Experimental Psychology and Scientific Methods Review

Flashcards created to review key concepts, terminology, and methodologies in Experimental Psychology.

Psychology is the science of __.

behavior.

The scientific method is a __ process used to gather and verify information.

systematic.

refers to the scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate psychological data.

Methodology.

The term __ comes from the Latin word 'scientia,' which means knowledge.

science.

Common sense psychology refers to our everyday __ collection of psychological data.

nonscientific.

The __ Bias is a tendency to overlook instances that might disconfirm our beliefs.

confirmation.

Empirical data are __ or experienced information received by our senses.

observable.

A __ is a principle that has the generality to apply to all situations in psychology.

law.

A __ attempts to explain and predict behavior or other phenomena.

theory.

The characteristics of modern science include self-correction and __ results.

publicizing.

The three main tools of scientific method include observation, __, and experimentation.

measurement.

The __ involves systematically noting and recording events that can be studied scientifically.

observation.

Psychology as an experimental science emerged in the __ century.

late 1800s.

Pseudoscience gives the appearance of being __ but lacks true scientific basis.

scientific.

Phrenology was founded by __ and involved measuring traits through skull indentations.

Franz Joseph Gall.

Wilhelm Wundt opened the first experimental psychology laboratory in __.

1879.

Experimental designs establish __ and effect relationships.

cause.

Nonexperimental designs are used to study behavior in __ settings.

natural.

The purpose of survey research is to obtain information about people's __, attitudes, preferences, and experiences.

opinions.

In a hypothesis, the __ variable is the dimension intentionally manipulated by the experimenter.

independent.

The __ variable is the measured outcome that depends on the independent variable.

dependent.

A null hypothesis states that there is no statistically significant __ between two variables.

relationship.

The inductive model forms general principles by reasoning from specific __ to more general principles.

cases.

In research, __ is the interpretation of results and can suggest new directions for further exploration.

serendipity.

Qualitative research relies on __ rather than numbers for data collection.

words.