AP Psychology Prep: Methods Flashcards
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| 6529780830 | Hindsight Bias | The tendency upon hearing about research findings (and many other things) to think you knew it all along. |  | 0 |
| 6529780831 | Applied Research | Research that has clear, practical applications. (Comparing the efficiency of different methods) |  | 1 |
| 6529780832 | Basic Research | Research that explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate, real-world applications. (How do people in different cultures define intelligence?) |  | 2 |
| 6529780833 | Hypothesis | Expresses a relationship between two variables. (The "guess") |  | 3 |
| 6529780834 | Independent Variable | Manipulate this variable to affect the dependent variable. |  | 4 |
| 6529780835 | Dependent Variable | A change in the independent variable will produce a change in this variable. |  | 5 |
| 6529780836 | Theory | Aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses with hope of collecting data that support it. |  | 6 |
| 6529780837 | Operational Definition | A description of a variable that explains how you will measure it. Must be able to be repeated by other psychologists. |  | 7 |
| 6529780838 | Valid | Research is ____ when it measures what the researcher set out to measure; it is accurate. |  | 8 |
| 6529780839 | Reliabile | Research is ____ when it can be replicated; it is consistent. | | 9 |
| 6529780840 | Participants | The individuals on which the research will be conducted. |  | 10 |
| 6529780841 | Sampling | The process by which participants are selected. |  | 11 |
| 6530232967 | Sample | Group of participants. |  | 12 |
| 6529780842 | Population | Anyone or anything that could possibly be selected to be in the sample. |  | 13 |
| 6529780843 | Representative Sample | A sample that is representative of a larger population. (Large and diverse) | | 14 |
| 6529780844 | Random Sampling | Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected (Increases the likelihood that the sample represents the population) (Use a computer, table of random numbers, names out of a hat) |  | 15 |
| 6529780845 | Stratified Sampling | A process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria. (If 1:1 ration of men to women, the sample will be arranged to have 1:1) |  | 16 |
| 6529780846 | Laboratory Experiments | An experiment conducted in a lab, a highly controlled environment. |  | 17 |
| 6530232968 | Field Experiments | Experiments conducted out in the world. More realistic that laboratory experiments. |  | 18 |
| 6530232969 | Experiment | The preferred method of research, because it is the only method that can show a causal relationship. |  | 19 |
| 6529780847 | Confounding Variables | Any difference between the experimental and control conditions, except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable. |  | 20 |
| 6537689597 | Assignment | The process by which participants are put into a group, experimental or control. |  | 21 |
| 6529780848 | Random Assignment | Each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any group. | | 22 |
| 6529780849 | Controls | These diminish the chances of a confounding variable. |  | 23 |
| 6537689598 | Group Matching | Ensures that experimental and control groups are equivalent on some criterion (sex, IQ scores, age). |  | 24 |
| 6537689599 | Participant-Relevant Confounding Variable | A confounding variable related to assignment of participants in an experiment. | | 25 |
| 6537689600 | Situation-Relevant Confounding Variable | A confounding variable related to the environmental difference between groups. |  | 26 |
| 6537689601 | Experimenter Bias | The unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental or control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis. |  | 27 |
| 6537689602 | Double-Blind Procedure | Occurs when neither the participants nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome of the research. | | 28 |
| 6537689603 | Demand Characteristics | When a participant picks up on cues about the purpose of the study. |  | 29 |
| 6537689604 | Response/Subject Bias | The tendency for subjects to behave in certain ways. |  | 30 |
| 6537689605 | Social Desirablity | The tendency of participants to give answers that reflect well upon them. |  | 31 |
| 6537689606 | Experimental Group | The group that gets the treatment operationalized in the independent variable. |  | 32 |
| 6537689607 | Control Group | The group that does not get the independent variable. | | 33 |
| 6537689608 | Hawthorne Effect | Selecting a group of people to experiment on affects the performance of that group, regardless of what is down to those individuals. |  | 34 |
| 6537689609 | Placebo Method/Effect | When participants in the control group are given an inert but identical substance to the experimental group's. Separates the psychological effect from the physiological effect. |  | 35 |
| 6537689610 | Counterbalancing | Having half of the group be the experimental group first, and half the control group first, then having them switch groups. |  | 36 |
