AP Psychology Unit 0 Vocab

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe you have or would have froseen something after the fact/event occurs

overconfidence

the tendency to think we know more than we do causing quick and incorrect thinking

confirmation bias

the tendency to search for, favor, interpret information that matches your existing beliefs and ignore information that denies/debunks your beliefes

cultural norms

shared/unwritten values and experiences guiding behavior within a society or culture that shape what somebody deems acceptable behavior

peer review

process of other scientists and experts evaluating a study’s theory, originality, and accuracy

theory

ideas that organize observations to explain behaviors or events

hypothesis

testable predictions specifying what results support and what results deny a theory

falsability

if a hypothesis can be problem false; testing its scientific strength

operational definitions

percise, measurable definitions of research procedures and concepts included in research reports that allow for replication

replication

repeating original observations of others with different participants, materials, and circumstances. made possible through operational definitions in original study/observations

case study

a descriptive type of study where one individual or group is studied in depth in hopes of revealing universal principles - it alone cannot provide an idea but when many are piled together you can recognize patterns

naturalistic observation

a descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without manipulating or controlling the situation

survey

descriptive technique for obtaining self-reported attitudes and ehaviors of a group through questioning a representative or the group or random sample of the group. must be careful about how questions and possible answers are posed to ensure accuracy

social desirability bias

when people answer to please researcher (say what you think they want you to say). researchers must phrase surveys intentionally to reduce this

self-report bias

when people report or remember their behaviors inaccurately, researchers counter by using many different means to gather data besides just surveys and self-reported data

sampling bias

flawed sampling process that is too generalized or for convienences that produces an unrepresentative example

population

all people in a group studied from which random samples should be drawn

non-experimental study

studies such as correlational studies, case studies, meta-analysis, and naturalistic observations that describe but do not explain behaviors

correlational studies

non-experimental study collecting data on two or more variables without manipulation to detect naturally occurring relationships and how two variables may predict one another but it does not explain the cause and effect

experimental research

research design manipulating at least one factor with random assignmnet to explore cause and effect relationships (though that is not always feasible) using experimental groups and control groups

quantitative research

research method using numeric data to represent degrees of a vvariableq

ualitative research

research method using in depth narrative datain

formed consent

a regulation to protect participants in studies requiring researchers to give potential participants in a study enough information about it so they choose to participate or not

informed assent

regulation protecting minors in a study making sure adults also give consent to the study being done

debreifing

post-experiment explanation of a study’s purpose, methods, and any deceptions that may have occurred to participants

confidentiality

ethical rule that participants personal data cannot be shared publicly in a study

deception

intentionally misleading participants about a study s true purpose or procedure to collect more accurate data

institutional review

administrative committee of 5 people including a scientist, community member, non scientist) that approves studies involving human participants to remain ethicalpro

protection from harm

ethical rule that researchers must protect human and animal participants from unnecessary physical and mental pain or distress during an experiment

research confederates

actor or research assistant pretending to be a participant in an experiment secretly

meta-analysis

quantatative non experimental research method reviewing published studies on the same topic to calculate large scale effect overall effect or big picture behavioral trends

correlation coefficent

statsitical index of relationship betweenn 2 variables from -1 to 1 measuring how closely they are related. negative number means the relationship is inverse, positive means i the two variables move together. the larger the number the stronger the relationship. the downside is you cannot differentiate the cause and effect

scatterplot

graphed cluster of dots indicating strength of correlation between 2 variables (more scatter means low correlation, less scatter means high correlation)

directionability problem

limitation of correlation research because that just because two variables have a correlation relationship it does not mean that you know which causes which t

third variable problem

limitation of correlation research because correlation does not equal causation and that sometimes when two variables have a relationship, there may be a third factor that is separately causing each variables to make similar changes

illusory correlation

perceieving a relationship to either be stronger than it is or exist when it doesntg

regression towards the mean

tendency for extrem or usual scores or events to be followed by more normal events or score falling back towards the mean/average. uone unliley thing is typically followed by a more likely thing. this can cause supersiicous thinking

experimental group

group exposed to one version of the independent variable in an experiment

control group

group of people in an experimen not exposed to the treatment to serve as comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment given to the independent group

random assignment

assigning participants in an experiment to control or experimental groups by chance to minimize pre-existing differences or outliers between the groups

Single-blind procedure

experimental procedure where participants don’t know weather they have received a treatment or placebo. this type helps researchers realize if participants beliefs of if something works or not influenced actual changes

double-blind procedure

expereimental procedure where both participants and researchers don’t know weather participants have received the treatment or not to avoid biases form the researchers

placebo effect

when people or participants have real effects just based on the anticipation or expectation of a treatment - researchers must try to control the possible placebo effect for accurate data (maybe through single-blind treatments)

indepedent variable

factor that is manipulated in an experiment and the effect of is being studied.

confounding variables

a factor that is not the independent variable that may impact the results of an experiment. this is minimized/controlled by random assignment to groups within a participant sample to make the possibility of these variables occurring equal in each group

experimenter bias

bias caused when researchers unintentionaly influence/analyze results to confirm their own beliefs

depedent variable

the outcome or variable that may change a a result of the manipulation of the dependent variable in an experiment

validity

the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what is supposed to

variation

measures how spread out or clustered together a set of scores within a data set are

genralizability

weather the results of a study/experiment apply to a larger population/the worldst

statistical significance

statsistical statement of how likely it is that a result or the difference between samples occured by chance assuming there I sno difference in populations of groups

effect size

teh strength or relationship between two variables larger effect means more causation to show how meaningful ro practical the study is

descriptive statsitics

numerical data to measure and describe characteristics such as central tendency and variability of graphs

histogram

bar graph that shows a frequency distribution

mode

measure of central tendency reporting the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

bimodal distribution

two distinct peaks/highest frequency scores in a distribution usually means 2 subgroups or differently scoring groups in the population

mean

measure of central tendency that is teh arithmetic average of distrubtion (add scores/number of scores) the most used data point, how skewd a graph is can make the mean less representative of the full data set

median

measure of central tendency that is the middle score/50th percentile of a distributionper

percentile rank

percentage of scores less than a given score

skwedness

representation of scores that lack symmetry around the average, outliers mess with the mean

range

difference between highest and lowest scores in a distribution

standard deviation

computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score. they can be packed together or dispersed/ each individual point and how much it varies from the mean

normal curve

symmetrical bell-shaped curve for most standard deviations, 68% within 1 standard deviation from the mean, ect.