Introduction/Research Strategies

Question 1

What are the behavioral, psychoanalytic, evolutionary, and biological perspectives?

Answer 1

behavioral - Learning via reinforcement and punishment
psychoanalytic/psychodynamic - unconscious dynamics within the individual
evolutionary - natural selection for traits
biological perspectives - physical systems (e.g. the brain) affects behavior, feelings and thoughts

Question 2

What are the case study, survey, naturalistic observation, correlational, and experimental methods?

Answer 2

case study - in-depth analysis of one subject (or more)
survey - asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions and recording their answers
naturalistic observation - describe and measure people and or animals behavior systematically
correlational - examine strength and direction of relationship between two variables
experimental - experimental versus control group

Question 3

What is random sampling?

Answer 3

Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being studied

Question 4

What are positive and negative correlations?

Answer 4

positive - variables change in the same direction

negative - variables change in opposite directions

Question 5

Does correlation indicate causation?

Answer 5

NO

Question 6

What is random assignment?

Answer 6

participants have an equal chance of being in every experimental group

Question 7

What are IVs and DVs?

Answer 7

IV - manipulated by experimenter

DV - Outcome variable

Question 8

What are the mean, median, and mode?

Answer 8

mean - average of all scores
median - middle score
mode - most frequently occurring score

Question 9

What is statistical significance?

Answer 9

probability that results are due to chance