Unit 2

Question 1

what are the 2 beliefs of science?

Answer 1

1) the universe, and everything within it, operates under order and natural laws

2) laws can be discovered and tested

Question 2

why is pseudopsychology not science?

Answer 2

it doesn’t follow the scientific method

Question 3

what are operational definitions?

Answer 3

how we measure numerically immeasurable variables i.e. love, anger

Question 4

what is it called if a sample doesn’t reflect the population? i.e. excluding a group of people, or favouring the minority

Answer 4

sampling bias

Question 5

what are the differences between descriptive research and experimental research?

Answer 5

descriptive research observes behaviours and identifies a relationship between variables

experimental research explains the cause and effect relationship between variables

Question 6

what are the types of descriptive research?

Answer 6

case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys

Question 7

what are the disadvantages of the types of descriptive research?

Answer 7

case studies: researcher bias – the researcher formulates ideas about their subject that don’t reflect reality

naturalistic observation: the hawthorne effect may cause subjects to act in ways they usually wouldn’t

surveys: participant bias – people often lie to appear a certain way

Question 8

what is a disadvantage of experimental research?

Answer 8

results may be artificial due to the lab conditions. may be unable to generalize information due to small number of participants.

Question 9

why is correlation not causation?

Answer 9

there are often a variety of factors influencing a correlation that are not seen through numbers i.e. strong correlation between autism and vaccines, but children are diagnosed with autism only after they’re old enough to receive vaccines

Question 10

what is a spectrum of intensity?

Answer 10

how something relatively compares to another i.e. IQ is compared to all other test takers, not a perfect score like on a test