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