Ap Psychology Ch 1

Front 1

Psychology

Back 1

The science of behavior and mental processes.

Front 2

Nature-Nurture Issues

Back 2

The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors

Front 3

Natural Selection

Back 3

The principle that, among the range o finherited trait cariations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to suceeding generations.

Front 4

Basic Research

Back 4

Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

Front 5

Applied Research

Back 5

Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

Front 6

Clinical Psychology

Back 6

A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

Front 7

Psychiatry

Back 7

A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy

Front 8

hindsight bias
(the-i-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)

Back 8

the tendency to believe that you knew all along something was gonna happen a certain way, after finding out the outcome.

Front 9

Critical Thinking

Back 9

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conlusions.
It examines assumptions, figures out hidden values, evaluates evidence and determines conclusions.

Front 10

Theory

Back 10

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations.

Front 11

Hypothesis

Back 11

A testable oredictions, often implied by a theory

Front 12

Operational Definition

Back 12

A statement of the procedures used to define research variables.

Front 13

Replication

Back 13

Repeating the essence of a reseach study, usually with different subjects in different situations, to see whether the basic finding generalizes to other participants and circumstances.

Front 14

Case Study

Back 14

An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles.

Front 15

Survey

Back 15

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them.

Front 16

False consensus effect

Back 16

the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Front 17

Population

Back 17

all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study

Front 18

Random Sample

Back 18

A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Front 19

Naturalistic Observation

Back 19

Observing and recording behavior in naturally occuring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Front 20

Correlation

Back 20

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

Front 21

Scatterplot

Back 21

A graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of points suggests the direction of the relationship b/t the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation.

Front 22

Illusory Correlation

Back 22

The perception of a relationship where nouse exists.

Front 23

Experiment

Back 23

A research method in which an investigator manupulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process.

Front 24

Placebo

Back 24

["i shall please"]
an inert sunstance or conditions that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug, to see of it triggers the effects believed to characterize the active agent.

Front 25

Double Blind Procedure

Back 25

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or placebo.

Front 26

Placebo Effect

Back 26

Any effect on behavior caused by a placebo.

Front 27

Experimental Condition

Back 27

the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

Front 28

Control Condition

Back 28

the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the ecperimental confition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

Front 29

Random Assignment

Back 29

Assigning participants to ecperimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups.

Front 30

Independent Value

Back 30

the experimental factor that is manipulated ; & whose effect is being studied

Front 31

Mode

Back 31

the most occuring, or most often repeated

Front 32

Median

Back 32

the score in the middle

Front 33

Range

Back 33

the range between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Front 34

Standard Deviation

Back 34

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Front 35

Statistical Significance

Back 35

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occured by chance.

Front 36

Culture

Back 36

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of poeple and transmitted from one generation to the next