Key definitions

Question 1

What is an independent variable?

Answer 1

The variable we manipulate or change.

Question 2

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 2

The variable we measure.

Question 3

What is extraneous variable?

Answer 3

Any variable other than the IV that could affect the DV.

Question 4

What is confounding variable?

Answer 4

Any variable other than the IV that has affected the DV.

Question 5

What is standardisation?

Answer 5

The process of keeping extraneous variable the same across experimental conditions.

Question 6

What is operationalisation?

Answer 6

Making variable measurable so they can be tested scientifically.

Question 7

What is randomisation?

Answer 7

Using chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials or deciding the order of conditions.

Question 8

What is order effects?

Answer 8

This refers to how the positioning of task influences performances on that task.

Question 9

What is Participant variable?

Answer 9

-Any characteristic or aspect of a participant’s background that could affect study results, even though it’s not the focus of an experiment.

Question 10

What is demand characteristics?

Answer 10

Where participants guess the aim of the study causing them to change their behaviour.

Question 11

What is counterbalancing?

Answer 11

Where half the participants complete the conditions in one order(A then B) and the other half complete the conditions in the other order(B then A)

Question 12

What is Qualitative date?

Answer 12

-Data that can be expressed in words.

Question 13

What is Quantitative date?

Answer 13

-Data that can be counted.

Question 14

What is Deception?

Answer 14

Where participants are lied to or mislead about the true aims of a study.

Question 15

What is Debrief?

Answer 15

Where the true aims of a study are explained to participants after the study is conducted.

Question 16

What is Validity?

Answer 16

How accurate the data is.

Question 17

What is Ecological validity?

Answer 17

The extent to which psychologists can apply their findings to other settings predominantly to everyday life.

Question 18

What is Temporal Validity?

Answer 18

-The extent to which psychologists can apply their findings to across periods of time.

Question 19

What is Face Validity?

Answer 19

A measure of whether a test measures what it intends to measure.

Question 20

What is concurrent validity?

Answer 20

A measure where the performance of the test in question is compared to a test that is already recognised and trusted within the same field.

Question 21

What is reliability?

Answer 21

How consistent the date is.

Question 22

What is objectivity?

Answer 22

Not being biased and so not letting personal opinion get in the way.

Question 23

What is falsifiability?

Answer 23

The ability to prove something wrong.

Question 24

What is paradigms?

Answer 24

-A set of beliefs that the majority agree are correct.

Question 25

What is pilot studies?

Answer 25

A small scale trial run conducted before the study.

Question 26

What is social desirability bias?

Answer 26

The tendency to underreport socially undesirable attitudes and behaviours and to over report more desirable attributes to be seen in a move positive light.

Question 27

What is the investigator effects?

Answer 27

The unwanted influences that the investigator communicates to the participants which affects their behaviour.

Question 28

What is conformation bias?

Answer 28

The tendency to seek out and prefer information that supports our pre-existing beliefs.

Question 29

What is single blind procedures?

Answer 29

When the participants do not know if they are in the experimental condition or the control condition but the research does.

Question 30

What is double blind procedures?

Answer 30

When neither the participants or the researcher know if they are in the experimental condition or the control condition.