Chapter 1 Flashcards
Overconfidence
Contaminates our everyday judgement, your human tendency is to be overconfident.
Hindsight bias
The tendency to believe after learning an outcome that one would have foreseen.
Critical thinking
Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions.
Theory
An explanation of using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations.
Hypothesis
A testable prediction often implied by a theory.
Operational definitions.
A statement of procedures and operations used to define research IT ALLOWS US TO MEASURE VARIABLES
Replicate
Repeating the essence of a research study usually with different situations To see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
Case study
The case in which psychologists study one individual in great depth.
Survey
Looks at many cases with less depth into all of them
False consensus effect
The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
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Population
All the cases in a group from which samples may be drawn for a study.
Random sample
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
Naturalistic observation
Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate.
Correlate
One trait or behavior that accompanies another.
Scatter plots
Illustrations of perfect positive and negative correlations which rarely occur in the “real world” .
Illusory correlation
A perceived non-existent correlation when we BELIEVE there is a relationship between two things.
Experiment
A research method in which and investigator manipulates one or more factors.
Double-blind procedure
The research participants and research staff are blind to whether the participants have received the placebo effect or the treatment.
The Placebo effect
Any effect on behavior cause by expectations alone.
Experimental condition
The participants that are exposed to the independent variable *watches violent TV
Control condition
The participant that serves as a comparison evaluating the effect of the treatment *watches Barney
Random assignment
Used in the experimental assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance,
Independent variable
Manipulation factor * people watch violent TV programs
Dependent variable
Outcome factor *people engage in violent activities
Mode
The most frequently score in a distribution
Mean
The average distribution - adding and dividing
Median
The middle of a distribution
Range
The difference between highest and lowest
Standard deviation
A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean
Statistical significance
A statement of likely it is that a result occurs by chance
Culture
Enduring the behaviors, ideas, attitudes and traditions showed by a large group of people
Wording effects
Subtle changes in order or wording of questions can have major effects.
