Introduction to Quantitative Research

The flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to psychology and quantitative research.

Psychology

The study of understanding human behavior.

Nervous system

The complex network of nerves and cells that carries messages to and from the brain and spinal cord to various parts of the body.

Behaviour

Observable actions or reactions of an individual.

Empirical science

A method of investigation based on observation and experimentation.

American Psychological Association (APA)

The leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States.

Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)

An organization that advances research, knowledge, and application of psychology.

Clinical psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric disorders.

Cognitive psychology

The study of how people think, remember, and learn.

Statistics

The practice or science of collecting and analyzing numerical data.

Descriptive statistics

Statistical procedures used to summarize and organize data.

Inferential statistics

Techniques that allow us to make generalizations about a population based on a sample.

Variable

A characteristic or condition that can change or have different values for different individuals.

Sampling error

The discrepancy that exists between a sample statistic and the population parameter.

Null hypothesis

A statement that indicates there is no effect or no difference, often tested in statistical analysis.

Standard deviation

A measure of the amount of variation or dispersion of a set of values.

Normal distribution

A function that represents the distribution of many types of data; it is symmetric and bell-shaped.

Median

The score that separates the higher half from the lower half of a data sample.

Mean

The average score calculated by dividing the sum of all scores by the number of scores.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score in a data set.

Research design

The framework or strategy for collecting and analyzing data in research studies.