Research Methods in Social Psychology Vocabulary

  1. studies how biological systems are implemented in social processes and behaviour
    social neuroscience
  2. different measures of the same construct are significantly associated with each other
    convergent validity
  3. measures of constructs such as attitudes that are unobtrusively assessed (eg. by reaction times) so that participants are unaware of what is being assessed
    implicit measures
  4. procedure that alters the nature of what is being measured
    reactivity
  5. researcher studies the target group from within
    participant observation
  6. a measure that yields the same result on multiple occasions or when used by different individuals
    reliability
  7. techniques for establishing whether findings exhibit a pattern of relationship that is reliable across studies
    meta analysis
  8. an experiment that is accessed via the internet; participants receive instructions via the web and provide responses via their keyboard or touch screen
    internet experiment
  9. generalisability of research findings to settings and populations other than those involved in the research
    external validity
  10. false but plausible explanation of the purpose of the experiment, limits operation of demand characteristics
    cover story
  11. participant is not aware of therefore cannot influence their behaviour
    unobtrusive measures (also known as non-reactive measures)
  12. assesses participants perceptions of the purpose of the experiment (Orne, 1962)
    post-experimental enquiry
  13. participants are likely to want to be seen in a positive light and may therefore adjust their responses
    social desirability
  14. the assumption that independent and dependent variables adequately capture the abstract variables are supposed to
    construct validity
  15. when an independent variable has two or more separable components
    experimental confound
  16. the inference that changes in the independent variable result in changes in the dependent variable
    internal validity
  17. the extent to which a measure precisely measures what it is supposed to measure
    validity
  18. a variable that mediates the relation between two other variables
    mediating variable
  19. 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
    interaction effect
  20. a term used to refer to the separate effects of each independent variable in a factorial experiment
    main effect
  21. an experiment in which two or more independent variables are manipulated within the same design
    factorial experiment
  22. a group of participants who are typically not exposed to the independent variable(s) used in experimental research
    control group
  23. a group of participants allocated to the 'experimental' condition of the experiment
    experimental group
  24. 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
    post-test only control group design
  25. a research design in which observations are made on a group after some event has occurred or some manipulation has been introduced
    one-shot case study
  26. the practice of explaining to participants the purpose of the experiment in which they have just participated and answering any questions they may have
    debriefing
  27. the variable that is expected to change as a function of change in the independent variable. Measured changes in the dependent variable are seen as 'dependent' on manipulated changes in the independent variable
    dependent variable
  28. a measure of the effectiveness of the independent variable
    manipulation check
  29. the way in which a theoretical construct is turned into a measurable dependent variable or a manipulable independent variable in a particular study
    operationalisation
  30. the variable that an experimenter manipulates in order to examine the effect on one or more dependent variables
    independent variable
  31. accomplice of the experimenter who is ostensibly another participant but who in face plays a prescribed role in the experiment
    confederate
  32. the 'package' within which an experiment is presented to participants
    experimental scenario
  33. the use of multiple methods and measures to research a given issue
    triangulation
  34. analysing talk and texts, with the goal of revealing how people make sense of their everyday worlds
    discourse analysis
  35. a sample that fills certain pre-specified quotas and thereby reflects certain attributes of the population (such as age and sex) that are though to be important to the issue being researched
    quota sample
  36. 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 numbers of members is equally likely
    simple random sample
  37. the process of selecting a subset of members of a population with a view to describing the population from which they are taken
    sampling
  38. involves interviewing (or administering a questionnaire to) a sample of respondents who are selected so as to be representable of the population from which they are drawn. Measures existing levels of variable rather than manipulating them
    survey research
  39. 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
    random allocation (sometimes called random assignment)
  40. an experiment in which participants are allocated to the different conditions of the experiment on a random basis
    true randomised experiment
  41. an experiment in which the participants are not randomly allocated to the different experiment conditions (typically because of factors beyond the control of the researchers)
    quasi-experiment
  42. a method in which the researcher deliberately introduces some change into a setting to examine the consequences of that change
    experiment
  43. a person who takes part in a psychological study
    participant
  44. a prediction derived from a theory concerning the relationship between variables
    hypothesis
  45. the term used to refer to the measurable representation of a construct
    variable
  46. an abstract theoretical concept (such as social influence)
    construct
  47. a set of abstract concepts (ie. constructs) together with propositions about how those constructs are related to each other
    theory
Author
gcad
ID
215538
Card Set
Research Methods in Social Psychology Vocabulary
Description
Chapter 2 from Introducing Social Psychology 5E Hewstone et al.
Updated