AP Psych: Chapter 0- Science Practices

Psychology

The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes

Curiosity, Skepticism, Humility

Ask questions, question claims, and admit when you might be wrong

Critical Thinking

Thinking carefully before accepting it

Hindsight Bias

Believing you “knew it all along” after something happens

Confirmation Bias

Looking for information that supports when you already believe

Overconfidence

Being more confident in your answers than you should be.

Peer Reviewers

Experts who check research before it is published

Theory

An explanation supported by lots of evidence.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction

Operational Defintion

Clearly explaining how a variable will be measured

Replication

Repeating a study to see if you get similiar results.

Case study

As in-depth study of one person or small group

Meta- Analysis

Combining results from many studies

Naturalistic Observations

Watching behavior in a natural setting

Survey

Asking people questions to collect information

Sampling Bias

When a sample does not fairy represent the population

Sample

A smaller group chosen from the population

Random Sample

Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Representative Sample

A sample that closely matches the population

Experimental Methodology

Researchers that test cause and effects

Non- Experimental Methodology

Researchers that does not manipluate variables

Correlation

A realtionship between two variables

Correlation Coefficient

A number showing the strength and direction of a correlation

Variable

Something that can chnage or be measured

Scatterplot

A graph showing the realtionship between two variables

Ilusory Corrrelation

Believing two things are related when they aren’t

Directionality Problem

Not knowing which variable causes the other

Regression Towards the Mean

Extreme results tend to move closer to average over time

Experiment

A study where researchers manipulate a variable

Experimental Group

The group recieving the treatment

Control Group

The group used for comparison

Independent Variable

The variable the researcher changes

Dependent Variable

The variable being measured

Random Assignments

Putting particpants into groups by chance.

Single- Blind Procedure

Participants don’t know whoch group they’re in

Double- Blind Procedure

Neither particpants nor researchers know who is in each group

Placebo

A fake treatment with no active effect

Confounding Variable

An outside factor thar could affect the result

Descriptive Statistics

Numers that summarize data

Histogram

A graph showing how data is distrubted

Measure of Central Tedency

A number showing the typical score

Mode

The most common sense