Chapter 2 Flashcards
1
Q
Hindsight bias
A
The tendency for people to
exaggerate how much they could
have predicted an outcome after
knowing that it occurred
2
Q
Observational method
A
The technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior
3
Q
Ethnography
A
The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have
4
Q
Interjudge reliability
A
The level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data; by showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual
5
Q
Archival analysis
A
A form of the observational method in which the researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (e.g., diaries, novels, magazines, and newspapers)
6
Q
Correlational method
A
The technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed
7
Q
Correlation coefficient
A
A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another—for example, how well you can predict people’s weight from their height
8
Q
Surveys
A
Research in which a representative
sample of people are asked (often
anonymously) questions about
their attitudes or behavior
9
Q
Random selection
A
A way of ensuring that a sample of people is representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample
10
Q
Experimental method
A
The method in which the researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable (the one thought to have a causal effect on people’s responses)
11
Q
Independent variable
A
The variable a researcher changes
or varies to see if it has an effect
on some other variable
12
Q
Dependent variable
A
The variable a researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent variable; the researcher hypothesizes that the dependent variable will depend on the level of the independent variable
13
Q
Random assignment to a condition
A
A process ensuring that all participants have an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment; through random assignment, researchers can be relatively certain that differences in the participants’ personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions
14
Q
P-value
A
A number calculated with statistical techniques that tells researchers how likely it is that the results of their experiment occurred by chance and not because of the independent variable or variables; the convention in science, including social psychology, is to consider results significant (trustworthy) if the probability level is less than 5 in 100 that the results might be due to chance factors and not the independent variables studied
15
Q
Internal validity
A
Making sure that nothing besides the independent variable can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions
