Chapter 2

Question 1

Experience

Answer 1

Things that have happened to yourself and you base decisions off of

Question 2

Intuition

Answer 2

a subjective feeling about what makes sense

Question 3

Problem with overconfidence

Answer 3

One problem with basing our beliefs on our intuitions is that, even when we are extremely confident in our ideas, they can still be wrong

Question 4

scientific method

Answer 4

the process of basing one’s confidence in an idea on systematic, direct observations of the world, usually by setting up research studies to test ideas

Question 5

Theory-data cycle

Answer 5

the process of the scientific method, in which scientists collect data that can either confirm or disconfirm a theory

Question 6

theory

Answer 6

a set of propositions explaining how and why people act, think, or feel

Question 7

hypothesis

Answer 7

a specific prediction stating what will happen in a study if the theory is correct

Question 8

data

Answer 8

a set of empirical observations that scientists have gathered

Question 9

replication

Answer 9

when a study is conducted more than once on a new sample of participants, and obtains the same basic results

Question 10

Journals

Answer 10

a periodical containing peer-reviewed articles on a specific academic discipline, written for a scholarly audience

Question 11

Cycle of the Theory-data cycle

Answer 11

Theory, Hypothesis, Design, Collect data, Compare

Question 12

variable

Answer 12

Something of interest that varies from person to person or situation to situation

Question 13

measured variable

Answer 13

a variable whose values are simply recorded

Question 14

manipulated variable

Answer 14

a variable whose values the researcher controls, usually by assigning different participants to different levels of that variable

Question 15

operational definitions

Answer 15

the specific way of measuring or manipulating an abstract variable in a particular study

Question 16

descriptive research

Answer 16

a type of study in which researchers measure one variable at a time

Question 17

naturalistic observation

Answer 17

an observational research method in which psychologists observe the behavior of animals and people in their normal, everyday worlds and environments

Question 18

case study

Answer 18

an observational research method in which researchers study one or two individuals in depth, often those who have a unique condition

Question 19

correlational research

Answer 19

type of research that measures two (or more) variables in order to understand the relationship between them

Question 20

third-variable problem

Answer 20

whenever a correlation observed between two variables is actually explained by the influence of some third variable

Question 21

experimental research

Answer 21

a study in which one variable is manipulated and the other variable is measured

Question 22

validity

Answer 22

the accuracy of a conclusion or decision

Question 23

construct validity

Answer 23

the specific assessment of how accurately the operationalizations used in a study capture the variables of interest

Question 24

external validity

Answer 24

the degree to which it is reasonable to generalize from a study’s sample to its population of interest

Question 25

internal validity

Answer 25

the ability of a study to rule out alternative explanations for a relationship between two variables; one of the criteria for supporting a causal claim

Question 26

confound

Answer 26

alternative explanation for the relationship between two variables

Question 27

descriptive statistics

Answer 27

a graph or computation that describes the characteristics of a batch of scores, such as its distribution, central tendency, or variability

Question 28

frequency distribution

Answer 28

a descriptive statistic that takes the form of a bar graph in which the possible scores on a variable are listed on the x-axis and the total number of people who had each score is plotted on the y-axis

Question 29

standard deviation

Answer 29

a variability statistic that calculates how much, on average, a batch of scores varies around its mean

Question 30

effect size

Answer 30

a numerical estimate of the strength of the relationship between two variables

Question 31

inferential statistics

Answer 31

a set of procedures used to estimate whether a pattern of results represents a true relationship or difference in the population

Question 32

statistical significance

Answer 32

a process of inference that applies rules of logic and probability to estimate whether the results obtained in a study’s sample are the same in a larger population

Question 33

meta-analysis

Answer 33

a process in which researchers locate all of the studies that have tested the same variables and mathematically average them to estimate the effect size of the entire body of studies