Chapter 2 Flashcards
Prefrontal Lobotomy
Surgical procedure that severs fibres connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the thalamus
Heuristic
A mental shortcut, Rule of Thumb
Naturalistic Observation
Watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate people’s behaviour
Internal Validity
The extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences
External Validity
The extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings
Case Study
Researchers examine one person or a small number of people, oftenover an extended period of time
Existence Proofs
Demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur
Random Selection
Every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate
Reliability
Consistency of measurement
Validity
Extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure
Correlational Design
Examine the extent to which two variables are associated
Illusory Correlation
The perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists
Experiment
Research design characterized with random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an IV
Random Assignment
Randomly sorting participants into groups
Exprimental Group
The group of participants in an experiment that receives manipulation
Control Group
The group of participants in an experiment that doesn’t receive manipulation
Operational Definition
A working definition of what a researcher is measuring
Placebo
Improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement
Blind
Unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group
Experimenter Expectancy Effect
Phenomenon where researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias theoutcome of a study
Double-Blind
Neither researchers nor participants are aware of who’s in the experimental or control group
Demand Characteristics
Cues that participants pick up that allow them to generate a guess on the researcher’s hypothesis
Informed Consent
Informing research participants of what is involved in a study before asking them to participate
Central Tendency
Measure of the central scores in a data set
Mean
Average
Median
Middle score in a data set
Mode
Most frequent score
Variability
How loosely or tightly bunched scores are
Range
Difference between the highest and lowest scores
Standard Deviation
Measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean
Inferential Statistics
Methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population
Base Rate
How common a characteristic or behaviour is in the general population
Naturalistic Observation
high in external validity
Naturalistic Observation
low in internal validity. Doesn’t allow us to infer causation
case studies
can provide existence proofs. Allows us to study rare or unusual phenomena. Can offer insights for later systemic testing
case studies
are typically anecdotal. Don’t allow us to infer causation
Correlational Design
can help us to predict behavious
Correlational Design
don’t allow us to infer causation
experimental designs
allow us to infer causation. High in internal validity
experimental designs
can sometimes be low in external validity
