Descriptive Research

Any research that observes and records types of descriptive research 

The Case Study: a detailed picture of one or a few subjects.
                                   

Survey Method: Most common types of study in psychology, measures correlation, cheap and fast, *problem* low response rate. 

Random Sampling: Identify the population you want to study. 


False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

                                      

Naturalistic observation: Watch subjects in their natural environment. 
  

Hawthorne effect: Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment, can cause change. 

Correlation method: Correlation expresses a relationship between to variables (person, things) 

Correlation coefficient: A number that measures the strength of a relationship. The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero.

Positive correlation: Variables go in the same direction.
Negative correlation: Variables go in opposite directions.

 

Research Methods

Hindsight bias: The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew all along.

Overconfidence: We tend to think we know more than we do. 
 

The Barnum Effect: It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate. 

Applied Research: Clear practical applications *you can use it* 

Basic Research: Explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used. 

Hypothesis: Expresses a relationship between 2 variables, a variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study. 

Independent Variable: Whatever is being manipulated in an experiment.

Dependent Variable: Whatever is being tested in an experiment.

Operational Definitions: Explain what you mean in your hypothesis. *How will the variables be measured in real life terms?*