AP Psychology Unit 0 Vocab

humanistic psychology

human growth, change, and development

biological psychology

anatomy, chemistry, genetics, nature

socio-cultural psychology

social groups and culture impact on individuals thinking and behavior

cognitive psychology

thinking, learning, decision making, memory

evolutionary psychology

evolution and human survival needs impact behavior

behavioral psychology

impact of environment and conditioning, nurture

psychodynamic psychology

unconcious conflicts impact on cognitive behavior

cultural norms

shared beliefs, values, or rules that define appropriate behavior within a culture

confirmation bias

the tendency to process information by looking for information that exists within their beliefs

hindsight bias

the tendency for people to perceive past events as being more predictable than they were

overconfidence

overestimating ones abilities and underestimating the challenges faced

institutional review

reviews the risks/rewards when humans are involved

protect from harm

ensure no mental or physical harm

informed consent

over 18 agreeing to participate

informed assent

under 18 agreement

confidentiality

protects peoples identity and personal information of participants

debriefing

explain studys purpose once its ended

deception

must be deemed necessary to the study to be used

research confederates

people secretly working with the researcher

experiment

manipulating variables to determine a cause and effect relationship

case study

in depth investigation on something rare

correlation

shows relationships between variables

naturalistic observation

observing behavior in the natural environment without interfering

meta analysis

using published data on a topic and combining results

hypothesis

a testable prediction about your outcome

falsifiable

hypothesis needs to be able to be proven wrong to be considered scientific

independent variable

whats being manipulated

dependent variable

whats being measured

confounding variable

an extra variable that can interfere with an accurate measurement

operational definition

specific definition of how variables are being measured

replication

repeating a study to see if results are the same and can be reproduced in the same conditions

population

all possible participants

convenience sample

people who are easy to access

random sample

each participant has an equal chance of being selected

random assignment

each participant has an equal chance of being in the expiremental or control group

experimental group

the group being manipulated

control group

group not being maniuplated

generalizability

if results can be applied to the larger population, the goal

sampling bias

when members of a population are systematically more likely to be chosen

experimenter bias

experimenter impacts results

single blind experiment

when either research or participant does not know if theyre in the experimental or control group

double blind experiment

when both researcher or participant do not know the experimental or control group

placebo

a fake treatment

placebo effect

person has response to fake treatment

social desirability bias

responses are modified to avoid criticism and gain approval

qualitative

categorical

quantitative

numerical

directionality problem

cant tell the nature of the relationship between variables

appropriate representative sample

how representative the sample is of the largest population

wording effect

how does wording impact participant responses

self-report bias

people dont accurately evaluate themselves

mean

average

median

middle score

mode

most reoccuring number

range

measure of dispersion

variance

a measure of how spread out scores are within a sample

standard deviation

a measure of variability that shows average distance between scores and their average

normal curve

the standard deviation and mean together

regression to the mean

reverting back to what is normal

bimodal distribution

two distinct groups in a set of data

correlation coefficient

a number between -1 and 1 expressing the degree of relationship between two variables

statistical significance

chance that results were due to chance

effect size

how meaningful the relationship between variables are