AP psychology chapter 2 Flashcards
Hindsight bias
After hearing about something, people believed they knew it all along.
Applied research
Research that has real, practical applications, e.g testing efficacy of smoking addiction programs.
Basic research
Research about something interesting but with no real world application, used as basis for applied research (e.g studying how people form attitudes about others.
Valid
The research is accurate, represents/measures what the researcher set out to measure.
Reliable
The research is internally consistent.
Standardized
Tests produce the same results after many administrations.
Sample
A group of participants.
Sampling
Decides who or what to study to investigate a hypothesis. Must identify population first.
Population
Anyone or anything that could have been selected.
Theory
Aims to explain a phenomenon, used to generate a testable hypothesis.
Operational definition
The way a variable is measured (e.g surveys, self report inventories, kilometres, etc.
Random sampling
Selecting random subjects from all possible participants, ensures sample is a representative of the general population and that all have an equal chance of being selected.
Stratified sampling
Each member of the larger population is categorized into another subset based on characteristics. For example, age, gender. Allows researcher to ensure that the sample accurately represents the population on a specific criteria.
Representative sample
A sample that accurately represents the population on a specific criteria. E.g in a population with 200 Chinese, 500 African Americans, and 300 latinos, a representative sample would in life 20 Chinese, 50 African Americans, and 30 latinos.
Lab experiments
Conducted in labs - highly controlled environments. Conditions are controlled.
Field experiments
Conducted out in the world, more realistic.
Confounding variables
An unmeasured variable that may cause a difference between the experimental conditions and control conditions; will likely affect the independent variable.
Participant-relevant confounding variables
Any differences amongst participants that may skew results, e.g education; random assignment limits this.
Situation relavent confounding variables
Differences in experimental environment that can impact results, e.g time of day; limited by group matching.
Assignment
Comes after sampling, participants, after being chosen, are put into either the experimental or control group.
Random assignment
Each participant has an equal chance of being placed in any group, limits participant relevant founding variables.
Group matching
Could be used to make sure the 2 similar groups are similar on some criteria (such as sex, age, iq), minimizes situation relavent variables.
Experimenter bias
A type of situation relavent confounding variable when the researcher subconsciously treats participants differently to support their hypothesis.
Double-blind procedure
Prevents experimenter bias, in which neither researchers nor participants can interact/affect outcome of research.
Single-blind procedure
Only the participants don’t know which group they are in, minimizes affects of demand characteristics and response/participant bias.
Response or participant biases
Tendency for participants to consciously or unconsciously respond/behave in a certain way. One kind is social desirability.