Chapter 2 Barron's Ap Psychology Flashcards

applied research

research with clear, practical applicationscompare: basic research

basic research

research that explores questions that are of interest of psychologists that are not intended to have immediate, real-world applicationscompare: applied research

valid

measures what it's supposed to measure; accuratecompare: reliable

reliable

can be replicated, consistentcompare: valid

variables

things that vary among the participants in the research

theory

an explanation of some phenomenon, allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses

operationalize

to explain how you will measure a variable

sampling

the process by which subjects are selected

sample

group of subjects; should be representative of a larger population

population

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

random selection

randomly selecting the sample group, increases the likelihood that the sample represents the population

stratified sampling

randomly sampling each strata (category of people, for example race or gender) of the population, so that the final sample reflects the population more accurately

laboratory experiment

conducted in a lab, a highly controlled environment

field experiment

conducted in the world, more realistic than laboratory experimentcompare: laboratory experiment

only experiments can show cause and effect relationships through the manipulation of the independent variable and subsequent observation of the dependent variable while controlling for confounding variables

confounding variable

any difference between the experimental and control conditions, besides the changes of the independent variable

assignment

the process by which subjects are put into a group, experimental or control

random assignment

each subject has an equal chance of being placed in either the experimental or the control groupcontrols subject-relevant confounding variablescompare: random selection

group matching

half of each condition (for example, male or female) is assigned to each group (experimental or control)compare: stratified sampling

situation-relevant confounding variables

differences between the experimental and control situations that may affect the experimentequivalent environments control for situation-relevant confounding variables

experimenter bias

the unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypotheses

neither the subjects nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome of the researchminimizes the effect of demand characteristics and some kind of response/subject biascompare: single-blind procedure

only the subjects do not know which group they're inminimizes the effect of demand characteristics and some kind of response/subject biascompare: double-blind procedure

demand characteristics

cues about the purpose of the study

response/subject bias

when subjects behave in ways they think the observer wants them to behavesocial desirability (desire to act or answer questions in a way that others will like) is a type of this

Hawthorne effect

selecting a group of people on whom to experiment will affect the performance of hat group, regardless of what is done to the individuals

placebo effect

the purely psychological effects of thinking you took a drug when you really didn't

counterbalancing

using subjects as their own control group by having half of them be experimental first and half of them be control first

order effect

the order of the experimental/control group activities may affect the results

correlation

a relationship between two variables without ascribing cause

ex post facto study

research in which subjects are chosen based on a pre-existing condition; all other variables are controlled

survey method

kind of correlational research in which surveys are filled out; difficult to control for confounding variables

naturalistic observation

unobtrusive observation on subjects in their natural habitats, control is sacrificedcompare: field experiment

case study

a full, detailed picture of one subject or a small group of subjects; not reflective of population, as a result findings cannot be generalized

descriptive statistics

describe a set of datacompare: inferential statistics

frequency distribution

a distribution of observed frequencies of occurrence of the values of a variable

frequency polygon

line graph

histogram

bar graph

measures of central tendency

attempt to mark the center of a distributionconsists of mean, median, modecompare: measures of variability

mean

the average of all the scores in a distributionmost commonly used measure of central tendencywhen distorted by extreme scores or outliers, median should be usedcompare: median, mode

median

the middle score of a distribution when written in ascending or descending ordercompare: mode, mean

mode

the score that appears most frequentlycompare: median, mean

positively skewed

when a distribution has a high outlier, there are more low scores than high scores due to the outliermean is higher than mediancompare: negatively skewed

negatively skewed

when a distribution has a low outlier, there are more high scores than low scores due to the outliermean is lower than mediancompare: positively skewed

measures of variability

attempt to depict the diversity of the distributionconsists of range, variance, standard deviationcompare: measures of central tendency

variance

the average of the squared differences of each number from the meancompare: standard deviation, range

standard deviation

the square root of the variancecompare: variance, range

range

the distance between the highest and lowest score in a distributioncompare: variance, standard deviation

z score

the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviationnegative z scores are below the meanpositive z scores and above the mean

normal curve

theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two z scores has been predeterminedmemorize the normal distribution chart

percentile

the distance of a score from 0nth percentile means you scored better than n percent of the people taking the test

correlation coefficient

range from -1 and +10 is the weakest correlation-- no correlation

scatter plot

a series of points plotted on a graphthe closer the points come to a line, the stronger the correlation

line of best fit

the line drawn through the scatter plot that minimizes the distance of all the points from the line

inferential statistics

determine whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected; making sure the results are not due to sampling error and chancet-tests, ANOVAs, MANOVAs are types of inferential statistical testscompare: descriptive statistics

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

Chapter 2 Barron's Ap Psychology Flashcards