Research methods definitions

Question 1

Experimental

Answer 1

An independent variable is changed and the effect on the dependant variable is observed

Question 2

Non experimental

Answer 2

No variables are changed, the relationship between them is observed

Question 3

Hypothesis

Answer 3

A scientific prediction of the relationship between two variables

Question 4

Independent variable

Answer 4

The changed variable

Question 5

Dependent variable

Answer 5

The variable effected by the dependant variable

Question 6

Controlled variables

Answer 6

Variables that are controlled so they don’t influence the results

Question 7

Extraneous variables

Answer 7

Extraneous Variables are undesirable variables that influence the relationship between the variables that an experimenter is examining.

Question 8

Confounding variables

Answer 8

Confounding variables are variables that the researcher failed to control, or eliminate, damaging the internal validity of an experiment.

Question 9

Correlation

Answer 9

An association between two variables

Question 10

Correlational studies

Answer 10

Observation of the association between two variables

Question 11

Archival research

Answer 11

Analyzing studies conducted by other researchers or by looking at historical patient records

Question 12

Case studies

Answer 12

One type of observational data collection technique in which one individual is studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average, of others

Question 13

Qualitative

Answer 13

Refers to a study in which the scientist collects non-numerical data

Question 14

Quantitative

Answer 14

numerical type of data that can manipulated and presented in graph form

Question 15

Subjective

Answer 15

Subjective tests are inventories which assess your personality or various abilities in a biased manner

Question 16

Objective

Answer 16

Objective tests are inventories which assess your personality or various abilities in an unbiased manner.

Question 17

Descriptive statistics

Answer 17

Descriptive statistics are used to describe the basic features of the data in a study. They provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures.

Question 18

Mean

Answer 18

A measure of central tendency which is more commonly known as an “average.”
The average or mean is calculated by adding all scores and then dividing by the number of scores.

Question 19

Mode

Answer 19

A measure of central tendency which is defined by the most common number in an array.

Question 20

Median

Answer 20

A measure of central tendency that is defined as the midpoint in an array of numbers. If the array has an uneven number of scores, the midpoint is the average of the two numbers closest to the middle.

Question 21

Range

Answer 21

A statistical measure of variance. It is calculated by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score and then adding one (i.e., range = (highest score - lowest score) +1).

Question 22

Population

Answer 22

Everyone who could possibly be a participant in the study is part of the population

Question 23

Sample

Answer 23

A relatively small number of participants drawn from a population

Question 24

Representative

Answer 24

when your participants closely match the characteristics of the population, which helps you generalize your results from your small group of people to large groups of people

Question 25

Random sampling

Answer 25

Everyone in the entire population has an equal chance of being selected.

Question 26

Stratified sampling

Answer 26

The researcher identifies the different types of people that make up the target population and work out of the proportions needed for the sample to be representative

Question 27

Opportunity sampling

Answer 27

Uses people from target population available at the time and willing to take part, based on convenience

Question 28

Systematic sampling

Answer 28

Chooses subjects in a systematic way from the target population, like every nth person on a list of names

Question 29

Probability

Answer 29

The expected relative frequency of a particular outcome.

Question 30

Statistical significance

Answer 30

Technically, statistical significance is the probability of some result from a statistical test occurring by chance.
Most often, psychologists look for a probability of 5% or less that the results are do to chance

Question 31

Standard deviation

Answer 31

Standard Deviation is a measure of variation (or variability) that indicates the typical distance between the scores of a distribution and the mean. Tells us the average amount by which each score differs from the mean.

Question 32

Variance

Answer 32

Tells us how spread out the scores are around the mean.

Question 33

Reliability

Answer 33

The extent to which a test in consistent in its results

Question 34

Inter-rater reliability

Answer 34

The degree to which different raters give consistent estimates of the same phenomenon

Question 35

Internal consistency

Answer 35

Within the test the results should be consistent

Question 36

Test-rest reliability

Answer 36

If the test is taken more than once the results should be consistent

Question 37

Validity

Answer 37

The extent to which a test measures what it intends to measure

Question 38

Internal validity

Answer 38

The extent to which only the independent