AP Psychology - Test #3 Flashcards
Theory
a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations
hypothesis
a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables
Variables
Any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study.
operational definition
defining procedures in order for making an experiment (example study if age is related to addiction measure age to see how you will explain your thoughts and account for aging process of days, weeks, months, and years your second variable is the addiction which is quite complicated the researcher must decide how they want to define addiction in their experiment and what addiction is they may decide the definition of addiction is if someone meets the DSM diagnostic criteria for substance abuse)
data collection
procedures for making empirical observations and measurements
participants/subjects
are the people or animals whose behaviour is systematically observed in a study
Research Methods
consists of differing approaches to the observation
the experiment
is a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result
dependent variable
dependent variable is the variable that is dependent on the independent variable
independent variable
the independent variable is the variable you are changing in the experiment the thing that makes the control group and the experimental group different from each other
extraneous variables
any variables that you are not investigating that could lead to a change in the result of your study (ex. in a study if on nicotine addiction and cold turkeying, an extraneous variable would be if one of the patients didn’t know that they were genetically predisposed to be more susceptible to it.
correlation
exists when two variables are related to each other
the experimental group
consists of the subjects who receive the experiment in regard to the independent variable
confounding variable
variables that produce distorted associations between two variables
Control group
consists of similar subjects who do not receive the experiment given to the experimental group
naturalistic observation
a researcher engages in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects, ex. documentations who have an unspoken rule when filming wildlife not to intervene
correlation coefficient
is a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables
a case study
is a long in depth investigation of a group of people
reactivity
occurs when a subject’s behavior is altered by the presence of an observer
survey
researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants’ background, attitudes, beliefs, or behavior
sampling bias
exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn.
placebo effects
occur when participants’ expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment. ex. women were given a beauty patch and their moods were and felt better about themselves they later found out the patch had nothing in it.
a sample
a sample is the collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study
the population
is the much larger collection of animals or people that researchers want to generalize about
The social desirability bias
a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself
Experimenter bias
occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
random selection
Taking people at random people to be in your study
main rule with experimental and control group is?
the experimental group and control group be alike except for the different types of treatment
3 types of corellational/descriptive research
Naturalistic observation
Case studies
Surveys
positive correlation
a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease together they do not inverse each other (example those who do well in high school tend to well in college also) a perfect positive correlation makes +1
negative correlation
as one variable increases, the other decreases
(example in college gaining more absences in class lowers your exam scores) a perfect negative correlation gives a -1
What happens if a correlation is negative?
a minus sign is always placed in front of coefficient
the double blind procedure
is a research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups
Replication
is the repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are replicable
meta-analysis
combines the statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and consistency of a variable’s effects
correlation strength
the size of the correlation coefficient indicates the strength of the association between two variables
randomizing
Randomization is the process of assigning participants to treatment and control groups, assuming that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group.
descriptive statistics
A descriptive statistic is a summary statistic that quantitatively describes or summarizes features from a collection of information, while descriptive statistics is the process of using and analyzing those statistics. (examples with mean, median, mode other example percentages, measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode),
what happens if correlation is positive?
a plus sign may be placed in front of the coefficient however this does not always happen if there is no sign at all the correlation is positive
experimental statistics
Experimental statistics are official statistics that are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed. an example could be the public testing of a clinical drug
inferential statistics
numerical data that allow one to generalize from sample data the probability of something being true of a population
standard deviation
is a measure of how dispersed the data is in relation to the mean score
what two things do correlation’s tell us?
the strength of the relationship and the direction of the relationship
Why is operational definition important to replication
because it is important to see exactly how a past study was done so a new researcher can use the same data when replicating
random assignment
who goes in the control group and who is assigned to the experimental after you have used random selection
Population
a population is a population of something that you are studying and you have some sort of hypothesis about it
a sample size
is the sample amount of a certain population that you will use in your study
Experiments
(Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
the purpose of an experiment is to prove a hypothesis the strength of an experiment is you can support correlations between two variables
the weakness is confounding variables, extraneous variables
correlational studies
A correlational study is a type of research design that looks at the relationships between two or more variables. Correlational studies are non-experimental, which means that the experimenter does not manipulate or control any of the variables
causation
its something that causes something the cause and affect (we cannot have causation without correlation but we can have correlation without causation
Survey research
(Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
purpose of survey research to gather a large number of responses strengths of survey research include reliability, and versatility as well as confidentiality survey research is capable of safeguarding the privacy of the responders which brings a more likely honest answer weakness is inflexibility because you only have the predetermined answer’s to questions
naturalistic observation (Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
purpose and strength to look at raw nature without disturbing a natural habitat of how a life form behaves weakness is you are not able to change the environment or manipulate any variables to make things happen (theory just by observing a life form you are changing the situation even if you’re not noticed)
case studies (Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
purpose and strength is you study a specific variable and you can make inferences from past similarities in subjects past experiences and present experiences weaknesses it takes a long time and can be quite an expensive process
longitudinal study
is a research study that involves repeated study of the same variables over a long time
longitudinal studies (Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
purpose to detect developments or changes in the target population at both the group and the individual level the weakness is similar to case study takes a very long time
cross-sectional studies
a type of research where you collect data from many different people at the same time a type of survey that only happens once
cross-sectional studies (Purpose, Strengths, Weaknesses)
purpose: to prove or disprove assumptions it captures a specific point in time as well as the data at that time
strength: it is quite cheap to operate and does not take a long time to complete
weakness: it cannot be used to analyze Behaviour over a period of time so it cannot help you determine cause and effect
central tendency
the average of data for example the mean, median, mode
median
number that is directly in the middle of a data set
mean
is the average of a score in a group
mode
the value that occurs the most
negative skew
when a skew is negative the mode is greater than the mean when a bell curve is positively skewed all the values are towards the low end of the spectrum negative skew has a longer fatter tail on the left side of the distribution
illusory correlation
is the phenomenon of perceiving a relationship between variables (typically people, events, or behaviors)
positive skew
when a skew is positive the median is greater than the mode but less than the mean when a bell curve is positively skewed all the values are towards the high end of the spectrum positive skew has a longer fatter tail on the right side of the distribution
