AP Psych Unit 0 Vocab

Hindsight bias

the tendency to think that after finding out about an outcome that you could of predicted it

Confirmation bias

the tendency to look for information that supports our ideas and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Quantitative research

collecting and analyzing numerical data to find patterns

Qualitative research

focuses on understanding concepts, opinions, or experiences through non-numerical data like words

Scientific method

process scientists use to answer questions

Hypothesis

a testable prediction

Dependent variable

directly affected when the independent variable is manipulated

Independent variable

Factor that is manipulated

Confounding variables

unexpected factor that affects the results of an experiment/study

Operational definition

specific set of instructions on how to replicate an experiment: procedure

Falsifiable

principle that a hypothesis/theory must be stated in a way that it is possible(in principle) to prove it false

Replication

repeating a process to see if you can get the same results

Population

group of people who share certain characteristics

Sample

small group of people taken from a population to be studied

Subjects

participants of a study

Representative sample

a group of people meant to be representative of a population

Convenience sample

choosing easily accessible people to be part of an experiment

Generalize

the tendency, once a response to something has been conditioned to react the same way to something similar

Random assignment

when everyone in the experiment had the same probability of being in either group

Double blind study

the participants and the researchers don't know which is the control or experimental group

Single blind study

participants don't know which group they are in

Experimental group

group that receives the treatment

Placebo effect

when a person feels a positive change after taking something they expect will help them even if the thing truly has no effect

Correlational research

studying two variables to see if a statistical relationship exists between them

Positive correlation

as one variable increases so does the other

Negative correlation

as one variable increases the other decreases

Correlation coefficient

a range of the relationship between two things: range of -1.00 to 1.00

Scatter plot

a chart that shows the relationship between two numerical variables by displaying them as a collection of dots

Likert scale

survey response option that measures attitudes, opinions, or perceptions by providing a range of choices: strongly agree: strongly disagree

Naturalistic observation

watching and recording behavior

Survey

asking a specific group questions about their attitude towards something

Framing/wording effect

tendency to make different decisions based on how information is presented

Case study

studies one person or a small group in depth in order to find things that are true about all people

Central tendency

provides a single, representative value that summarizes a dataset by indicating the central or typical value around which data points tend to cluster

Mean

Average

Median

number in the middle of data set

Mode

Number that shows up the most

Normal curve/distribution

symmetrical, bell curve that describes distribution of many types of data: most scores fall near the mean

Positively skewed distribution

one where most of the data points cluster on the left side of the graph

Negatively skewed distribution

one where most of the data points cluster on the right side of the graph

Measures of variance

the spread or dispersion of data points within a dataset relative to its mean

Range

Difference between the highest and lowest score

Standard deviation

how much scores deviate from each other

Inferential statistics

numerical data that allows one to infer the probability of something being true

Statistical significance

how likely the results of an experiment is due to real effect rather than luck: 95%+

Meta-analysis

combining and analyzing the data from multiple separate but similar studies on the same topic to produce a single, more reliable summary of the overall findings

Informed consent

participants are given sufficient information about the experiment before agreeing to participate in it

Debriefing

psychologists explaining the experiment & results to the participants