Introduction to Psychology and Research Methods

Flashcards for reviewing the major psychological perspectives, scientific research methods, experimental design, and statistics.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Evolutionary Perspective

A psychological perspective that explains behavior through the lens of survival and reproduction.

Psychodynamic Perspective

A perspective founded by Sigmund Freud focusing on the unconscious mind, repressed memories, early childhood experiences, and the interactions of the id, ego, and superego.

Behaviorism

An approach to psychology that focuses exclusively on observable behavior, rejecting the concept of free will and emphasizing learning through environmental rewards and punishments.

Cognitive Perspective

An approach focused on internal mental processes such as thinking, judging, and learning, proposing that human actions are driven by how people perceive and process information.

Humanistic Perspective

An approach pioneered by Maslow and Rogers that emphasizes free will, individual choice, human potential, and a focus on future growth rather than past experiences.

Social-Cultural Perspective

A perspective that examines how behavior and thinking are influenced by environment, family, cultural norms, and social surroundings.

Biological Perspective

An approach that explains human thoughts and behaviors through biological mechanisms, focusing on the brain, nervous system, and neurobiology.

Hindsight Bias

The cognitive bias where individuals tend to believe, after learning an outcome, that they would have foreseen or predicted it all along.

Overconfidence

The cognitive tendency to overestimate one's knowledge, skills, or accuracy in judgment (associated with the Dunning-Kruger Effect).

Cultural Norms

Shared standards and rules within a society that guide how individuals should communicate, think, and act.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction or statement regarding the relationship between two variables.

Falsifiability

The requirement that a scientific hypothesis must be formulated in such a way that it can be proven false through empirical evidence.

Operational Definition

A precise description of how variables in a study are defined and measured, which reduces researcher bias and allows for exact replication.

Validity

The degree to which a test or research design accurately measures or tests what it claims to measure.

Reliability

The consistency and repeatability of measurement results under identical experimental or observational conditions.

Experiment

The only research method capable of establishing cause-and-effect relationships, requiring control over independent variables and random assignment.

Independent Variable

The factor in an experiment that is deliberately manipulated or changed by the researcher to observe its cause on an outcome.

Dependent Variable

The factor measured by the researcher to determine the effect of changes made to the independent variable.

Experimental Group

The group of participants in an experiment who receive the treatment or manipulation under investigation.

Control Group

The baseline group of participants in an experiment who do not receive the experimental treatment.

Placebo Effect

A measurable effect on performance or health produced by an inactive treatment due solely to participant expectations.

Single-Blind Study

An experimental procedure where participants do not know which treatment group they are in, but the researchers do.

Double-Blind Study

An experimental procedure where neither the participants nor the researchers know who is assigned to the control or experimental groups.

Research Confederate

An individual in an experiment who plays a scripted role alongside actual participants under the direction of the researcher to elicit specific responses.

Null Hypothesis

A statistical hypothesis predicting that an experimental treatment will have little to no causal effect on the dependent variable.

Correlation

A statistical measure of the extent to which two variables vary together, showing relationships without establishing causation.

Correlation Coefficient

A numerical indicator ($r$) ranging from $-1.0$ to $+1.0$ that expresses the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables.

Illusory Correlation

The perception of a relationship between two variables when no actual statistical relationship exists, or perceiving a stronger relationship than is real.

Directionality Problem

A limitation of correlational research where it cannot be determined whether variable X causes changes in variable Y or if variable Y causes changes in variable X.

Confounding Variable

An unmeasured external factor that influences both the cause and effect variables, skewing the apparent relationship (third variable problem).

Naturalistic Observation

A non-experimental research design that involves watching and recording subjects' behavior in their natural environment without intervention.

Case Study

An in-depth observational examination of a single individual or small group with unusual traits or circumstances.

Meta-Analysis

A statistical procedure that combines data and findings from multiple independent studies to derive overall conclusions.

Demand Characteristics

Subtle cues in a research study that make participants aware of what the experimenter expects, causing them to alter their behavior.

Social Desirability Bias

The tendency of survey respondents to answer questions in a manner that will be viewed favorably by others or fit social expectations.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

An ethics committee responsible for reviewing proposed research studies to ensure they meet mandatory safety and ethical guidelines.

Informed Consent

An ethical rule requiring that research participants be given complete information regarding the nature and risks of a study, allowing them to voluntarily participate and withdraw at any time.

Anonymity

An ethical standard in research where participant names and identity markers are entirely unlinked from the collected data.

Debriefing

The post-experimental process where researchers fully inform participants about the true purpose, findings, and any deceptions used in the study.

Peer Review

The rigorous evaluation of research studies by independent experts in the same scientific field prior to publication.

Qualitative Data

Non-numerical, descriptive data focusing on characteristics, qualities, and language responses.

Quantitative Data

Objective numerical data obtained through counting, scoring, or physical measurement.

Descriptive Statistics

Numerical values used to organize, summarize, and present key characteristics of a collected dataset.

Mean

The arithmetic average of a distribution, calculated by summing all values and dividing by the total number of values.

Median

The middle value in an ordered dataset, separating the top $50\%$ from the bottom $50\%$; highly resistant to extreme outliers.

Mode

The single score or value that appears most frequently in a dataset.

Range

A measure of variability determined by subtracting the lowest score from the highest score in a distribution.

Standard Deviation

A statistic representing the average distance or variation of individual scores relative to the mean score.

Normal Distribution

A symmetrical bell-shaped curve where the mean, median, and mode coincide at the center, with approximately $68\%$ of scores falling within $1$ standard deviation.

Percentile Rank

A score that indicates the percentage of scores in a distribution that fall at or below a given value.

Positively Skewed Distribution

A distribution where a cluster of lower scores creates a long tail extending toward the higher positive end, pulling the mean to the right of the median.

Negatively Skewed Distribution

A distribution where a cluster of high scores creates a tail extending toward the lower negative end, pulling the mean to the left of the median.

Regression to the Mean

The statistical phenomenon where extreme initial measurements naturally move closer back toward the population average upon subsequent testing.

Inferential Statistics

Statistical procedures used to determine whether sample results can be generalized to draw conclusions about a larger population.

Statistical Significance

A statistical benchmark indicating that experimental results are unlikely to have occurred by chance, represented by a p-value of $p \le 0.05$.

Effect Size

A quantitative measure of the magnitude or strength of an experimental phenomenon.

Target Population

The entire group of individuals that a scientific study seeks to investigate and make inferences about.

Representative Sample

A subset of a target population that accurately mirrors the demographic characteristics of the population as a whole.

Random Sampling

A sampling technique in which every member of the target population has an equal opportunity to be selected for the sample.

Convenience Sampling

Selecting study participants based on their easy accessibility and availability, which often leads to sampling bias.

Generalizability

The degree to which research findings obtained from a specific sample can be applied to real-world settings and broader populations.