Chapter 1: Thinking Critically With Psychological Science

Question 1

What are the 3 common flaws in commonsense thinking?

Answer 1

hindsight bias, overconfidence, and perceiving order in random events

Question 1

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 1

the tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

Question 2

What is overconfidence?

Answer 2

thinking we know more than we do

Question 3

What is the point of perceiving order in random events?

Answer 3

making sense of our world relieves stress and helps us get on with daily living

Question 4

psychologists arm their scientific attitude with the ?

Answer 4

scientific method: a method of research with defined steps that involves observation and experiments

Question 5

What is a theory?

Answer 5

an explanation using an that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events

Question 6

A good theory produces what?

Answer 6

testable predictions called hypotheses

Question 7

What is operational definition?

Answer 7

carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study.

Question 8

What is replication?

Answer 8

repeating the experiment or study with different participants for more confidence of statistical significance

Question 9

What is preregistration?

Answer 9

more psychologists do this now; publicly communicating planned study design, hypothesis, data collection, and analysis.

Question 10

What is metaanalysis?

Answer 10

statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion. By combining the results of many studies, come to a bottom line result

Question 11

We can test our hypotheses and refine our theories using ?

Answer 11

descriptive method, correlational method, ad experimental method

Question 12

What is a case study?

Answer 12

a descriptive technique in which an individual or group is studied in depth to reveal universal principles

Question 13

What is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 13

observing or recording behavior in naturally occuring situations without manipulating or controlling the situation

Question 14

naturalistic behavior describes or explains behavior?

Answer 14

it describes it

Question 15

What is a survey?

Answer 15

obtaining the self reported attitude or behavior of a particular group

Question 16

How do you avoid bias in these types of cases?

Answer 16

having a representative sample

Question 17

What is a random sample?

Answer 17

when every individual/object in the population has an equal chance of being picked

Question 18

population?

Answer 18

all those in a group being studied from which random samples may be taken

Question 19

What is correlation?

Answer 19

a measure of how well a factor predicts another.

Question 20

correlation coefficient?

Answer 20

correlation coefficient measures the relationship between two things from -1 to +1

Question 21

variable?

Answer 21

something that can be measured

Question 22

scatterplot?

Answer 22

a graph which represents the values of two variables. the slope suggests the direction of the relationship between 2 variables. the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.

Question 23

illusory correlation?

Answer 23

perceiving a relationship where none exists or thinking a relationship is stronger than it is

Question 24

whats regression toward the mean?

Answer 24

the tendency for extreme or unusual scores/events to regress toward the mean

Question 25

experiment/experimental group?

Answer 25

experiment: method in which the researcher manipulates the independent variable to observe the effects. in an experiment, the group exposed to the experiment is the experimental group/independent variable

Question 26

control group?

Answer 26

the group not exposed to the treatment is the control group

Question 27

random assignment?

Answer 27

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance to minimize bias

Question 28

double blind procedure?

Answer 28

when both participants and research staff are blind about whether or not the participants have received the treatment or placebo.

Question 29

placebo effect?

Answer 29

experimental results caused by expectations alone

Question 30

confounding variable?

Answer 30

in an experiment, a factor other than the factor being studied that might influence the studies results

Question 31

dependent variable?

Answer 31

in an experiment, the outcome that is measured, the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated

Question 32

What are some research designs?

Answer 32

experimental, correlational. descriptive

Question 33

whats informed consent?

Answer 33

giving potential participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Question 34

debrief?

Answer 34

the postexperimental explanation of a study, including the purpose and any deceptions to the participant

Question 35

descriptive statistic?

Answer 35

converting the data retreived into a graph or pie chart

Question 36

what are the measures of central tendency?

Answer 36

mode, mean, median

Question 37

mode?

Answer 37

the most frequently occurring score

Question 38

mean?

Answer 38

aka average! total sum of all scores divided by the number of scores

Question 39

median?

Answer 39

middle score in a distribution, half the scores are above it ad half are below it

Question 40

variation in data?

Answer 40

how similar or diverse the scores are: low variability is more reliable than high variability

Question 41

range?

Answer 41

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

Question 42

standard deviation?

Answer 42

a measure of how much scores vary around the mea

Question 43

normal curve?

Answer 43

aka normal distribution or bell curve; most scores fall near the mea and 68% fall within one standard deviation of the mean. 95% fall within 2 standard deviations of the mean and 99% fall between 3 sd of the mean

Question 44

what are the 3 principles to keep in mind when generalizing from a sample?

Answer 44

1) representative samples are better than biased 2) less variability is more reliable than high variability 3) more cases are better than fewer

Question 45

statistical significance?

Answer 45

statement of how likely it is that a result occurred by chance