theoretical construct is turned into a measurable dependent variable or a manipulable independent vairable in a particular study
- manipulation check a measure of the effectiveness of the independent variable
- dependent variable the variable that is expected to change as a function of changes in the independent variable. Measured changes in the dependent variable are seen as 'dependent on' manipulated changes in the independent variable
- debriefing the practice of explaining to participants the purpose of the experiment in which they have just participated and answering any questions the participant may have
- one-shot case study a research design in which observations are made on a group after some event has occured or some manipulation has been introduced
- post-test only control group design an experimental design in which participants are randomly allocated to one of two groups; one group is exposed to the independent variable, another (the control group) is not
- experimental group a group of participants allocated to the 'experimental' condition of the experiment
- control group a group of participants who are typically not exposed to the independent variable(s) used in experimental research
- factorial experiment an experiment in which two or more independent variables are manipulated within the same design
- main effect a term used to refer to the separate effects of each independent variable in a factorial experiment
- interaction effect a term used when the combination of two (or more) independent variables in a factorial experiment yields an effect that differs from the sum of the main effects
- mediatin variable a variable that mediates the relation between two other variables
- internal validity refers to the validity of the inference that changes in the independent variable result in changes in the dependent variable
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- experimental confound when an independent variable incorporates two or more potentially separable components it is a confounded variable. When an independent variable is confounded, the researcher's ability to draw causal inferences is seriously compromised
- construct validity the validity of the assumption that independent and dependent variables adequately capture the abstact variables (constructs) they are supposed to represent
- social desirability refers to the fact that research participants are likely to want to be seen in a positive light and may therefore adjust their responses or behavior in order to avoid being negatively evaluated
- post-experimental enquiry a technique advocated by Orne for detecting the operation of demand characteristics. The participant is carefully interviewed after participation in an experiment, the object being to assess perceptions of the purpose of the experiment
- unobtrusive measures (also called non-reactive measures) measures that the participant is not aware of, and which therefore cannot influence his or her behaviour
- cover story a false but supposedly plausible explanation of the purpose of an experiment; the intention is to limit the operation of demand characteristics
- external validity refers to the generalizability of research findings to settings and populations other than those involved in the research
- internet experiment an experiment that is accessed via the internet; participants access the experiment via the web, receive insturctions and questions on their computer screen and provide responses via their keyboard or touch screen
- meta-analysis a set of techniques for statistically integrating the results of independent studies of a given phenomenon, with a view to establishing whether the findings exhibit a pattern of relationships that is reliable across studies
- reliability the degree to which a measure is free from measurement error; a measure is reliable if it yields the same result on more than one occasion or when used by different individuals
- participant observation a method of observation in which the researcher studies the target group or community from within, making careful records of what he or she observes
- reactivity a measurement procedure is reactive if it alters the nature of what is being measured
- implicit measures measures of constructs such as attitudes that are unobtrusively assessed (e.g. by reaction times) so that participants are unaware of what is being assessed
- convergent validity established by showing that different measures of the same construct (e.g. self-report, implicit, observation) are significantly associated with each other
- social neuroscience an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behaviour