CHAPTER 2 LECTURE

Question 1

What is science?

Answer 1

Science is defined by its goals &
its procedures
* All sciences are concerned with the
understanding, prediction, & control of
some phenomenon of interest

Question 2

What happened in 2022?

Answer 2

In 2022, I-O Psychology was finally
recognized as a STEM discipline.

Question 3

Theory

Answer 3

An explanation of why &/or how a phenomenon
occurs
* An explanation about how a set of constructs (i.e.,
concepts or ideas) are related to one another
* Theories help us make sense of & explain our world
* Theories can never be proven
* Theories are supported or not supported through
research
* Unsupported theories are discarded or modified

Question 4

Expert Witness

Answer 4

witness in a lawsuit who is permitted to
voice opinions about organizational practices.

Question 5

The Research Process

Answer 5

1. Identify a Problem- What are you trying to understand? What is your
   research question?
2. Generate Hypotheses- Use theory to make TESTABLE predictions
3. Collect Data- Collect data on constructs of interest
4. Analyze Results- Test hypotheses
5. Interpret Results- Were hypotheses & theory supported?

Question 6

Research Claims

Answer 6

1. Frequency Claims
2. Association Claims
3. Causal Claims

Question 7

Research Design

Answer 7

Provides the overall
structure or architecture for the research
study; allows investigators to conduct
scientific research on a phenomenon of
interest

Question 8

3 Basic Research Designs

Answer 8

Experimental Design
Quasi-Experimental Design
Non-Experimental Design

Question 9

Organization X wants to try out a new Management Training for all supervisors/managers.
They decide to mandate that all current managers/supervisors go through mandatory
Managerial training for six months. After 6 months, they survey all subordinates and ask for
managerial ratings.

Answer 9

Quasi-Experimental

Question 10

Every year, Gallup measures “Employee Engagement” by distributing the Q12, or their
Employee Engagement Survey (12 questions). They then collect all of their data from all of
their employees and create a composite score by averaging all 12 questions to come up
with 1 engagement score.

Answer 10

Survey

Question 11

Researchers are interested in investigating if job applicants with tattoos are perceived as
less competent than job applicants without tattoos. They have a sample of 10 managers –
5 are assigned to look at applicants’ photos with tattoos, and 5 look at photos without
tattoos. They answer questions based on their perceptions of the applicants’ competence.

Answer 11

Experimental

Question 12

Quantitative

Answer 12

Relies on tests, rating
scales, questionnaires,
and physiological
measures and yield
numerical results

Question 13

Qualitative

Answer 13

Relies on observations,
interviews, case studies,
and analysis of diaries or
written documents and
produce flow diagrams
and narrative descriptions
of events or processes

Question 14

Triangulation

Answer 14

approach
in which researchers seek
converging information
from different sources

Question 15

Generalizability

Answer 15

The ability to apply
the results from one study or sample to
other participants or situations.

Question 16

Experimental control

Answer 16

Characteristic of research in
which possible confounding
influences that might make
results less reliable or harder
to interpret are eliminated

Question 17

Statistical control

Answer 17

Using statistical techniques to
control for the influence of
certain variables. Such control
allows researchers to
concentrate exclusively on the
primary relationship of interest

Question 18

Statistics

Answer 18

What is
Statistics?
A branch of mathematics
devoted to the collection,
compilation, display, &
interpretation of numerical
data

Question 19

Descriptive statistics

Answer 19

Statistics that summarize,
organize, & describe a sample of data
* “describing” the data

Question 20

Inferential statistics

Answer 20

Statistics used to aid the
researcher in testing hypotheses & making inferences
from sample data to a larger sample or population
* Investigating the data to look for relationships

Question 21

Measures of central tendency

Answer 21

Measures of Central Tendency: Statistics that indicate where the center
of a distribution is located
* Mean: The average of the scores in a distribution
* Mode: The most common or frequently occurring score in a distribution
* Median: The middle score in a distribution

Question 22

Measures of variability

Answer 22

Measures of Variability: The extent to which scores in a distribution vary
(i.e., what is the spread of the distribution
* Range: Difference between the highest & lowest values
* Standard Deviation & Variance: Two ways of talking about the spread/dispersion of
scores in relation to the mean within a sample

Question 23

Outlier

Answer 23

Value that lies an abnormal distance from other
values

Question 24

Skew

Answer 24

The extent to which scores in a distribution are lopsided or tend
to fall on the left or right side of the distribution

Question 25

Inferential statistics

Answer 25

Statistics used to aid the researcher in testing hypotheses & making inferences from sample data to a larger sample or population

Question 26

Types of inferential statistics

Answer 26

t-test * F-test (ANOVA) * Correlation * Regression Analysis * Structural equation modeling * Etc.

Question 27

Statistical significance

Answer 27

Indicates that the probability of the observed results having occurred by random chance if the null hypothesis is true is less than 5% * p : The probability that the observed effects were due to chance * Doesn’t say anything about strength of association or practical importance of effect * Standard threshold for significance is p < .05, but can be set lower (e.g., .01) 24