Unit 2 Flashcards
How does overconfidence contaminate out everyday judgments?
It can lead us to overestimating our intuition which can result in doing worse at solving problems or scoring lower
After learning an outcome, you should’ve seen it coming
Hindsight bias
Tend to think we know more than we do
Overconfidence
Immediate knowing of something without the conscious use of reasoning
Intuition
Examine, discern, evaluate, assess; shift reality from illusion; thinking that doesn’t blindly accept arguments and conclusions
Critical thinking
Have to reject our own ideas
Humility
Explain how scientific attitude encourages critical thinking
It helps us to think more logically; we have to know real reasons to accept an idea
How do psychological theories guide scientific research?
Theories could be used as summaries and it organizes observations into principles. Helps us to make hypotheses
Refining theories and hypotheses through research
Scientific Theory
Explanation using principles to organize observations and predicts behavior or events
Theory
Testable prediction usually implied from a theory; testable
Hypothesis
Clearly defined methods of research that allows others to replicate research
Operational definition
Repeating a research study with different people and situations
Replication
What is the importance of random sampling?
It shows a bigger representation of a population; good basis to generalize things from
Describes behavior but doesn’t explain it
Descriptive
One or more people is studied in depth; provides a lot of information
Case study
What is a con of case studies?
Cannot apply to all people; the individual can be atypical
Questioning a representative or random sampling of a group
Survey
What is a pro of surveys?
Provides information from a lot of people
What is a con of surveys?
Some may not be honest, wording effect
All cases in a group is being studied where samples are obtained
Population
Fairly represents a population because every participant has a chance to participate
Random Sample
Observing and recording behaviors in a natural habitat
Naturalistic observation
What is a pro of naturalistic observations?
You’re observing someone in a natural environment
What is a con of naturalistic observations?
Takes a long time and it’s good for limited behavior
2 results rise or fall together
Positive correlation
Results are opposite of each other (one goes up while the other goes down)
Negative correlation
Correlation is ____ causation
not
How do correlational measures aid in the process of prediction?
It helps us to predict how well either one result will predict the other
Measure of extent to 2 factors that vary each other and how will either factor predicts the other
Correlation
Index of the relationship between 2 things
Correlation coefficient
Graphed cluster of dots
Scatterplot
How do people form illusory correlations?
They form when we believe something is related because we could notice and recall instances easily to confirm easily
Experimenter knows who is in what group and what treatment they are getting
Experimenter bias
We think that there is a correlation because of a coincidence but there really isn’t
Illusory correlation
Explain how experiments help researchers isolate cause and effect
It can manipulate the factors of interest and holding constant other factors. Manipulating a factor to determine its effect
A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effects on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable). Proves causation
Experiment
Experiment where participants and staff are blind whether participants have received treatment or placebo
Double-blind procedure
Experimental results caused by expectations alone
Placebo effect
Group that is not exposed to the treatment
Control group
Assigning participants to experimental and control groups; equal chance and minimizes bias
Random assignment
Factor that is changed
Independent variable
Factor that is not changed
Dependent variable
Factor other than the independent variable that can contaminate the result of an experiment
Cofounding variable
Participant knows or tries to anticipate what the experiment wants
Good subject phenomenon
Why are statistical principles important?
They can show us a layout of data and the distribution of data makes it easy to compare with other data
Central tendencies that summarize and interpret properties of a set data
Descriptive statistics
Making predictions or inferring a population from observations and analyses of a sample
Inferential statistics
Gap between the lowest and highest scores
Range
Most frequently occurring score(s)
Mode
How much scores vary around the mean
Standard deviation
Symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data
Normal curve
How many standard deviations a score is from the mean
Z-score
Identify 3 principles of making generalizations from samples
Representative samples are better than biased samples, less variable observations are more reliable, more cases are better than fewer
How likely is that a result didn’t occur by a chance
Statistical significance
Explain how psychologists decide whether differences are meaningful
If there are little differences between scores, the less practical it is. When differences are large, the more reliable it is. Culture and gender
Explain the value or simplified laboratory conditions in discovering general principles of behavior
An experiment’s purpose is to test principles not recreating exact behaviors; Resulting principles help explain many behaviors
Can psychological research be generalized across cultures and genders?
Yes, the standard idea is the same but expressed in different ways
Behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and passed down generation to generation
culture
Told enough information to enable people whether or not they want to participate
Informed consent
Post experimental explanation of a study to its participants
Debriefing
