Ch. 2 Flashcards
The tendency upon hearing about research findings to think that they know the answer all along
Hindsight Bias
Conducted for the purposes of applying the information to the real-world; clear practical applications
Applied Research
Not applied to the real world, but it help psychologists better understand the world around us
Basic Research
expresses the relationship between two variables
Hypyhesis
The variable that is changed to gauge results
Independent variable
The variable being measured
Dependent variabel
Aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypothesis to support it
Theory
Define how you will measure a variable in an experiment
Operational definition
When research what the researcher set out to measure accurately
Validity
When research is easily replicated an shows consistent results
Reliability
The process by which participants are selected
Sampling
The group of participants
Sample
Anyone or anything that could possibly be selected in the sample
Population
The sample accurately reflects the population
Representative sample
Every ember of the population has an equal chance of being selected/generalized/represent
Random Sampling
Conducted in a lab w/ a highly controlled environment or out in the world/more realistic
Experiment– laboratory and field
Any difference between the experimental control conditions that might affect the dependent variable
Confounding variables
The process by which each participant has an equal change of being placed into any group
Random sampling
The group in which nothing is happening to them and are used for comparison- participants relevant variables
Group matching
The unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental/control groups differently to support their hypothesis
Experimenter bias
When neither the participants or researcher are able to affect the outcome of the research. Neither the participants nor researcher know which group participants are in.
Double Blind
When only the participants do not know which group they have been assigned
Single-blind procedure
The tendency for subjects to behave in certain ways
Response/participant bias
The tendency to try to give answers that will reflect well upon them
Social desirability
Merely selecting a group of people on whom to experiment to affect the performance of that group, regardless of what is done to those individuals
Hawthorne effect
Whenever participants in the experimental group are given a fake drug in order to separate psychological effects
Placebo method
The presence of one thing that predicts the presence of another; the presence of one thing that predicts the absence of another
Correlations- positive and negative
Involves people to fill out surveys
Survey methods
How many/how likely people are to take the survey
Response rate
The observation of participants in their natural environment without interacting with them at all
Naturalistic observation
A method of research used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant/small group
Case study method
Describes a set of data
Descriptive statistics
A graph/dataset to show the frequency of occurrence of each possible outcome of respectable events
Frequency distribution
The average, the central score in the distribution, score that appears most frequently
Mean, Median, Mode
Data points that skew/distort the accuracy of a distribution
Outliers
Positive is when particularly high data point skews distribution to the right; negative is when a low score skews graph to the left
Postive v. negative skew
The distance between the highest and lowest score in a distribution; square root of the variance; average distance of any score in the distortion from the mean –> The higher the score of variance, the more spread out the distribution
Range, standard deviation, variance: Measures of variability
The conversion score from different distributions into measures –> measures the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation
Z-score
Theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two score has been predetermined
Normal curve
The strength of a correlation computed by a statistic (0=no relationship)
Correlation coeffient
Graph pairs of values on the x-axis and y-axis
Scatterplot
The line drawn through a scatterplot that minimizes the distance of all points from the line
Line Best Fit
Determines whether of not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected
Inferential statistics
The extent to which a sample differs from the population
Sampling error
The probability that the difference between the groups is due to chance
P-value
Language utilized to confirm that results are not from change and are likely to occur
Statistical significance
The ethics board that reviews research proposals for ethical violations and/or procedural errors
Institutional Review Board
The practice of persuading some to do something by using force or threats
Coercion
The principle to five a participant sufficient info/understanding before agreeing to be in an experiment
Informed consent
When researchers do no collect any data that enables them to match a person’s response with his/her name
Anonymity
The researcher will not identify the source of any of the data
Confidentiality
When participants are fold there purpose of the study/provided with wats to contact the researcher about results directly after the study
Debriefing
