Psychology Ch. 2

Front 1

variable

Back 1

a characteristic that changes or varies such as age, gender, weight, intelligence, anxiety, and extraversion

Front 2

social desirability bias

Back 2

the tendency toward favorable self presentation that could lead to inaccurate self reports

Front 3

descriptive designs

Back 3

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 4

case study

Back 4

a study design in which a psychologist, often a therapist, observes one person over a long period of time.

Front 5

naturalistic observation

Back 5

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

Front 6

representative sample

Back 6

a research sample that accurately reflects the population of people one is studying

Front 7

correlation coefficient

Back 7

a statistic that ranges from -1.0 to +1.0 and assesses the strength and direction of association between two variables

Front 8

correlation designs

Back 8

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

Front 9

experiment

Back 9

a research design that includes independenct and dependent variables and random assignment of participants to control and experimental groups or conditions

Front 10

independent variable

Back 10

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

Front 11

dependent variable

Back 11

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

Front 12

random assignment

Back 12

the method used to assign participants to different research conditions so that all participants have the same chance of being in any specific group

Front 13

control group

Back 13

a group of research participants who are treated in exactly the same manner as the experimental group, except that they do not receive the independent variable or treatment

Front 14

experimental group

Back 14

a group consisting of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior

Front 15

confounding variable

Back 15

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

Front 16

single blind studies

Back 16

studies inwhich participants do not know the experimental condition to which they have been assigned

Front 17

experimenter expectancy effects

Back 17

result that occurs when the behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenters knowledge of who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group

Front 18

double blind studies

Back 18

studies in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been assigned to the experimental or control group

Front 19

meta analysis

Back 19

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

Front 20

effect size

Back 20

a measure of the strength of the relationship between two variable or the magnitude of an experimental effect

Front 21

behavioral measures

Back 21

mesures based on systematic observation of peoples actions either in their normal environment or in a laboratory setting

Front 22

physiological measures

Back 22

measures of bodily responses, such as blood pressure or heart rate, used to determine changes in psychological state

Front 23

multiple measurement

Back 23

the use of several measures to acquire data on one aspect of behavior

Front 24

mode

Back 24

the statistic that represents the most commonly occuring score or value

Front 25

statistics

Back 25

collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data

Front 26

descriptive statistics

Back 26

measures used to describe and summarize research data

Front 27

mean

Back 27

the arithmatic average of a series of numbers

Front 28

median

Back 28

the score that separates the laower half of scores from the upper half

Front 29

standard deviation

Back 29

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