Psychology

-A detailed description of a particular individual based
-careful observation or formal psychological testing
-developmental, longitudinal procedure
- Illustrate psychological principles in a way that abstract generalizations and cold statistics never can
-- Information is often missing or hard to interpret
-- Person may be unrepresentative of the group the researcher is interested in
--time consuming

-The researcher observes, measures, and records behavior,
-avoids intruding on the people (or animals) being observed
--cant tell what ppl thk or feel
--cause cannot b conclusively identified

-Typically require people to answer a series of written or oral questions
-valid
-reliable
-standardized

procedures for measuring an evaluation personality traits, emotions, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values

inventories, measure beliefs, feelings, or behaviors which an individual is aware

designed to tap unconscious feelings or motives

uniform procedures exist for giving and scoring the test

must produce the same results from one time and place to the next or from one scorer to another

by giving the test twice to the same group of people and comparing the two sets of scores statistically

by giving different versions of the same test to the same group on two separate occasions

it must measure what it sets out to measure

If the items broadly represent the trait in question

the ability to predict independent measures, or criterion, of the trait in question

-Questionnaires and interviews that gather information by asking people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions
-Produce bushels of data,
--not easy to do well

-Psychologist often want to know whether two or more phenomena are related
--cant tell cause and effect
--relationships may be coincidental

anything that can be measured, rated, or scored

high values of one variable are associated with high values of the other
and vice versa

high values of one variable are associated with low values of the other

-The statistic used to express a correlation
-this number conveys both the size of the correlations and its direction

apparent associations between two things that are not really related

-allows the researcher to control and manipulate the situation being studied
-formulates cause and effect
--maybe unethical
--may not be natural

experimental situation manipulated or varied by the researcher

the behavior that the researcher tries to predict

a fake treatment or sugar pill that looks, tastes, or smells like the real treatment or medication, but is phony

participants arent exposed to the same treatment as as the experimental group

Participants should not know whether they are in an experimental or a control group

unintended changes in a study participants’ behavior due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter

the person running the experiment, the one having actual contact with the participants, also does not know who is in which group until the data have been gathered4

the careful study of behavior in natural contexts such as schools and the workplace