Lecture Two Reading Flashcards
What is a theory?
An organised set of concepts that explains a phenomenon or set of phenomena
What is determinism?
The doctrine that all events (physical, mental and behavioural) are determined by specific causal factors that are potentially knowable
What is a hypothesis?
A tentative testable explanation of the relationship between two or more events or variables
What is observer bias?
The distortion of evidence based on the personal motives and expectations of the viewer
What is standardisation?
A set of uniform procedures for treating each participant when recording data
What is an operational definition?
A definition of a variable or condition in terms of the specific operation or procedure used to determine its presence
What is the difference between the independent and dependent variable?
Independent-altered by the experimenter
Dependent-the thing being measured
What is the experimental method?
A research methodology that involves the manipulation of independent variables in order to determine their effects on the dependent variables
What is a confounding variable?
A stimulus other than the variable the experimenter introduces which influences a participant’s behaviour
What are expectancy effects?
The result that occurs when the experimenter subtly communicates the kind of behaviour that they expect to find, thereby causing that expected result
What is a placebo effect?
A change in behaviour in the absence of experimental manipulation
What is a correlation method?
A research methodology that determines to what extent two variables are related
What is a correlational coefficient? (r)
A statistic that varies from +1.0 to -1.0 which indicates the degree of relationship between two variables
What is subliminal influence?
The idea that behaviour can be influenced by messages outside of conscious awareness
What is reliability?
The consistency or dependability of behavioural data, ie. the degree to which a test produces similar scores each time it is used
