Chapter 2 - How Psychologists Do Research

Front 1

Theory

Back 1

An organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships.

Front 2

Hypothesis

Back 2

A statement that attempts to predict or to account for a set of phenomena; scientific hypotheses specify relationships among events or variables and are empirically tested.

Front 3

Operational Definition

Back 3

A precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifics the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being defined.

Front 4

What Makes Psychological Research Scientific?

Back 4

Precision, Skepticism, Reliance on empirical evidence, Principle of falsifiability, confirmation bias

Front 5

Principle of Falsifiability

Back 5

The principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; that is, the theory must predict not only what will happen but also what will not happen.

Front 6

Confirmation Bias

Back 6

The tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one's own belief.

Front 7

Representative Sample

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A group of individuals, selected from a population for study, which matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex.

Front 8

Descriptive Methods

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Methods that yield descriptions of behavior but not necessarily causal explanations.

Front 9

Case Study

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A detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated.

Front 10

Observational Study

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A study in which a researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behavior without interfering with the behavior; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation.

Front 11

Psychological Tests

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Procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values.

Front 12

Naturalistic Observation

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To find out how people or animals act in their normal social environment.

Front 13

Laboratory Observation

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In laboratory setting, researches have more control of the situation. They can use sophisticated equipment, determine the number of people who will be observed, maintain a clear line of vision, ad so forth.

Front 14

Objective Tests

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Also called inventories, measure beliefs, feelings, or behaviors of which an individual is aware

Front 15

Projective Tests

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Are designed to tap unconscious feelings or motives.

Front 16

Standardize

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In test construction, to develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test.

Front 17

Norms

Back 17

In test construction, established standards of performance.

Front 18

Reliability

Back 18

In test construction, the consistency of scores derive from a test, from one time and place to another.

Front 19

Validity

Back 19

The ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure.

Front 20

Test-retest Reliability

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Giving the test twice to the same group of people and comparing the two sets of scores statistically.

Front 21

Alternate-forms Reliability

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Giving different versions of the same test to the same group on two separate occasions.

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Content Validity

Back 22

Items broadly represent the trait in question

Front 23

Criterion Validity

Back 23

The ability to predict independent measures, or criteria, of the treat in question.

Front 24

Surveys

Back 24

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions.

Front 25

Volunteer Bias

Back 25

A shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a representative sample; the volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer.

Front 26

Correlational Study

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A descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena.

Front 27

Correlation

Back 27

A measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another.

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Variables

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Characteristics of behavior or experience that can be measured or described by a numeric scale.

Front 29

Positive Correlation

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An association between increases in one variable and increases in another-or between decreases in one and in another.

Front 30

Negative Correlation

Back 30

An association between increases in one variable and decrease in another.

Front 31

Coefficient of Correlation

Back 31

A measure of correlation that ranges in value from -1.00 to +1.00.

Front 32

Experiment

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A controlled test of hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another.

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Independent Variable

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A variable that an experimenter manipulates.

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Dependent Variable

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A variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable.

Front 35

Control Condition

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In an experiment, a comparison condition in which participants are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition.

Front 36

Random Assignment

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A procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups in which each individual has the same probability as any other of being assigned to a given group.

Front 37

Placebo

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An inactive substance or fake treatment used as a control in an experiment or given by a medical practitioner to a patient.

Front 38

Single-Blind Study

Back 38

An experiment in which participants do not know whether they are in an experimental or a control group.

Front 39

Experimenter Effects

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Unintended changes in study participants' behavior due to cues that the experimenter inadvertently conveys.

Front 40

Double-Blind Study

Back 40

An experiment in which neither the people being studied nor the individuals running the study know who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group until after the results are tallied.

Front 41

Field Research

Back 41

Descriptive or experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside the laboratory.

Front 42

Descriptive Statistics

Back 42

Statistical procedures that organize and summarize research data.

Front 43

Arithmetic Mean

Back 43

An average that is calculated by adding up a set of quantities and diving the sum by the total number of quantities in the set.

Front 44

Standard Deviation

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A commonly used measure of variability that indicates the average difference between scores in a distribution and their mean.

Front 45

Inferential Statistics

Back 45

Statistical procedures that allow researchers to draw inferences about how statistically meaningful a study's results are.

Front 46

Significance Tests

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Statistical tests that show how likely it is that a study's results occurred merely by chance.

Front 47

Confidence Interval

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A statistical measure that provides, with a specified probability, a range of values within which a population mean is likely to lie.

Front 48

Cross-Sectional Study

Back 48

A study in which people (or animals) of different ages are compared at a given time.

Front 49

Longitudinal Study

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A study in which people (or animals) are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time.

Front 50

Effect Size

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An objective, standardized way of describing the strength of the independent variable's influence on the dependent variable.

Front 51

Meta-analysis

Back 51

A set of techniques for combining data from a number of related studies to determine the explanatory strength of a particular independent variable.

Front 52

Bayesian Statistics

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Statistics that involve a formula for a calculating likelihood of a hypothesis being true and meaningful, taking into account relevant prior knowledge.

Front 53

Informed Consent

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The doctrine that anyone who participates in human research must do so voluntarily and must know enough about the study to make an intelligent decision about whether to take part.

Front 54

P Value

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P < .05