Scientific Foundations of Psychology Flashcards
The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.
Hindsight Bias
Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, assesses the source, discerns hidden values, evaluate evidence, and assesses conclusions.
Critical Thinking
An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organize observations and predicts behaviors or events.
Theory
A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.
Hypothesis
A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.
Operational definition
Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances.
Replication
A descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.
Case study
Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.
Naturalistic observation
A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.
Survey
A flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample.
Sampling bias
All those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn.
Population
A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.
Random Sample
A measure of the extent to which two variables change together, and thus of how well either variable predicts the other.
Correlation
A statistical index of the relationship between two variables (from -1.0 to +1.0).
Correlation Coefficient
A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the value of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.
Scatterplot
The perception of a relationship where none exists.
Illusory Correlation
A research method in which an investigator manipulates one ore more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable.)
Experiment
In an experiment, the group exposed to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.
Experimental group
In an experiment, the group NOT exposed to the treatment; contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.
Control Group
Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between the different groups.
Random assignments
An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.
Double-blind procedure
Experimental results caused by expectation alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent.
Placebo effect
The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.
Independent variable
A factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment.
Confounding variable
The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
Dependent variable
The extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to do.
Validity
Numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups. Includes measures of central tendency and measures of variation.
Descriptive statistics
A bar graph depicting a frequency of distrobution.
Histogram
The most frequently occurring scores in a distribution.
Mode
The arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and dividing by the number of scores.
Mean
The middle score in a distribution; half of the scores are above it and half are below it.
Median
A representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value.
Skewed distribution
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
Range
A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.
Standard deviation
A symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data; most scores fall near the mean and fewer and fewer near the extremes.
Normal curve (normal distribution)
Numerical data that allow one to generalize-to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population.
Inferential statistics
A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance.
Statistical significance
The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.
Culture
An ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate in an experiment.
Informed consent
The post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deception, to its participants.
Debriefing
A plot that shows the underlying frequency distribution (shape) of a set of continuous data.
Histogram
