Ch 2 Conducting Research In Psychology

Front 1

scientific thinking

Back 1

process of using cognitive skills required to generate, test and revise theories

Front 2

scientific method

Back 2

procedure by which scientists conduct research

Front 3

theory

Back 3

set of related assumptions from which scientists can make testable predictions

Front 4

hypothesis

Back 4

specific, informed and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in research design

Front 5

replication

Back 5

reputation of a study to confirm the results; it is essential to the scientific process

Front 6

pseudoscience

Back 6

fake science

Front 7

research designs

Back 7

plans of action for how to conduct a scientific study

Front 8

variable

Back 8

characteristic that changes, such as age

Front 9

population

Back 9

entire group a researcher is interested in

Front 10

samples

Back 10

subsets of the population studied in a research project

Front 11

descriptive designs

Back 11

study designs in which the researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything

Front 12

case study

Back 12

study design in which a psychologist observes one person over a long period of time

Front 13

naturalistic observation

Back 13

a study in which the researcher unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world

Front 14

representative sample

Back 14

research sample that accurately reflects the population pf people one is studying

Front 15

meta-analysis

Back 15

research technique for combining all research results on one question and drawing a conclusion

Front 16

effect size

Back 16

measure of the strength of the relationship b/ween two variables or the extent of an experimental effect

Front 17

correlational designs

Back 17

studies that measure two or more variables and their relationship to one another; they are not designed to show causation

Front 18

correlation coefficients

Back 18

stats that range from -1 to1 an assess the strength and direction of associations b/ween two variables

Front 19

experiment

Back 19

research design that includes independent and dependent variables and random assignments of participants to ctl and experimental groups or conditions

Front 20

independent variable

Back 20

property that is manipulated by an experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it caused the predicted outcome of an experiment

Front 21

dependent variable

Back 21

in an experiment, the outcome of or response to an experimental manipulation

Front 22

random assignment

Back 22

method used to assign participants to diff research conditions

Front 23

experimental group

Back 23

group that receives the treatment

Front 24

control group

Back 24

group that doesn't receive treatment/ independent variable

Front 25

placebo

Back 25

treatment that appears identical to the actual treatment but lacks the active substance

Front 26

confounding variable

Back 26

variable whose influence cannot be separated from the independent variable being examined

Front 27

single blind studies

Back 27

participants don't know the experimental conditions that they've been assigned

Front 28

double blind studies

Back 28

neither participants nor researchers know whose in the ctl or experimental group

Front 29

experimenter expectancy effects

Back 29

results that occur when the behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenters knowledge of whose in the ctl and experimental group

Front 30

self fulfilling prophecy

Back 30

statement that affects events to cause the prediction to come true

Front 31

measures

Back 31

tools and techniques used to assess thoughts or behavior

Front 32

self reports

Back 32

written or oral accounts of a person's thoughts, feelings or actions

Front 33

social desirability bias

Back 33

tendency toward favorable self presentation, which could lead to inaccurate self reports

Front 34

behavioral measures

Back 34

measures based on systematic observation of people's actions, either in their normal environment or in a lab setting

Front 35

physiological measures

Back 35

measures of bodily responses used to determine changes in psychological state

Front 36

statistics

Back 36

collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of numeric data

Front 37

descriptive statistics

Back 37

measures used to describe and summarize research

Front 38

mean

Back 38

arithmetic avg of a series of numbers

Front 39

median

Back 39

score that separates the lower half of the scores form the upper half

Front 40

mode

Back 40

a statistic that represents the most commonly occurring score

Front 41

standard deviation

Back 41

statistical measure of how much scores in the sample vary around the mean

Front 42

frequency

Back 42

number of times a particular score occurs in a set of data

Front 43

normal distribution

Back 43

bell curve, plot of how frequent data are that is perfectly symmetrical, with most scores clustering in the middle and only a few scores at the extremes

Front 44

inferential statistics

Back 44

analyses of data that allows us to test hypotheses and make an inference as to how likely a sample score is to occur in a population

Front 45

t-test

Back 45

statistic that compares two means to see whether they could come from the same population

Front 46

debriefing

Back 46

an explanation the purposes of a study following data collection

Front 47

institutional review boards (IRBs)

Back 47

organizations that evaluate research proposals to make sure research involving humans does not cause undue harm or distress