Social Psych: Ch 2

Front 1

scientific theory

Back 1

a statement that satisfies three requirements: It is about constructs; it describes causal relations; and it is general in scope, although the range of generality differs for different theories

Front 2

constructs

Back 2

abstract and general concepts that are used in theories and that are not directly observable

Front 3

construct validity

Back 3

the extent to which the independent and dependent variables used in research correspond to the theoretical constructs under investigation

Front 4

independent/dependent variable

Back 4

know it

Front 5

social desirability response bias

Back 5

people’s tendency to act in ways that they believe others find acceptable and approve of

Front 6

self-report measures

Back 6

those based on asking the individual about his or her thoughts, feelings or behaviors

Front 7

observational measures

Back 7

those based on directly watching and recording people’s behavior, including online behavior

Front 8

archival measures

Back 8

those based on examining traces of past behavior

Front 9

performance measures

Back 9

those that ask participants to perform some task as well as they can

Front 10

physiological measures

Back 10

those based on measurement of some physiological process such as heart rate or muscle movements

Front 11

EEG/fMRI

Back 11

measures use electrical signals on the scalp to very accurately detect the times at which specific neural events occurAND indirectly measures the activation levels of specific brain regions

Front 12

internal validity

Back 12

the extent to which it can be concluded that changes in the independent variable actually caused changes in the dependent variable in a research study

Front 13

experimental/non-experimental

Back 13

a research design in which researchers randomly assign participants to different groups and manipulate one or more independent variables AND when both independent and dependent variables are measured

Front 14

random assignment

Back 14

know it

Front 15

manipulate

Back 15

intentionally varying some factor as the independent variable in an experimental research design

Front 16

confederate

Back 16

a research assistant playing a specific role in the study, such as pretending to be just another participant

Front 17

external validity

Back 17

the extent to which research results can be generalized to other appropriate people, times, and settings

Front 18

generalizing to/across

Back 18

specific target population and setting AND various non-specific types of people and settings

Front 19

demand characteristics

Back 19

cues in a research setting that lead participants to make inferences about what researchers expect or desire and that therefore bias how the participants act

Front 20

field research

Back 20

research that takes place outside the lab

Front 21

meta-analysis

Back 21

a systematic technique for locating studies on a particular topic and summarizing their results

Front 22

contact hypothesis

Back 22

theory that states that casual, friendly contact with members of a different ethnic group increases liking for that group

Front 23

john stewart (1980)

Back 23

found attractive defendants got shorter sentences (non experimental study correlating attractiveness and prison sentence length)

Front 24

Sigall & OStrove (1975)

Back 24

found attractive thieves get shorter sentences (experimental study where attractiveness was manipulated)