Ch. 1: Thinking Critically w/ Psych. Science

Question 1

Psychology is how we ____, _____, and _____

Answer 1

think
act
feel

Question 2

what is the scientific attitude?

Answer 2

refers to careful style of forming/evaluating knowledge than simply using intuition; thinking critically; challenging the subject

Question 3

When natural thinking fails/ 3 ways we think

Answer 3

1. hindsight bias
2. overconfidence error
3. coincidence error/mistakenly perceiving order in random events

Question 4

what is hindsight bias?

Answer 4

the “I knew it all along” way of thinking

Question 5

what is overconfidence error?

Answer 5

the “I’m sure I’m correct” way of thinking

Question 6

what is coincidence error?

Answer 6

thinking that something is rigged/fixed because of coincidence ex: dice must be fixed bc you rolled 3 6’s in a row

Question 7

3 parts of the scientific attitude

Answer 7

part 1. Curiosity
part 2. Skepticism
part 3. Humility

Question 8

how is curiosity a part of the scientific attitude?

Answer 8

always ask new questions

Question 9

how is skepticism a part of the scientific attitude?

Answer 9

not accepting fact as truth w/o challenging it

Question 10

what is humility a part of the scientific attitude?

Answer 10

seeking the truth rather than trying to be right

Question 11

what is the scientific method?

Answer 11

1. set up situations that test our ideas
2. make careful/organized observations
3. analyze whether data fit with our ideas
4. if data don’t fit our ideas, modify and re-test

Question 12

what do we mean by theory?

Answer 12

the big picture

Question 13

what is a hypotheses?

Answer 13

informed/testable predictions consistent with our theory

Question 14

what is the purpose of operational definitions?

Answer 14

to make sure everyone is clear on how we are defining our subject

Question 15

what is replication?

Answer 15

trying the experiment again and keeping everything the same

Question 16

what are the 3 types of descriptive studies?

Answer 16

1. case study
2. naturalistic observation
3. survey

Question 17

what is a case study?

Answer 17

examining one individual in depth (get lots of detail but can’t make generalization)

Question 18

what is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 18

no manipulation, only watching, no experimenting (limited type of descriptive study)

Question 19

what is a survey?

Answer 19

gathering info. about people’s thoughts/behaviors through self-report rather than observation; should be random

Question 20

why are surveys useful?

Answer 20

we can’t survey everyone so it provides us with a sample of the general population

Question 21

what does it mean for 2 variables to be correlated?

Answer 21

they are related and change together; there’s a relationship between them

Question 22

what are 2 things correlation coefficient tells us?

Answer 22

1.strength
2.direction
(how closely correlated our variables are)
perfect correlation coefficient is 1.0 which means that every time one variable changes the other changes without fail

Question 23

what is negative correlation?

Answer 23

as one number increases the other decreases, they move in opposite directiosn

Question 24

what is positive correlation?

Answer 24

both variables increase/decrease together

Question 25

what is no correlation?

Answer 25

there is no relationship between the 2 variables

Question 26

what letter stands for correlation coefficient?

Answer 26

r

Question 27

if 2 variables are related does this mean they cause each other?

Answer 27

NO; correlation does NOT mean causation

Question 28

what are 2 things we need to be aware of when looking at correlation?

Answer 28

1. directionality (which is causing which?) | 2. a 3rd variable (may be interfering)

Question 29

what is experimentation?

Answer 29

manipulating one factor in a situation to determine its effect (we might not be capturing real life b/c we are interfering; experiments attempt to generalize)

Question 30

what is random sampling?

Answer 30

how you get a pool of research participants that represent the population you're trying to learn about

Question 31

what is random assignment?

Answer 31

randomly assigning participants to control or experimental groups (this is how you control all variables except the one you are manipulating)

Question 32

what is the placebo effect?

Answer 32

experimental effects that are caused by expectations about the intervention (ex: experimental group gets new drug while control group gets nothing, yet both groups improve)

Question 33

what is a placebo?

Answer 33

an inactive substance or other fake treatment in place of the experimental treatment

Question 34

what is a double-blind experiment?

Answer 34

neither participants nor research staff knows which participants are in the experimental or control group

Question 35

what is the control group?

Answer 35

in an experiment the control group does not get manipulation

Question 36

what is the experimental group?

Answer 36

in an experiment the experimental group gets the manipulated variable by receiving the treatment

Question 37

what is the independent variable?

Answer 37

abbreviated IV it is the variable being manipulated

Question 38

what is the dependent variable?

Answer 38

abbreviated DV it is the variable that changes based on manipulation

Question 39

what is a confounding variable?

Answer 39

any other variable that might have an effect on the DV

Question 40

what are statistics?

Answer 40

tools for organizing, presenting, analyzing, and interpreting data; present a more accurate picture of data; help us reach valid conclusions from data ex: bar graph

Question 41

what are measures of central tendency and define?

Answer 41

1. mean: average 2. median: middle number when listed least to greatest 3. mode: most repeated number

Question 42

what are the measures of variation and define?

Answer 42

1. range: difference b/w highest and lowest scores | 2. standard deviation: calculation of the average of scores from they mean; how much they vary

Question 43

Skewed vs. normal distribution?

Answer 43

data can be skewed b/c of outliers but usually makes a bell/normal curve

Question 44

when drawing conclusions, what are 2 questions we should ask?

Answer 44

1. reliable? can we use this result to generalize/predict future behavior of the broader population? 2. significant? could the result have been caused by random/chance variation b/w groups?