| 6537689611 | Correlation | Expresses the relationship between two variables without ascribing cause. Can be either positive or negative. |  | 37 |
| 6537689612 | Positive Correlation | The presence of one thing predicts the presence of another. |  | 38 |
| 6537689613 | Negative Correlation | The presence of one thing predicts the absence of another. |  | 39 |
| 6537689614 | Order Effects | When a group of participant is first the control group, then later the experimental, they may do better on the second test because they already did it. |  | 40 |
| 6546623492 | Ex Post Facto | When the researcher first observes the effect then tries to determine the cause. Participants aren't selected. |  | 41 |
| 6546623493 | Survey Method | A research method in which people take surveys. There is no independent or dependent variable, it cannot show a causal relationship, and it cannot control for participant-relevant variables. |  | 42 |
| 6546623494 | Naturalistic Observation | A research method in which researchers observe their participants in their natural habitats, without interacting with them. The goal is to get a realistic and rich picture of the participants' behavior. |  | 43 |
| 6546623495 | Longitudinal Study | A research method that is used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a group of participants. It gets the richest possible picture of what they study, but cannot be generalized to a larger population. |  | 44 |
| 6546623496 | Descriptive Statistics | Describes a set of data. |  | 45 |
| 6546623497 | Frequency Distribution | A summary of how often different scores occur within a sample of scores. |  | 46 |
| 6622350290 | Central Tendancy | Attempts to mark the center of a distribution. (Mean, median, mode) |  | 47 |
| 6622350291 | Mean | The average. Can be distorted by outliers, in which case the median should be used. |  | 48 |
| 6622350292 | Median | Central score in the distribution. |  | 49 |
| 6622350293 | Mode | Score that appears most frequently. |  | 50 |
| 6622350294 | Positively Skewed | When a distribution includes an extreme score that is very high. There are more low scores than high, and the mean is greater than the median. |  | 51 |
| 6622350295 | Negatively Skewed | When a distribution has an extreme score(s) that is very low. There are more positive scores than low, and the mean is lower than the median. |  | 52 |
| 6622350296 | Measures of Variability | A type of descriptive statistical measure that attempts to depict the diversity of a distribution. (Range, variance, and standard deviation). |  | 53 |
| 6622350297 | Range | Distance between the highest and lowest score in a distribution. |  | 54 |
| 6622350298 | Standard Deviation | The square root of the variance. Relates the average distance of any score in the distribution from the mean. The higher it is, the more spread out the distribution. |  | 55 |
| 6622350299 | Z-Score | Measures the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation. |  | 56 |
| 6622350300 | Normal Curve | A theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two z scores has been predetermined. 68% of scores fall within 1 standard deviation from the mean, 95% within 2 and 99% within 3. |  | 57 |
| 6622350301 | Percentiles | Indicate the distance of a score from 0. |  | 58 |
| 6622350303 | Correlation Coefficient | A statistic that can compute the strength of a correlation. Ranges from -1 to +1, where both 1's are a perfect correlation and 0 is no correlation. |  | 59 |
| 6622350304 | Scatter Plot |  | 60 | |
| 6622350305 | Line of Best Fit (Regression Line) | The line drawn through a scatter plot that minimizes the distance of all the points from the line. |  | 61 |
| 6622350306 | Inferential Statistics | Determines whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected. |  | 62 |
| 6622350307 | Sampling Error | The extent to which a sample differs from the population. |  | 63 |
| 6622350308 | Statistically Significant Results. | When the p value (the probability that the difference between the groups is by chance) is .05. This means that a 5% chance exists that the results occurred by chance. |  | 64 |
| 6622350309 | Institutional Review Board (IRB) | Reviews research proposals for ethical violations and/or procedural errors. This board ultimately gives researchers permission to go ahead with the research or required them to revise their procedures. |  | 65 |
| 6622350310 | APA | Developed strict guidelines about what animals and how animals can be used in psychological research. |  | 66 |
| 6622350311 | • Clear scientific purpose • Must answer a specific, important scientific question • Animal must be best-suited to answer the question at hand • Must care for and house animals in a humane way • Must acquire animals legally • Least amount of suffering feasible. | APA Guidelines | 67 | |
| 6622350312 | • No Coercion • Informed consent • Anonymity or confidentiality • No mental or physical risk • Debriefing | Human Research Guidelines | 68 |