Unit 1 - Day 2 (Research in Psychology)

Question 1

What is intuition?

Answer 1

Understanding without conscious reasoning.

Question 2

What is hindsight bias?

Answer 2

“I knew it all along” phenomenon or belief after learning an outcome, one could have foreseen it.

Question 3

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 3

Looking for information that supports your preexisting belief or expectation, typically by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence.

Question 4

What is overconfidence?

Answer 4

A cognitive bias when we think we know more that we do or overestimate our ability to perform a task.

Question 5

What is natural observation?

Answer 5

Observing and recording behavior in a naturally occuring setting without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Question 6

What are case studies?

Answer 6

Detailed information gathered on a specific individual or group in the hope of revealing universal principles or highly unusual traits.

Question 7

What are surveys or interviews?

Answer 7

A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions, or behaviors of people usually done by questioning a representative random sample of people to determine relationships between variables.

Question 8

What is social-desirability bias?

Answer 8

Survey respondent offers responses they deem socially acceptable.

Question 9

What is self-report bias?

Answer 9

When people don’t accurately report or remember their behavior.

Question 10

What is meta-analysis?

Answer 10

A statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion. It is an observational study of evidence.

Question 11

What is correlation?

Answer 11

A search for relationships or a prediction. DOES NOT suggest causation.
- Works with large groups of data and may be used in situations where an experiment is not ethical or possible.
- We try to determine whether changes in one variable are associated with changes in another so that, for example, as one rises, the other does too.

Question 12

The stronger the relationship or correlation…

Answer 12

The more successfully one variable can be predicted from the other.

Question 13

What is the correlation coefficient?

Answer 13

(-R) It shows the strength and direction of correlation between two variables (from -1.0 to +1.0)

Question 14

What is a scatter plot?

Answer 14

Graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables.

Question 15

What is the slope of points?

Answer 15

Suggests direction of the relationship between two variables.

Question 16

What does the amount of scatter indicate?

Answer 16

Strength of the correlation (little scatter means high correlation)

Question 17

What is a positive correlation?

Answer 17

Increase in one variable is associated with increase in the other.

Question 18

What is negative correlation?

Answer 18

An increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other.

Question 19

A correlation of zero indicates….

Answer 19

Variables aren’t related.

Question 20

Which number out of the following sequence has the strongest correlation? Which has the weakest?
(+.47, -.08, -.32, +.76)

Answer 20

Strongest: +.76 (closest to the end of the spectrum, in this case 1).
Weakest: -.08 (closest to the middle of the spectrum, in this case 0.)

Question 21

What is a directionality problem?

Answer 21

A common issue in correlation research that occurs when it’s unclear which variable is causing change in another.

Question 22

What are third variables?

Answer 22

(distressing events or biological predispositions) are outliers that can impact the correlation and are not controlled.