AP Psych Unit 2 Flashcards
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10519711498 | Scientific Method | The process used to carry out experiments in science. It avoids hindsight bias, overconfidence, and the perception of patterns in random events. | 0 | |
10519721648 | Hindsight bias | The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.) | 1 | |
10519727101 | Overconfidence | The tendency to believe a particular result "too much", to the point of potentially manipulating data in order to get that result. It is related to hindsight bias | 2 | |
10519743374 | Random | Humans have a tendency to find patterns in ______ data | 3 | |
10519748842 | Researchers | ___________ must be: - curious - skeptical - humble | 4 | |
10519767274 | 3 Goals of the Scientific Method | - Measurement and description - Understanding and prediction - Application and control | 5 | |
10519781336 | Steps of the Scientific Method | 1. Formulate a testable hypothesis (if/then statement) 2. Select research method and design experiment 3. Collect and test data (using one of the 3 methods) 4. Analyze the data 5. Replicate 6. Report findings | 6 | |
10519784128 | Hypothesis | A testable claim which is usually written as an if/then statement to make it easier to understand and experiment with | 7 | |
10519790833 | Operational Definition | What actions or operations are being used to measure or control behavior | 8 | |
10519801901 | 3 Methods of Data Collection (and Testing) | - Experimental - Descriptive - Correlational | 9 | |
10519831272 | Journal | Scientists always report their findings to a _______ | 10 | |
10519834927 | Independent variable | The variable that is being manipulated | 11 | |
10519834928 | Dependent variable | The variable or behavior that is being measured | 12 | |
10519838122 | Confounding variable | A variable that causes an unexplained result (even if it was the expected result) due to not being accounted for in the experiment | 13 | |
10519856516 | Extraneous variable | A variable that impacts the experiment which can be controlled or accounted for to some degree (such as a fire alarm or bell ringing during a sleep study) | 14 | |
10519869104 | Control group | The group which receives the "default" treatment in a scientific experiment, and is used as a baseline to compare other groups to | 15 | |
10519869105 | Experimental group | The group which receives the manipulated treatment in a scientific experiment, and is compared to the control group | 16 | |
10519882844 | Random assignment | The process of fairly distributing and choosing participants for a study, without using biased methods | 17 | |
10519884014 | Single blind | A study in which the researcher knows which group each participant is in, but the participants do not | 18 | |
10519894366 | Double blind | A study in which neither the researcher nor the participants know which group anyone is in; only the overseer of the experiment knows the groups, and they are not revealed to anyone until afterwards | 19 | |
10519898166 | Placebo effect | The strange phenomenon in which participants given an ineffective treatment (usually a sugar pill) show signs of improvement or change | 20 | |
10519921130 | Experimental methods | These methods of study focus on manipulating variables in order to test for changes in behavior or outcome | 21 | |
10519914983 | Descriptive methods | These methods of study focus more on observation and recording findings without manipulation, in contrast with experimental methods | 22 | |
10519903326 | Case study | A descriptive method of study in which a single participant is observed in depth, rather than comparing results between participants | 23 | |
10519908051 | Naturalistic observation | A descriptive method of study in which people are observed naturally without any formal experimentation or study | 24 | |
10519942635 | Survey | A form of study in which no variables are manipulated, and data is simply collected from a random sample of participants | 25 | |
10520003871 | Representative sample | A sample whose demographics accurately capture the demographics of the population | 26 | |
10520006986 | Population | The entire body of people being measured | 27 | |
10520011204 | Sample | A subgroup of a population which is randomly selected for experimentation or study | 28 | |
10520014388 | Sampling bias | Using unfair or non-random methods of sampling in order to achieve a result contrary to the actual population result | 29 | |
10534717884 | Correlation | A connection, relationship, or pattern between two variables, which can be observed by graphing them | 30 | |
10534720607 | Causation | Correlation does NOT imply _________ | 31 | |
10534735432 | Illusory Correlation | A tendency of the human mind to perceive a relationship between two variables when no such relationship exists | 32 | |
10534741608 | Positive Correlation | A correlation in which both sets of data increase and decrease together, moving in the same direction (↑↑) or (↓↓) | 33 | |
10534749554 | Negative Correlation | A correlation in which the two sets of data move in opposite directions (i.e. one decreases when the other increases) (↑↓) or (↓↑) | 34 | |
10534758498 | Perfect Positive | This scatterplot shows a ______ ________ correlation | ![]() | 35 |
10534765641 | Strong Positive | This scatterplot shows a ______ ________ correlation | ![]() | 36 |
10534768872 | Perfect Negative | This scatterplot shows a ______ ________ correlation | ![]() | 37 |
10534772860 | Strong Negative | This scatterplot shows a ______ ________ correlation | ![]() | 38 |
10534780999 | Correlation coefficient | A number that indicates the strength of a correlation (+1 or -1 is strongest, and 0 is weakest) | 39 | |
10534781000 | No Correlation | This scatterplot shows _____ ___________ | ![]() | 40 |
10534789918 | 1 | Strong positive correlations have an R value (correlation coefficient) close to this number | 41 | |
10534794858 | -1 | Strong negative correlations have an R value (correlation coefficient) close to this number | 42 | |
10534794859 | 0 | Graphs with no correlation have an R value (correlation coefficient) close to this number | 43 | |
10534800739 | Central Tendency | A way of finding a "middle" value to represent a set of data. Its three main types are mean, median, and mode | 44 | |
10534803313 | Mean | A central tendency found by taking the average of a set of numbers (the sum of the data divided by the number of data points) | 45 | |
10534806294 | Median | A central tendency found by taking the middle number of a data set (or the average of the middle two numbers if there are an even number of data) | 46 | |
10534810871 | Bell curve | Also called a normal distribution, this type of curve represents the most common kind of distribution found in statistics | 47 | |
10534821695 | Standard deviation | A measure of the spread of data in a normal distribution; it is used to calculate the z-score | 48 | |
10534822965 | Normal distribution | Another name for a bell curve | 49 | |
10534836113 | Z-score | The number of standard deviations away from the mean a data point is (positive = above, negative = below) | 50 | |
10534836114 | 100 | The mean for intelligence curves is always this number | 51 | |
10534838253 | 15 | The standard deviation of intelligence curves is always this number | 52 | |
10534854515 | Descriptive statistics | A way of organizing statistics to make sense of the data | 53 | |
10534855677 | Ethical guidelines | The APA's _______ __________ for psychological experiments are: 1. Do no harm 2. Participation is voluntary 3. Explain risks before experiment (informed consent) 4. Participants must be debriefed afterwards 5. Maintain confidentiality 6. Animal use must be justified | 54 | |
10534870640 | Informed consent | The requirement for psychological experiments that participants must have the risks of the study explained to them | 55 |