Psychology

Answer: is the tendency for individuals, upon learning about a research outcome or event, to believe that they knew it all along

What is hindsight bias, and how does it affect perception of research findings?

Answer: focuses on solving immediate, practical real-world problems (e.g., evaluating a reading program)^[1], whereas basic research explores theoretical questions of psychological interest without immediate practical applications (e.g., studying attitude formation)^[2]

How do applied research and basic research differ in purpose and application?

Answer: explains specifically how a variable will be measured or manipulated in an experiment (e.g., specifying exact television shows that count as "violent" and behaviors that count as "aggressive")

What is an operational definition, and why is it necessary when formulating a hypothesis?

Answer: when it is stated in such a way that empirical data can be gathered that could potentially disconfirm or support it

What does it mean for a hypothesis to be falsifiable?

Answer: Research is valid when it accurately measures what the researcher intended to measure; research is reliable when it is consistent and yields similar results upon replication

What is the difference between research validity and research reliability?

Answer: a selection process where every member of a target population has an equal chance of being chosen^[2]. It increases the likelihood that the sample represents the overall population, allowing researchers to generalize their results

What is random sampling, and why is it critical for generalizing findings?

Answer: selects participants who are easily accessible^[2][3]. Approaching library visitors on a Wednesday morning is not random because not every member of the population walks by at that time (giving non-visitors zero chance of selection) and researchers may unconsciously bias whom they approach

What is convenience sampling, and why does approaching people outside a library on Wednesday morning fail to be a random sample?

Answer: The researcher divides the overall population into distinct subgroups based on specific criteria (such as race or gender) and then randomly selects a subsample from each subgroup in the exact proportion that it exists in the overall population

How is a stratified sample constructed by a researcher?

Answer: The experiment is the only research method that can prove a causal (cause-and-effect) relationship because it allows the researcher to manipulate the independent variable while controlling for confounding variables

Why is the experimental method preferred over non-experimental methods when studying variables?

is the process of selecting participants from a population to be in a study^[2][4]. Random assignment occurs after sampling and is the process of giving every participant an equal chance of being placed into the experimental or control group, which controls for participant-relevant confounding variables^[4].

What is random assignment, and how does it differ from random sampling?

Answer: is the unconscious tendency of researchers to treat experimental and control groups differently to confirm their hypothesis^[4]. A double-blind study eliminates this bias by ensuring that neither the participants nor the researcher interacting with them know group assignments^[4]

What is experimenter bias, and how does a double-blind procedure eliminate it?

Answer: are subtle cues about the purpose of a study that cause participants to alter their behavior^[4]. Social desirability bias is a type of response bias where participants give answers designed to make themselves look good^[4].

What are demand characteristics and social desirability bias?

Answer: is the finding that merely selecting a group of individuals to participate in an experiment alters their performance, regardless of what treatment or condition they receive

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer: The experimental group receives the actual drug, while the control group receives an inert, identical substance (a placebo)^[5]. This allows researchers to isolate the physiological effects of the drug from the placebo effect (psychological changes caused by thinking one took a drug)

How does the placebo method separate physiological effects from psychological effects in drug trials?

Answer: occur when performance on a subsequent test improves or changes simply due to practice or fatigue from taking an earlier test^[5]. Counterbalancing eliminates this by having half the participants complete Task A first and Task B second, while the other half completes Task B first and Task A second^[5]

What are order effects, and how does counterbalancing eliminate them?

• Answer: A positive correlation means that the presence/increase of one variable predicts the presence/increase of the other^[5]. A negative correlation means that the presence/increase of one variable predicts the absence/decrease of the other^[5].

What is the difference between a positive correlation and a negative correlation?

Answer: study controls research conditions like an experiment but relies on pre-existing participant characteristics as the independent variable (e.g., retired vs. working status)^[5]. Because participants cannot be randomly assigned to conditions, researchers cannot rule out other confounding factors or isolate cause and effect^[5].

What is an ex post facto (quasi-experimental) study, and why can it not prove causation?

occurs when two variables are correlated, but a researcher cannot determine which variable occurred first or caused the other (e.g., whether violent TV causes aggression or aggressive individuals seek out violent TV)

What is the directionality problem in correlational research?

is an unmeasured external variable (e.g., genetic predisposition) that causes changes in both observed variables^[6]. When a third variable is responsible for the relationship, the correlation between the two measured variables is false, or spurious^[6].

What is a third variable, and how does it create a spurious correlation?

researchers unobtrusively observe subjects in natural settings without manipulating any variables or impacting behavior^[6]. In a field experiment, researchers actively manipulate an independent variable in a real-world setting^[6]. A case study is an in-depth investigation of one individual or small group, providing detailed qualitative data that cannot be generalized to a larger population^[7]

How does naturalistic observation differ from a field experiment, and what defines a case study?