Chapter 2

Question 1

hindsight bias

Answer 1

“I knew it all along” – overconfidence and our tendency to perceive patterns in random events often lead us to overestimate our intuition.

Question 2

scientific attitude

Answer 2

curious – curious eagerness, skeptical – skeptically scrutinize competing ideas, and humble – open minded humility before nature

Question 3

case study

Answer 3

one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

Question 4

common knowledge and assumptions

Answer 4

are weak things that we know are true still need to be tested in the sciences.

Question 5

what do anecdotes do

Answer 5

they don’t prove anything they suggest further study

Question 6

naturalistic observation

Answer 6

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations. describes behavior does not explain behavior

Question 7

survey asking questions

Answer 7

must make sure questions are worded accurately must make sure population is randomly sampled people may answer unreliably.

Question 8

longitudinal study

Answer 8

a sample of the population is studied at intervals to examine changes/effects– often many decades (difficult and time consuming) 56 up

Question 9

cross sectional

Answer 9

sampling groups at different points along a developmental path surveing 20s, 30s, 40s at same time

Question 10

cohort sequential

Answer 10

a combination of both longitudinal and cross-sectional

Question 11

correlational

Answer 11

how well does a predict b and vice versa. measure whether factors vary together, does not prove cause and effect CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION

Question 12

correlation

Answer 12

a relationship between two variables in which changes in one variable are reflected in changes in the other variable

Question 13

correlation coefficient

Answer 13

a number between -1 and +1 expressing the degree of relationship between two variables. r

Question 14

Empirical investigation

Answer 14

a reliance on sensory experience and observation as research data

Question 15

experiment

Answer 15

an investigator manipulates one factor (IV) to observe the effect on another factor (DV)

Question 16

what is different experiments versus correlational

Answer 16

in experiments the researcher controls all conditions and manipulates the conditions thus only an experiment can isolate cause and effect

Question 17

Scientific method

Answer 17

5 step process for empirical investigation of a hypothesis under conditions designed to control biases and subjective judgements

Question 18

1st step scientific method

Answer 18

developing a hypothesis. hypothesis is a statement predicting the outcome of a scientific study must be falsifiable.

Question 19

operations definitions

Answer 19

a statement of how a researcher will measure behaviors makes behavior measurable.

Question 20

2 step scientific method

Answer 20

performing a controlled test

Question 21

independent variable

Answer 21

variable manipulated by experimenter

Question 22

controlled variables

Answer 22

variables held in order to analyze relationship between other variables without interference

Question 23

dependent variable

Answer 23

measured outcome of a study

Question 24

3rd scientific method step

Answer 24

gathering objective data

Question 25

4th scientific method step

Answer 25

analyzing the results: based on statistical analysis of results the hypothesis is accepted or rejected

Question 26

5th scientific method step

Answer 26

publicizing, criticizing, replicating the experiment/results: research must withstand the scrutiny of the scientific community,

Question 27

random sampling

Answer 27

subjects are chosen at random from the population

Question 28

population

Answer 28

all people in a group being studied

Question 29

random assignment

Answer 29

subjects are assigned to experimental (receives treatment), control (receives no treatment) and placebo (receives inert treatment) group randomly

Question 30

placebo effect

Answer 30

experimental results caused by expectation alone any effect on behavior caused by an inert substance, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

Question 31

blind experiment

Answer 31

information is withheld from subject

Question 32

double blind experiment

Answer 32

information is withheld from subject and experimenter

Question 33

control of confounding variables

Answer 33

things that have an effect on the dependent variable but were not taken into account in the experimental design researchers must make every attempt to control them.

Question 34

frequency distribution

Answer 34

simply shows numerically how frequently items occur (put the numbers in order) we can convert the data into a bar graph called a histogram

Question 35

descriptive statistics the range

Answer 35

difference between highest and lowest score measures

Question 36

measures of central tendency

Answer 36

mean -- average -- affected by extreme scores median -- middle score -- resistant to extreme scores the mode the most frequent score

Question 37

normal distribution

Answer 37

bell curve -- 68.3, 95.5, 99.7

Question 38

standard deviation

Answer 38

shows the average difference between a score and the mean

Question 39

inferential statistics

Answer 39

p value - likelihood that results are due to chance p<.05 is good

Question 40

two main issues ethics research on animals

Answer 40

is it right to place the well being of humans above that of animals and if human life has priority what safeguards should be put in place to protect animals in resarch

Question 41

ethics psychologists must

Answer 41

obtain informed consent, outline risks and benefits must be voluntary, protect subjects from harm and discomfort, keep subjects identity confidential, full debrief afterward.