Ap Psychology Barron's Chapter 2: Methods Flashcards

hindsight bias

The tendency for people to think that, upon hearing about research findings, that they knew it all along

applied research

Research conducted in order to solve practical problems; has clear, practical applications

basic research

Explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate, real-world applications. Aim to confirm an existing theory or to learn more about a concept.

Hypothesis

Expresses suggested relationship between two variables (between the dependent and independent variable in experiments). Tentative theory that has not yet been tested.

independent variable

A change in this variable will produce a change in another variable; researchers manipulate this

dependent variable

Changes in this variable are the result of changes in the other variable; researchers measure this

Theory

explains some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses to collect data that support it

Validity

The extent to which the research measures what the researcher set out to measure

Reliability

The extent to which the research can be replicated; is it consistent?

Sampling

The process by which participants are selected. One reason we sample is the false consensus effect.

Population

Anyone or anything that could possibly be selected to be in the sample

representative sample

group of participants that represents the larger population; usually randomly selected so to generalize the findings to the population

random sampling

every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected

stratified sampling

ensures the sample represents the population on some criteria; divide the population into groups, then randomly choose from each group

experiment

Psychologist's preferred method of research because it is the only way to show a causal relationship (cause and effect)

laboratory experiments

conducted in a lab, a highly controlled environment

field experiments

conducted out in the world; more realistic

confounding variable

any difference between the experimental and control groups (besides the independent variable) that affects the dependent variable

participant-relevant confounding variables

when participants are given the opportunity to choose to be in the control or experimental group, the two groups will not be made of similar people

situation-relevant confounding variables

differences between the experimental and control situations that may affect the experiment (e.g. time of day, weather, who else is in the room)

random assignment

Each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any group to prevent participant-relevant confounding variables

Controls

Prevents confounding variables in an experiment

group-matching

Ensuring that the experimental groups are equivalent on some criterion (e.g. sex, IQ scores, age)

Experimenter bias

researchers unconsciously treat groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis; confounding variable

neither the experimenter nor the subject knows to what group the subjects are in; neither are able to affect the outcome of the research

The participants do not know to which group they have been assigned but the researchers know

Response bias (participant bias)

Participants try to respond "correctly" according to the hypothesis or give answers that make themselves look good

a type of response bias that is the tendency of participants to try to give answers that reflect well upon themselves

Hawthorne effect

A change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied

Placebo method

participants in control group are given an identical drug as experimental group, except it's made from something harmless like sugar; method of control

positive correlation

the presence of one thing predicts the presence of the other

negative correlation

The presence of one thing predicts the absence of another

Survey method

researchers ask people to complete surveys to investigate whether there is a relationship between 2 variables, cannot reveal cause-effect relationship

Response rate

the percentage of people contacted who complete the survey

naturalistic observation

Researchers opt to observe their patients in their natural habitats without interacting with them at all

case study method

research used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants; findings can't be generalized to larger population

frequency distribution

an arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs

measures of central tendency

Mark the center of distribution: mean, median, mode

Mean

usually referred to as the average; add all scores and divide by the number of scores; most common measure of central tendency; distorted by outliers

Median

center score when scores written in order; if odd number of scores, find middle one; if even number of scores, find average of middle 2 scores; used if outliers are present

Mode

The score that appears most frequently; there may be more than one

Extreme scores (outliers)

observation point that is distant from other observations; skew distributions; use the median instead of the mean if these are present

Positive skew

a distribution includes an extreme score(s) that is very high; distribution contains more low than high scores; mean is higher than median

Negative skew

Caused by a particularly low score (or group of scores); actually contains more high scores than low scores; the mean is lower than the median

measures of variability

Descriptive statistical measures that attempt to depict the diversity of the distribution: range, variance, standard deviation

Range

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

standard deviation

square root of variance; relates the average distance of any score from the mean; the higher this is, the more the data are spread out

Variance

relates the average distance of any score from the mean; the higher this is, the more the data are spread out; standard deviation squared

Z score

measures the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation; negative if score is below mean and positive if score is above mean

normal curve

theoretical symmetrical bell-shaped curve; 68% of scores fall within 1 standard deviation of mean, 95% between 2 deviations, 99% within 3 deviations

correlation coefficient

Measures the strength of a correlation; -1 (perfect, negative correlation) to +1 (perfect, positive correlation); 0 means no correlation (weakest)

Scatter plot

graphs pairs of values, one on the y-axis and one on the x-axis; the closer the points come to falling on a straight line, the stronger the correlation

Line of best fit (regression line)

line drawn through scatter plot that minimizes distance of all the points from it; upward slope - positive correlation; downward slope - negative correlation

inferential statistics

determine whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected

sampling error

The extent to which the sample differs from the population

P value

probability that difference between groups is due to chance; the smaller this is, the more significant the results; can never be 0.00

statistical significance

The p value must be .05 or less for results to be this (5% or less probability that the results occurred due to chance)

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

reviews research proposals for ethical violations and/or procedural errors; gives researchers permission to go ahead or revise procedures

Coercion

Participation is not voluntary

participants must know that they are involved in research and agree to it; participants can be slightly deceived if needed for the experiment

anonymity

The researchers do not collect any data that enable them to match a person's responses with his or her name

Confidentiality

the researcher will not identify the source of any of the data

Debriefing

after the study, participants are told the purpose of the study and how to contact researchers about results; important if research involves deception

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correctâto overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Scientific Method

A series of steps followed to solve problems including collecting data, formulating a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, and stating conclusions.

Barnum effect

People have the tendency to see themselves in vague, stock descriptions of personality

demand characteristics

cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behavior is expected

correlation method

a research procedure used to determine how much events or characteristics vary along with each other

wording effects

when a specific word used in a question affects how respondents answer the question or the order of the questions

correlation coefficient

a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other

these rules specify that researchers avoid procedures that might cause serious physical or mental harm to human subjects, protect confidentiality of the data, respect a subject's right to refuse at any time during the study; includes Informed Consent, Freedom to Withdraw, Debriefing, No Harm, and Confidentiality

Ap Psychology Barron's Chapter 2: Methods Flashcards ionicons-v5-c

Ap Psychology Barron's Chapter 2: Methods Flashcards