Chapter 2 and Appendix

Question 1

What is the scientific approach?

Answer 1

asking and answering questions about the world around us

Question 2

What are the five steps of studying behaviour?

Answer 2

1. Identify the question of interest
2. Gather information and form hypothesis
3. Test hypothesis by conducting research
4. Analyze data, draw tentative conclusions, report findings
5. Build a body of knowledge, ask further questions, conduct more research, develop and test theories

Question 3

What is hindsight understanding?

Answer 3

relies on explanations “after the fact”

drawback: past events can be explained in many ways

Question 4

What is understanding through prediction?

Answer 4

uses scientific method

satisfies curiosity, builds knowledge, generates principles that can be applied to new situations

Question 5

What are characteristics of good theories?

Answer 5

1. Organize information in meaningful ways
2. Are testable
3. Have prediction supported by research
4. Conform to law of parsimony
5. Simpler theory is preferred

Question 6

What is a variable?

Answer 6

any factor that may vary

height, weight, age, GPA, eye color, reaction time, accuracy

Question 7

What is an operational definition?

Answer 7

some variables are harder to define
operational definition is the specific procedure used to define a variable
thus the same variable can be defined in different ways across different studies

Question 8

What is an independent variable?

Answer 8

the variable the researcher is manipulating

Question 9

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 9

the variable the researcher is measurring

Question 10

What are the pros and cons of self reports?

Answer 10

Pros: a way to measure a wide range of information, such as beliefs, feelings, experiences, and behavior

Cons: only reliable if reports are accurate, social desirability bias

Question 11

What are overt behaviors?

Answer 11

response times (item detection, problem solving)
accuracy
looking rates

Question 12

What is descriptive research?

Answer 12

identify and understand behaviors in natural settings

provides clue to cause-effect relationships

Question 13

What are case studies?

Answer 13

in-depth analysis of individual, group, or event

Question 14

What are advantages of case studies?

Answer 14

can study a rare phenomenon in detail
may challenge validity of current theories
can provide insights into many areas

Question 15

What are disadvantages of case studies?

Answer 15

cannot determine case and effect
potentially poor generalizability
potentially biased data handling/analyzing

Question 16

What is naturalistic observation?

Answer 16

observation of behavior in a natural setting

not intervening or changing the behaviors being observed

Question 17

What are advantages of naturalistic observation?

Answer 17

provides a rich description of behavior

Question 18

What are disadvantages of naturalistic obervation?

Answer 18

does not permit clear causal conclusions
potential bias in interpreting the observations
mere presence of observer may change the subject’s behavior

Question 19

What is a representative sample?

Answer 19

one that reflects the important characteristics of the population
a sample composed of 80% males would not represent a student body in which only 45% are men

Question 20

What is random sampling?

Answer 20

to obtain a representative sample

in which every member of the population has an equal probability of being chosen to participate in the survey

Question 21

What is correlation research?

Answer 21

goal is to determine the extent to which an association exists between two variables (X and Y)
researcher measures one variable (X)
researcher measures second variable (Y)
variables are not manipulated, just measured

Question 22

What is bidirectionality?

Answer 22

two way causality
X causes Y
Y causes X

Question 23

What is spurious association?

Answer 23

not genuine
third variable problem
correlation due to a third variable

Question 24

What is a correlation coefficient?

Answer 24

correlations are mathematically described by a correlation coefficient
ranges from -1.0 to +1.0
sign indicates direction
absolute value indicates strength

Question 25

What is positive correlation?

Answer 25

variables change in the same direction as X increases, Y increases as X decreases, Y decreases

Question 26

What is negative correlation?

Answer 26

variables changes in opposite direction as X increases, Y decreases as X decreases, Y increases

Question 27

What are scatterplots?

Answer 27

``` depicts the correlation shows direction (positive or negative) of a relationship ```

Question 28

What are advantages of correlational studies?

Answer 28

show the strength of relationship present can be used to make predictions about variables identifies "real-world" associations

Question 29

What are disadvantages of correlational studies?

Answer 29

can't assume a relationship exists relationships may be due to a third unmeasured variable shows an association NOT a cause

Question 30

What are three essential characteristics of experiments?

Answer 30

1. Manipulate one variable 2. Measure whether tis variable produces changes in another variable 3. Control for other factors that might influence results

Question 31

What are experiments?

Answer 31

random assignment of participants to the different conditions manipulation of independent variables (some) control over extraneous variables

Question 32

What is random sampling?

Answer 32

equal chance of someone from the population being chosen

Question 33

What is random assignment?

Answer 33

equal chance of the same participants being assigned to any of the experimental groups

Question 34

What is the manipulation of independent variables?

Answer 34

the variables/factors the experimenter manipulates need to control other factors, otherwise cannot be sure whether the outcome of the experiment is due to experimental manipulation

Question 35

What is between-subjects design?

Answer 35

some participants get one experimental manipulation, while the others gets the other experimental manipulation

Question 36

What are the pros and cons of between-subjects design?

Answer 36

Pros: timing doesn't matter, no practice effects Cons: variability due to individual differences across two groups, need many more subjects

Question 37

What is within-subjects design?

Answer 37

all participants participate in all experimental manipulations

Question 38

What are the pros and cons of within-subjects design?

Answer 38

Pros: less random noise, fewer participants needed Cons: carryover effects, practice, fatigue, timing may matter

Question 39

What are interaction effects?

Answer 39

occurs when you have 2 or more independent variables each of which has at least 2 conditions

Question 40

What is validity?

Answer 40

how well an experimental procedure actually tests what it is designed to test

Question 41

What is internal validity?

Answer 41

degree to which conclusions are supported by the data you have

Question 42

What are threats to validity?

Answer 42

confounding variables demand characteristics, Placebo effect experimenter expectancy effects

Question 43

What is the placebo effect?

Answer 43

change behavior based on expecting a change/improvement decreases internal validity provides an alternative explanation for changes in experimental/treatment group

Question 44

What is the experimenter expectancy effect?

Answer 44

unintentional ways experimenters influence participants (in direction of hypothesis) minimized by double-blind procedure

Question 45

What are descriptive statistics?

Answer 45

numerically describe data set (distribution of measure)

Question 46

What are measures of central tendency?

Answer 46

mean median mode quartiles

Question 47

What are measures of dispersion/variation?

Answer 47

standard deviation variance range

Question 48

What is a histogram?

Answer 48

graph of frequency distribution scores (intervals) plotted on X axis frequencies plotted on Y axis a bar above each score, height of bar indicates how frequently score occured

Question 49

What are non-normal distributions?

Answer 49

data is skewed, tilted sharply to one side or the other mean is affected by extreme scores (outliers) median and mode better reflect central tendency

Question 50

What is dispersion/variability?

Answer 50

measure of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are (spread of scores)

Question 51

What is the range?

Answer 51

simplest measure of variability difference between highest and lowest measures the higher the range, the less likely to find statistical significance

Question 52

What is standard deviation?

Answer 52

measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean more clustering = standard deviation

Question 53

What is variance?

Answer 53

average of squared deviation scores about the mean

Question 54

What is factor analysis?

Answer 54

reduced a large number of correlations among many measures to a smaller number of clusters valuable tool when identifying dimensions of behavior

Question 55

What is statistical significance?

Answer 55

minimum level is less than 0.05 | p < 0.05 in order to be statistically significant

Question 56

What is a null hypothesis?

Answer 56

any observed differences between control and experimental group are due to chance, assumed to be true until proven wrong

Question 57

What is practical significance?

Answer 57

real world importance | with huge sample sizes, can have statistical significance but not practical significance