Barron's: Chapter 2 - Methods

Question 1

hindsight bias

Answer 1

when people have the tendency upon hearing about research findings to think that they knew it all along

Question 2

applied research

Answer 2

a form of systematic inquiry involving the practical application of science. It accesses and uses some part of the research communities’ accumulated theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific, often state-, business-, or client-driven purpose.

Question 3

basic research

Answer 3

explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate, real-world applications

Question 4

hypothesis

Answer 4

expresses a relationship between two variables

Question 5

variables

Answer 5

things that can vary among the participants in the research

Question 6

theory

Answer 6

aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses with the hope of collecting data that support the theory

Question 7

operational definition

Answer 7

you explain how you will measure it

Question 8

valid research

Answer 8

when it measures what the researcher set out to measure; it is accurate

Question 9

reliable research

Answer 9

when something is replicated and the results are consistent

Question 10

random selection

Answer 10

when every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

Question 11

stratified samplig

Answer 11

a process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria

Question 12

laboratory expiriments

Answer 12

conducted in a lab, a highly controlled environment

Question 13

field experiment

Answer 13

conducted out in the world

Question 14

confounding variable

Answer 14

any difference between the experimental and control conditions, except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable

Question 15

assignment

Answer 15

the process by which participants are put into a group, experimental or control

Question 16

random assignment

Answer 16

means that each participant has an equal change of being placed into any group

Question 17

experimenter bias

Answer 17

the unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis

Question 18

double-blind procedure

Answer 18

occurs when neither the participants nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome of the research

Question 19

single blind

Answer 19

occurs when only the participants do not know to which group they have been assigned

Question 20

demand characteristics

Answer 20

cues about the purpose of the study

Question 21

response or subject bias

Answer 21

the tendency for subjects to behave in certain ways

Question 22

social desirability

Answer 22

the tendency to try to give answers that reflect well upon them

Question 23

Hawthorne effect

Answer 23

the alteration of behavior by the subjects of a study due to their awareness of being observed

Question 24

placebo method

Answer 24

A remarkable phenomenon in which a placebo – a fake treatment, an inactive substance like sugar, distilled water, or saline solution – can sometimes improve a patient’s condition simply because the person has the expectation that it will be helpful

Question 25

counterbalancing

Answer 25

using participants as their own control group

Question 26

correlation

Answer 26

expresses a relationship between two variables without ascribing cause

Question 27

positive correlation

Answer 27

between two things means that the presence of one things predicts the presence of the other

Question 28

negative correlation

Answer 28

means that the presence of one things predicts the absence of the other

Question 29

survey method

Answer 29

involves asking people to fill out surveys

Question 30

naturalistic observation

Answer 30

observe participants i their natural habitats without interacting with them at all

Question 31

case study method

Answer 31

used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants

Question 32

descriptive statistics

Answer 32

describe a set of data

Question 33

y-axis (vertical)

Answer 33

always represents frequency

Question 34

central tendency

Answer 34

attempt to mark the center of a distribution

Question 35

mean

Answer 35

average of the scores in a distribution

Question 36

median

Answer 36

the central score in the distribution

Question 37

positively skewed

Answer 37

when a distribution includes an extreme score

Question 38

negatively skewed

Answer 38

when the skew is cause by a particularly low score

Question 39

measures of variability

Answer 39

another type of statistical measures

Question 40

z scores

Answer 40

measure the distance of a score form the mean in units of standard deviation

Question 41

normal curve

Answer 41

a theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two z scores has been predetermined

Question 42

percentiles

Answer 42

indicate the distance of a score from 0

Question 43

correlation

Answer 43

measures the relationship between two variables

Question 44

correlation coefficients

Answer 44

• range from 1 and +1 where -1 is a perfect, negative correlation and +1 is a perfect, positive correlation

Question 45

scatter plot

Answer 45

graphs pairs of values, one on the y-axis and one on the x-axis

Question 46

line of best fit, or regression line

Answer 46

the line drawn through the scatter plot that minimized the distance of all points from the line

Question 47

inferential statistics

Answer 47

used to determine whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population form which the sample was selected

Question 48

sampling error

Answer 48

the extent to which the sample differs from the population

Question 49

p value

Answer 49

gives the probability that the difference between the groups is due to chance

Question 50

anonymity

Answer 50

when the researchers do not collect any data that enable them to match a person’s responses with his or her name

Question 51

confidentiality

Answer 51

the researcher will not identify the source of any of the data