AP - Psychology module 4-6

Hindsight Bias

I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.

Over Confidence

think we know more than we do. we tend to be more confident than correct.

percieving order in random events

finding patterns in random data ex: seeing faces in cars or patterns in coin flipping.

Theory

explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize observations.

Hypothesis

a theory produces testable predictions

Operational Definitions

as a check on their biases, psychologists report their research with precise measurable procedures + concepts.

Replicate

Repeat original observations w different participants, materials, and circumstances.

Case Study

Examines one individual or group in depth in the hope of revealing things true of us all. ex: brain damage

Naturalistic Observation

Studying behavior while people don't know they are being observed.

Sampling bias

generalizing from a few unrepresentative cases.

Population

the whole group you want to study and describe

Random Sample

every person in the group has equal chance of participating

Correlation

when a trait or behavior tends to coincide with another

Correlation Coefficient

helps us figure how closely two things vary together + thus how well another one predicts the other.

Variable

Two items with a possible relationship

Scatterplots

help predict how closely related data is

Illusory correlation

may notice + recall confirming instances more than disconfirming instances.

Regression toward the mean

the illusion that uncontrollable events correlate with our actions is also fed by a statistical phenomenon.

Experiment

isolate case + effect to find answers to such questions

Experimental group

People receive the treatment, and a contrasting control group w/o treatment.

control group

no treatment

double blind procedure

meither participants nor those who administer the drug and collect the data know which group is receiving the treatments.

Confounding Variables

other factors that can potentially influence a study's result

Dependent variable

effect of one or more individual variables on a measurable variable

validity

the experiment will test what it's supposed to test.