Chapter 2 Flashcards
an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelations
theory
a statement that attempts to predict or to account for a set of phenomena; scientific hypotheses specify relations among events or variables and are empirically tested
hypothesis
a precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specific the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being defined
operational definition
the principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation, that is, the theory must predict not only what will happen but also what will not happen
principle of falsifiability
the tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one’s own belief
confirmation bias
a group of individuals, selected from a population for study, which matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex
representative sample
methods that yield descriptions of behaviour but not necessarily casual explanation
descriptive method
a detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated
case study
a study in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behaviour without interfering with the behaviour, it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation
observational study
procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests and abilities
psychological traits
in test construction, to develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring tests
standardize
in test construction, established standard of performance
norms
in test construction the consistency of scores derived from a test from one time and place to another
reliability
the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure
validity
questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly aout their experiences, attitudes or opinions
surveys
a shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a representative sample the volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer
volunteer bias
a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relation between two phenomenon
correlational study
a measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another
correlation
characteristics of behaviour or experience that can be measured or described by a numeric scale
variables
an association between increases in one variable and increases in another, or between decreases in one and in another
positive correlation
a association between increases in one variable and decreases in another
negative correlation
a measure of correlation that ranges in values from -1.00 to +1.00
coefficient of correlation
a controlled test of hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another
experiment
a variable that an experimenter manipulates
independent variable
a variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the dependent variable
dependent variable
in an experiment, a comparison in which participants are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition
control condition
a procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which each individual has the same probability as any other of being assigned to a given group
random assignment
an inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a medical practitioner to a patient
placebo
an experiment in which participants do not know whether they are in an experimental or control group
single blind study
unintended changes in study participants behaviour due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter
experimenter effects
an experiment in which neither the people being studied nor the individual running the study know who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group until after the results are tallied
double blind study
descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the laboratory
field research
statistical procedures that organize and summarize research data
descriptive statistics
an average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and dividing the sum by the total number of quantities in the set
arithmetic mean
a commonly used measure of variability that indicates the average difference between scores in a distribution and their mean
standard deviation
statistical procedures that allow researchers to draw inferences about how statistically meaningful a study’s results are
inferential statistics
statistical tests that show how likely it is that a study’s results occurred merely by chance
significance tests
a study in which people (or people) of different ages are compared at any given time
cross sectional study
a study in which people (or animals) are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time
longitudinal study
the amount of variance among scores in a study accounted for by the independent variable
effect size
a procedure for combining and analyzing data from many studies, it determines how much of the variance in scores across all studies can be explained by a particular variable
meta-analysis
the doctrine that anyone who participates in human research must do so voluntarily and must know enough about the study to make an intelligent decisions about whether to take part
informed consent
