Unit 1 terms continued Flashcards
Biological Perspective
How our brain works to allow for emotions, memories and senses. Also how our genes and environment influence how we are different
Evolutionary Perspective
How does our need to survive and reproduce influence what traits and genes are kept
Psychodynamic Perspective
How our unconscious thoughts and desires influence thoughts and behaviors
Cognitive Perspective
How we retrieve, store, and encode information
Humanistic Perspective
How does our need to meet our full potential and be our best self influence our thoughts and behaviors
Socio-Cultural Perspective
How do the differences among different cultures influence differences in thoughts and behaviors
Operational Definition
An indepth and exact description of the procedure of a study as well as a description of the dependent variable
Replication
Repeating a study or experiment using different subjects
Case Study
Looking at a single person or small group of people are interesting or unique
Strengths- deep dive into single thing
Limitations- can not determine cause and effect, can not be generalized to population
Survey
Having people self report feelings, opinions, etc in order to gain information
strengths- quick look
limitations- response bias, wording affecting response, hard to get representative sample, can not determine cause and effect
Population
The large group which we want to know something about
Random sample
Group of people randomly selected to represent group in survey. This group must be diverse in order to truly represent the population
Naturalistic Observation
Watching people in their natural environment
strengths- people act as they normally would
limitations- could act differently if aware of observation (hawthorne effect), can not determine cause and effect, no control over anything
Correlational Studies
Figuring out how much 2 variables influence each other in order to predict them.
strengths- make predictions
limitations- third factor could be influencing both or one of the variables, we don’t always know which direction the correlation goes, can not determine causation
Correlational Coefficient
The statistical measure of how much 2 things are correlated (r). Can be between -1.00 and 1.00 (closer to -1 or 1 means stronger correlation). Positive means the two variables go either up or down together and negative means one goes up while other goes down
On a scatter plot…
Positive correlation goes up and to the right, negative goes down and to the right, no correlation is a mess of dots everywhere
Illusory Correlation
The belief that there is a relationship where there is none or the belief there is a stronger relationship than there actually is. This can be fed and feed into illusion of control and regression towards the mean
Experiment
Researching by manipulating one factor in order to determine its effect and holding constant other factors
strengths- can determine cause and effect
limitations- confounding factors
Random assignment
Randomly assigning people to either control or experimental group to keep groups balanced and prevent results being caused by one group being all guys for example
Experimental Group
Group receiving treatment
Control Group
Group that does not receive treatment as they are used as a baseline and comparison
Blind and Double Blind Procedures
Blind Procedure- participants don’t know whether they’re in control or experimental group
Double Blind Procedure- neither participants or researchers know which group is which
this helps to avoid the placebo effect
Placebo Effect
Belief that someone is receiving treatment causing results to occur. A placebo is given the control group of an experiment like a drug trial
Cross Sectional Research
Researchers measure something in a group of people across different age groups at the same time
Longitudinal Research
Researchers measure something within the same group of people as they age
Descriptive Statistics
Measure and Describe a set of data
Measures of central tendency
A single score that represents a set of scores
- mean
- mode
- median
Measures of Variability
Measure how much a set of scores are similar or different
- range
- standard deviation
Standard Deviation
Measure of how much a set of scores varies around the mean (low means less and higher means more)
found using the formula square root of sum of deviation squared/# of scores
Normal Curve and what it tell us
- The bell shaped distribution most sets of scores fall into
- 68% will be within 1 standard deviation from mean and 95% will be within 2 standard deviations from mean
Inferential Statistics
Tell us whether or not we can apply a finding to the large group or not
What makes results reliable
- representative sample from both groups
- low variability in scores for both groups
- large number of cases used to test
Statistical Signifigance
Tells is that results are not likely to be due to chance (there must be a 95% or higher chance that the results are not due to chance for them to be significant)
Informed Consent
Participants must know what they are signing up for and fully agree
Debrief
Participants must be told fully what was being tested and the extent of their results at the end of a study, especially if deception was used
Confidentiality
Results must be kept private or the participant must agree for them to be shared
Lack of coercion
Participants can not be coerced into being a part of the study
Protection from harm
participants must be fully protected from both physical and mental harm during the study
