Research Enterprise in Psychology Flashcards
personal stories about specific incidents and experiences
anecdotal evidence
an in-depth investigation of an individual subject
case study
a condition that exists whenever two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their independent effects
confounding of variables
subjects in a study who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group
control group
the extent to which two variables are related to each other
correlation
a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables
correlation coefficient
in an experiment, the variable that is though to be affected by the manipulation of the independent variable
dependent variable
statistics that are used to organize and summarize data
descriptive statistics
a research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups
double-blind procedure
the subjects in a study who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable
experimental group
a phenomenon that occurs when a researcher’s expectation or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
experimenter bias
any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study
extraneous variables
in an experiment, a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable
independent variable
the arithmetic average of the scores in a distribution
mean
the score that falls exactly in the center of a distribution of scores
mediant
the score that occurs most frequently in a distribution
mode
a descriptive research method in which the researcher engages in careful, usually prolonged, observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects
naturalistic observation
a definition that describes the action so r operations that will be made to measure or control a variable
operational definition
the fact that subjects’ expectations can lead them to experience some change even though they receive an empty, fake, or ineffectually treatment
placebo effects
the constitution of groups in a study such that all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group of condition
random assignment
a tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions
response set
the collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study
sample
a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself
social desirability
an index of the amount of variability in a set of data
standard deviation
the condition that exists when the probability that the observed findings are due to chance is very low
statistical significance
the persons or animals whose behavior is systematically observed in a study
subjects
any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study
variables
