Ch 2

Question 1

Anecdotal evidence

Answer 1

personal stories about scientific incidents and experiments

Question 2

Case study

Answer 2

in-depth investigation of an individual subject

Question 3

Confounding of variables

Answer 3

occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects

Question 4

Control group

Answer 4

subjects who do not receive the treatment given to the experimental group

Question 5

Correlation

Answer 5

two variables are related to one another

Question 6

Correlation coefficient

Answer 6

a numerical index of the degree of a relationship btw two variables

Question 7

Subjects

Answer 7

same as participants

Question 8

Dependent variable

Answer 8

variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the IV

Question 9

Descriptive statistics

Answer 9

used to organize and summarize data

central tendency (mean, median, mode), variability, coefficient of correlation

Question 10

Double-blind procedure

Answer 10

research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in experimental or control groups

Question 11

Experimental group

Answer 11

subjects who relieve some special treatment in regard to the IV

Question 12

Independent variable

Answer 12

condition or event that the experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable

Question 13

Experimenter bias

Answer 13

occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained

Question 14

Naturalistic observation

Answer 14

a researcher engages in careful observation of behaviour without intervening directly with the subjects

Question 15

Frequency distribution

Answer 15

orderly arrangement of scores indicating the frequency of each score or a group or scores

Question 16

Frequency polygon

Answer 16

line figure used to present data from a frequency distribution

Question 17

Survey

Answer 17

researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather info about specific aspects of participants’ behaviour

Question 18

Mean

Answer 18

arithmetic average of the scores of distribution

Question 19

Inferential statistics

Answer 19

used to interpret data and draw conclusions

used to evaluate the possibility that results might be due to chance

Question 20

Mode

Answer 20

most frequent score in the distribution

Question 21

Statistics

Answer 21

the use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data

Question 22

Negatively skewed distribution

Answer 22

scores pile up at the high end of the scale

extreme low scores pull the mean down

Question 23

Meta analysis

Answer 23

combination of statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and consistence of a variable’s effects

Question 24

Percentile score

Answer 24

indicates the percentage of people who score at or below a certain score

Question 25

Positively skewed distribution

Answer 25

scores pile up at the low end of the scale

extreme high scores inflate the mean

Question 26

Standard deviation

Answer 26

an index of the amount of variability in a set of data

Question 27

Statistical significance

Answer 27

probability that observed findings are due to chance is very low

Question 28

Variability

Answer 28

how much the scores in a data set vary from each other and from the mean

Question 29

Placebo effects

Answer 29

occur when participants’ expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive a placebo treatment

Question 30

Population

Answer 30

large collection of animals or people (from which a sample is drawn) that researchers want to generalize about

Question 31

Replication

Answer 31

repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated

Question 32

Response set

Answer 32

tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions

Question 33

Sample

Answer 33

collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study

Question 34

Sampling bias

Answer 34

a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn

Question 35

Social desirability bias

Answer 35

tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself