Ch. 2

Question 1

empiricism

Answer 1

observing the world and measuring aspects of it to gain accurate knowledge

Question 2

Four Primary Goals of Science

Answer 2

description, what a phenomenon is; prediction, when it will occur; control, what causes it to occur; explanation, why it occurs

Question 3

research

Answer 3

the careful collection, analysis, and interpretation of data

Question 4

data

Answer 4

a collection of measurements gathered during the research process

Question 5

descriptive research

Answer 5

involves observing behavior to describe it objectively and systematically

Question 6

case study

Answer 6

involves the intense examination of an unusual person or organization

Question 7

participant observation

Answer 7

type of descriptive study where the researcher is involved in the situation

Question 8

naturalistic observation

Answer 8

type of descriptive study in which the researcher is a passive observer

Question 9

self-report methods

Answer 9

methods of data collection in which people are asked to provide information about themselves

Question 10

correlational studies

Answer 10

examines how variables are naturally related to the world, without any attempt to alter or assign causation between them

Question 11

scatterplot

Answer 11

a graphical depiction of the relationship between two variables

Question 12

directionality problem

Answer 12

a problem encountered in correlational studies where the researchers find a relationship between two variables, but they can’t determine which variable may have caused changes in the other

Question 13

third variable problem

Answer 13

a problem encountered when the researcher cannot directly manipulate variables; therefore, they cannot be confident that a another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of both variables of interest

Question 14

selection bias

Answer 14

unintended differences between the participants and different groups, possibly caused by nonrandom assignment

Question 15

culturally sensitive research

Answer 15

studies that take into account the role that culture plays in determining thoughts, feelings, and actions

Question 16

construct validity

Answer 16

the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure

Question 17

external validity

Answer 17

the degree to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other people, settings, or situations

Question 18

internal validity

Answer 18

the degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are due to the independent variable and not to confounds

Question 19

reliability

Answer 19

the degree to which a measure is stable and consistent over time

Question 20

accuracy

Answer 20

the degree to which an experimental measure is free from error

Question 21

descriptive statistics

Answer 21

statistics that summarize the data collected in a study

Question 22

central tendency

Answer 22

a measure that represents the typical response of the behavior of a group as a whole (mean, median, mode)

Question 23

variability

Answer 23

in a set of numbers, how widely dispersed the values are from each other and the mean (standard deviation)

Question 24

inferential statistics

Answer 24

a set of procedures that enable researchers to decide whether differences between two or more groups are probably just chance variations or whether they reflect true differences in the population being compared

Question 25

meta-analysis

Answer 25

a “study of studies” that combines the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion