Unit 2 - Research and Methods

Question 1

Hindsight Bias

Answer 1

The tendency to think that past events were much more predictable then they actually were

Question 2

Theory

Answer 2

A well tested but not proven idea

Question 3

Hypothesis

Answer 3

Expresses a relationship between 2 variables

Using past experience to predict what will happen in an experiment/observation

Question 4

Operational Definition

Answer 4

How a research method is used

(ex. random assignment is used to help control confounding variables)

Question 5

Descriptive Research

Answer 5

any research that describes who, what, when, where, how

example is a case study

Question 6

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 6

observing individuals or groups in a natural environment

produces broad information due to a lack of controlling outside variables

Question 7

Case Study

Answer 7

closely studying an individual or group in great detail

isn’t applicable to a population

Question 8

Survey

Answer 8

Very fast research method, gathers large amounts of data and not resource intensive

most common type of study

Question 9

Correlational Research

Answer 9

Quantitative method of research in which you are studying the relationship between two variables and strength

Question 10

Correlation Coefficient

Answer 10

Measures the strength of a relationship between two variables from a scale of -1 to +1

Question 11

Positive Correlation

Answer 11

If one variable is bigger/stronger, then the other variable is also bigger/stronger

Question 12

Negative Correlation

Answer 12

if one variable is bigger/stronger, the the other variable becomes smaller/weaker

inverse relationship

Question 13

Zero correlation

Answer 13

one variable has no correlation with the other variable

Question 14

confounding variable

Answer 14

a variable that isn’t controlled that can cause outside effects

example is the Hawthorne effect

Question 15

Experimental research

Answer 15

research in which you are measuring variables by manipulating others

Question 16

experiment

Answer 16

a thing you do to find patterns or relationships

Question 17

experimental group

Answer 17

the group you experiment on in an experiment to measure the effect of a variable

Question 18

control group

Answer 18

a group that is kept from being changed in an experiment

used to accurately see how much a variable effects the experimental group

Question 19

random assignment

Answer 19

randomly putting things into a control/experimental group in order to help control confounding variables

Question 20

population

Answer 20

The whole group

Question 21

sample

Answer 21

a smaller part that represents the population

Question 22

random sample

Answer 22

a sample that isn’t biased and is chosen at random to represent the population accurately

Question 23

representative sample

Answer 23

sample that represents the population accurately

Question 24

Independent variable

Answer 24

variable that is changed in an experiment

Question 25

dependent variable

Answer 25

variable that is measured in an experiment

Question 26

reliability

Answer 26

how much an experiment is reliable

Question 27

validity

Answer 27

how much an experiment is true

Question 28

experimenter bias

Answer 28

bias that comes from an experimenter wanting to see certain results

Question 29

research participant bias

Answer 29

when participants act in the way they think the researcher wants them to act, creates bias

Question 30

placebo effect

Answer 30

effects caused by an individual’s beliefs in a treatment, and not an actual treatment

Question 31

double blind experiment

Answer 31

experiment in which the researcher and experimenters both aren’t aware of what variables are being changed, limits bias very well

Question 32

descriptive statistics

Answer 32

statistics that describe basic features of data in a study