Unit 0: Ap-Psychology

critical thinking

The ability to analyze information and make it into a judgment.

hindsight bias

Looking back at an event and believing that you knew what was going to happen.

peer reviewers

Other knowledgeable people check your work and give you feedback to help improve it.

theory

An idea/ideas that explains how and why something happens.

hypothesis

A guess or prediction about what will happen in an experiment or study.

operational definition

A clear, specific way to measure or describe something in a study.

replication

Repeating a study to see if you get the same results.

case study

In-depth analyses of an individual or small group.

naturalistic observation

Recording natural behavior.

survey

A way to collect information from people by asking them questions.

social desirability bias

People answer questions in a way that makes them look better to others.

self-report bias

When people may not accurately report their thoughts/behavior.

sampling bias

A group picked for a study isn’t a fair representation of the whole population.

random sample

Choosing people for a study so that everyone has a chance of being selected.

population

The entire group of people the researcher wants to study.

correlation

Shows whether changes in one thing are involved with changes in another.

correlation coefficient

A number that tells you how strongly two things are related.

variable

Something that can change or vary.

scatterplot

A graph that shows how two variables are related by plotting data points.

illusory correlation

The perception of a relationship where none exists.

regression toward the mean

The habit for extreme or unusual scores to fall back toward the average.

experiment

A test where researchers experiment with one thing to see how it affects something else.

experimental group

A group that gets the treatment in a study.

control group

A group that doesn’t get treatment or change in a study.

random assignment

Researchers randomly put people into different groups.

single-blind procedure

Participants don't know whether they are in the experimental or control group.

double-blind procedure

Neither participants nor researchers know who is in each group.

experimenter bias

When researchers' expectations unintentionally influence study results.

dependent variable

What is measured in a study to see if it changes.

validity

How well a test/study measures what it claims to measure.

quantitative research

Collecting and analyzing numerical data to understand patterns.

qualitative research

Collecting non-numerical data like interviews or observations.

informed consent

Participants are given all important information about the research.

debriefing

Researchers explain the purpose and details of a study after it’s over.

descriptive statistics

Numbers that summarize & describe the main features of a data set.

histogram

A bar graph that shows data.

mode

The number that appears most frequently in a data set.

mean

The average of a set of numbers.

median

The middle value in a set of numbers arranged in order.

percentile rank

Tells the percentage of scores below a given score.

skewed distribution

Graph of data where most values are clustered at one end.

range

The difference between the highest and lowest values in a data set.

standard deviation

Measures how much values in a set differ from the average.

placebo effect

People experience improvements because they believe they are receiving treatment.

independent variable

The factor or condition changed by the researcher in a study.

confounding variable

An extra factor that might affect the results of a study.

normal curve

A bell-shaped graph that shows how data is spread out.

inferential statistics

Used to draw conclusions about a large group based on data from a sample.

meta-analysis

Combines results of several studies on the same topic for reliable conclusions.

statistical significance

The results of a study are unlikely to be due to chance.

effect size

Measures how big or strong the difference or relationship is in a study.