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AP Psychology > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

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1
Q

Surveys

A

Description: asks people to report their behavior or opinions
Strengths: Cheap to administer, gather info about people quickly
Weaknesses: Wording effects, Sampling Error (doesn’t represent entire pop), low response rate, people lie

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2
Q

Case Studies

A

Description: An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hopes of revealing universal principles
Strengths: one person can tell a lot about people
Weaknesses: one case may be misleading

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3
Q

Naturalistic Observation

A

Description: observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations
Strengths: see authentic behavior
Weaknesses: can’t interfere at all

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4
Q

Correlation Studies

A

Description: Examines relationships between two variables
Correlations range from -1 to 1
Strengths: can show a relationship between two variables
Weaknesses: Correlation does not prove causation, third variable problem

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5
Q

Positive Correlation

A

as one goes up, so does the other (absolute value determines strength)

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6
Q

Negative Correlation

A

as one goes up, other goes down (absolute value determines strength)

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7
Q

Theory

A

an explanation that integrates and organizes and predicts behaviors or events

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8
Q

Hypothesis

A

a testable prediction, often prompted by a theory, educated guess often an if/then statement that expresses a relationship b/w two variables

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9
Q

Research

A

conduct a study (experiment) to either confirm or disprove our hypothesis

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10
Q

Independent variable

A

the factor that researchers manipulate so they can determine its effect. If there are multiple independent variables, they are known as levels of the independent variable

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11
Q

dependent variable

A

the factor that changes in response to the independent variable

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12
Q

Experimental group

A

the group that receives the treatment

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13
Q

Control group

A

the group that does not receive the treatment

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14
Q

Confounding Variable

A

other variables that could possibly affect the experiment (we want to minimize these)

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15
Q

3 keys to an experiment

A
  1. Manipulate the independent variable
  2. Measure the dependent variable
  3. Control for extraneous variables
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16
Q

Basic Ethical Principles

A
  1. Must not harm participants
  2. must not break any laws
  3. must obtain informed consent before and debrief participants after
  4. deception is okay as long as participants are informed of the deception after the experiment is concluded
  5. must keep individual results confidential
  6. Harm to animals is permissible if it is for the greater human good, there is no alternative, and the benefits outweigh harm
17
Q

Population

A

the entire target that you want to learn about

18
Q

Sample

A

those from the population that you select to be part of your study
- should be as representative of the population as possible

19
Q

Random Sampling

A

everyone from the population has an equal chance of being chosen for the study

20
Q

Random Assignment

A

once chosen, those in the sample have an equal chance of being assigned to experimental or control group

21
Q

Hawthorne Effect

A

just being in an experiment can cause change

22
Q

Placebo Effect

A

expectations affect performance

23
Q

Placebo

A

a substance or treatment that has no effect apart from a person’s belief in it

24
Q

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

A

a belief that results in behavior that makes the belief come true

25
Q

Single-Blind Study

A

participants do not know whether they’re in the experimental or control group

26
Q

Double-Blind Study

A

both subjects and experimenters are kept uninformed

27
Q

Operational Definitions

A

precise definitions that show how variables will be measured (love, aggression)

28
Q

Reliability

A

replicate the experiment and get the same results

29
Q

Statistical Significance

A

the difference is so great that it could not be due to chance alone; the more people the lower the stat sig

30
Q

Mode

A

the most frequently occurring score in a distribution

31
Q

Mean

A

the arithmetic average of scores in a distribution

32
Q

Median

A

the middle score in a rank-ordered distribution

33
Q

Range

A

difference between the lowest and highest scores in a distribution

34
Q

Standard Deviation

A

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean

**the higher the variance or SD, the more spread out the distribution is

35
Q

Normal Distribution

A

mean, median, and mode are all the same

36
Q

Positively Skewed distribution

A

one high score outlier with lots of low scores

37
Q

Negatively Skewed distribution

A

one low score outlier with lots of high scores

38
Q

Inferential Statistics

A

can the findings (results) from our study be generalized (inferred) to the entire population? To find out, we need to conduct tests to see if our data is actually meaningful or if our results could have been due to chance alone

AP Psychology (14 decks)

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