Psyc100 Chapter 2 Key Terms

Front 1

Anecdotal evidence

Back 1

Personal stories about specific incidents and experiences

Front 2

Case Studies

Back 2

An in-depth investigation of an individual subject

Front 3

confounding of variables:

Back 3

a condition that exists whenever two variables are linked together in a way that maieks it difficult to sort out their independing values

Front 4

control group:

Back 4

Subjects in a study who do not receive special treament given to the experimental group

Front 5

Correlation Coeffecient

Back 5

A numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables

Front 6

Correlation

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The extent to which two variables are related to each other

Front 7

Data collecting Techniques

Back 7

Procedures for making empirical obvservations and measurements

Front 8

Dependent variable

Back 8

In an experiment, the variable that is thought to be affected by the manipulation of the independent variable

Front 9

descriptive statistics

Back 9

Statistics that are used to organize and summarize the data

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Double-blind procedure

Back 10

a research strategy in which neither sbujects norr the experiments know which subjects arei n te experimental or control groups

Front 11

Experiment

Back 11

A research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result

Front 12

experimental group

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The subjects in a study who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable

Front 13

experimenter bias

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a phenomenon that occurs when a researchers expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained

Front 14

extraneous variables

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any variables other then the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variabloe in a specific study

Front 15

Hypothesis:

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a tentitive statement about the relationship between two or more variables

Front 16

Independent Variable:

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in an experment, a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see it's impact on another value

Front 17

Inferential statistics:

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Statistics that are used to interpret data and draw conclusions

Front 18

interenet-mediated research

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refers to studies in which data collection is done using the web

Front 19

journal

Back 19

a periodical that published technical and scholarly material, usually narrowly defined area of inquiry

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mean

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the arithemetic average of scores in a distribution of scores

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median

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the score taht falls exactly in teh centre of distribution of scores

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mode

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the score taht occurs most frequently in a distribution

Front 23

naturalistic observation

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a descriptive research method in which the researcher engages in carefull, usually prolong, observation of behaviour without intervening directly wtih the subjects

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Null hypothesis

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in inferential statistics, the assumption that there is no true relationship between variables is being observes

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operational definition

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a definintion that describes the actions or operations that will be made to measure or control a variable

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participants

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see subjects

Front 27

placebo effects

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the fact that subjects expectations can lead them to experience some change even thoug hthey recieve an emptiy, fake or inffectual treatment

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population

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the larger collection of animals or people from which a sample is drawn and that researchers want to generalize about

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random assignment

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the constitution of groups in a study such that all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition

Front 30

replication:

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the repitition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated

Front 31

response set

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a tendency to respond to questions in a praticular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions

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sample:

Back 32

the collect of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study

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sampling bias:

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a problem that occurs when a sample is not representitive of the population from which it is drawn

Front 34

scatter diagram

Back 34

a graph in which paired x and y scores for each subject are plotted as single points

Front 35

social desirability bias

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a tendency to give socially approved answere to questions about oneself

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standard deviation

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an index of amount of variabliitiy in a set of data

Front 37

statistical significance

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the conditiont that exists when the probability that the obersved findings are due to chance is very low

Front 38

statistics:

Back 38

the use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interpret numerical data. SEe also descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics

Front 39

subjects:

Back 39

the persons or animals whose behaviour is systematically observed in a study

Front 40

survey

Back 40

a descriptive research method in which reserachers use questionnaires or interview to gather information about specific aspects of subjects behaviour

Front 41

variablitiy

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the extent to which the scores in a adata set tend to vary from each other and from the mean

Front 42

variables:

Back 42

any measurable conditions,e events, characteristics or behaviours that are controlled or observed in a study