Research Methods & Statistics Knowledge Organizer

Here’s a knowledge organizer I’ve created of the most essential concepts for research methods and statistics in an introductory psychology course. These knowledge organizers are designed to help you identify the most important factual knowledge you need to have in … Read More

Ethical Guidelines for Psychological Research

In this video I explain the major ethical guidelines for conducting research in psychology with human subjects including informed consent, freedom from coercion, protection from harm, risk-benefit analysis, anonymity and/or confidentiality, and debriefing. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel … Read More

External Validity

In this video I explain external validity (or ecological validity) and criticisms of artificiality that can arise from laboratory experimentation. I also explain naturalistic observation and field experiments as ways of overcoming artificiality and collecting real-life data, though both of … Read More

Internal Validity

In this video I explain the concept of internal validity and how it acts as a checklist for considering whether an independent variable has been effectively manipulated, a dependent variable has been measured without bias, and a clear pattern can … Read More

Frequency Distributions, Normal Curves, and Skew

In this video I explain how a frequency distribution can create a visual representation of our data. I also describe a normal curve or “bell curve” and what it means for mean, median, and mode. Then I consider skewed distributions … Read More

Understanding Significance and P-values

In this video I explain the concept of significance and how it relates to both effect size, sample size, and the law of large numbers. The role of a p-value in describing the likelihood of data is explained with an … Read More

Measures of Variance: Range and Standard Deviation

In this video I describe two more descriptive statistics, both of which are measures of variance: the range and the standard deviation. I explain what the standard deviation tells us about a distribution of scores and how it is calculated. … Read More

Difference between a Theory and a Hypothesis

In this video I describe the difference between a theory and a hypothesis. I also explain how evidence can support or refute a hypothesis but can never prove a theory. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel to see future … Read More

Measures of Central Tendency

In this video I cover descriptive statistics and three measures of central tendency; the mean, median, and mode. The calculation of each is explained, as well as potential problems, such as the mean’s sensitivity to extreme scores, especially in small … Read More