Foundations Unit Review

Cultural Norms

shared beliefs, or values, and the human behaviors that support these values within a given society

Confirmation Bias

search for what you want to be right

Hindsight Bias

tendency to believe, once an outcome is already known, that you would have foreseen it

Overconfidence

very sure of a fact although reality is different

Independent Variable

variable being manipulated

Dependent Variable

variable that stays the same

Confounding Variables

differences that arise due to poor planning

Random Assignment

ensures all members of sample have equal chance of being in either group

Case Study

take advantage of unreplicable situation

Correlation

a relationship or connection between two things

Positive Correlation

r value = 0-1

Negative Correlation

r value = -1 to 0

Meta-analysis

summarize multiple correlational studies or experimental studies

Naturalistic Observation

observing something in natural environment instead of lab setting

Hypothesis

If..then..

Falsifiable

if can be proven wrong

Operational Definition

statement of procedure that allows experiment to be replicated properly

Replication

reproducing a study to see if you get the same results

Central Tendency

the statistical measure that identifies a single value as representative of an entire distribution

Variation

the differences and diversity that exist within a population

Percentile Rank

the percentage of people in a norm group who scored lower than a particular individual on a test or assessment

Mean

average

Median

middle number, peak of curve

Mode

how often something appears

Range

difference between max and min

Normal Curve

bell-shaped distribution

Positive Skew

most scores on lower end of curve

Negative Skew

most scores on higher end of curve

Bimodal Distribution

distribution that has two distinct peaks

Standard Deviation

shows how spread out a set of scores are around the mean

Regression toward the mean

tendency for extremely high or low scores on a measurement to naturally move closer to the average when measured again

Sample

small group of people being observed in experiment

Population

all individuals who can participate

Representative Sample

sample that has characteristics similar to those in population, easy to generalize

Random Sampling

every member has same chance

Convenience Sampling

selects participants based on accessibility, can’t generalize

Generalizing

the tendency to respond similarly to stimuli that are similar to an original stimulus

Experimental Group

has independent variable manipulated

Control Group

comparison group, measures the dependent variable by not giving experimental treatment

Placebo

a fake treatment that appears real but has no therapeutic benefit

Placebo Effect

real responses to an action or substance based solely on expectations, not actual properties of the action or substance

Single-blind Study

participants do not know which group they belong to

Double-blind Study

neither participant nor researcher knowns which group the participants belong to

Experimenter Bias

expectations that may influence outcome

Social Desirability Bias

a type of response bias that occurs when people give answers that are socially acceptable instead of their true opinions

Qualitative Research

a method of research that produces descriptive data

Structured Interviews

uses a set of predetermined questions to collect data from a subject

Likert Scales

a rating scale that measures opinions

Representative Sample

a sample that accurately represents the studied population

Peer Review

quality check from other person

Scatterplot

visual representation of the relationships between two numerical variables

Correlation Coefficient

indicates the strength of the relationship between two variables (r value)

Effect Sizes

measure of the strength of a relationship between variables

Statistical Significance

way to determine if a difference between groups is due to chance

Directionality Problem

occurs when two variables are correlated but it’s not clear which causes which

Third Variable Problem

occurs when a correlation between two variables is influenced by an unseen third variable

Institutional Review

provides a core protection for human research participants

Informed Assent

an agreement by an individual not competent to give legally-valid informed consent

Debriefing

a conversation between a researcher and a participant after a study or experiment