| Research Methods in Psychology
When you have studied this chapter, they should be able to:
- Identify the components of the scientific method in psychology, including empirical evidence and operational definitions.
- Distinguish between theories and hypotheses, and discuss the importance of using representative samples and replication in research.
- Identify three descriptive methods used in psychology, and discuss how they are used.
- Describe the correlational method, and distinguish between positive and negative correlation.
- Explain the statement, "Correlation does not necessarily mean causation."
- Identify formal experiments, and describe when they are appropriately used.
- Distinguish between a dependent and an independent variable; distinguish between a control group and an experimental group.
- Discuss the importance of the placebo effect, blind experiments, and experimenter bias.
- Explain the use of descriptive statistics and identify uses of statistics.
- Describe how decisions are reached using data and the concept of statistical significance.
- List and define the five major ethical principles of research with human participants.
- Discuss the use of nonhuman animals in research, and describe the ethical principles associated with these studies.
- Describe the importance of representing human diversity in research.
- Describe the challenges involved in designing a formal experiment.
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