Unit 0: AP Psychology Terms

the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment.

Critical Thinking

the tendency to believe that you could have predicted an event with greater accuracy than you actually could, after the event has occurred and its outcome is known

Hindsight bias

evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field.

Peer reviewers

a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

Hypothesis

the principle in the scientific method that a theory or hypothesis must be testable and have the potential to be proven false by empirical evidence or observation

Falsifiability

specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct.

Operational definition

the action of copying or reproducing something.

Replication

a process or record of research in which detailed consideration is given to the development of a particular person, group, or situation over a period of time.

Case study

a general view, examination, or description of someone or something.

Survey

a research method where subjects are observed in their natural, everyday environments without any manipulation or interference from the researcher

Naturalistic observation

a type of survey or reporting bias where individuals provide answers that they believe will be viewed favorably by others, rather than their true opinions or behaviors.

Social desirability bias

a type of response bias that occurs when individuals provide inaccurate or incomplete information about themselves due to factors like social desirability, memory limitations, or misinterpreting questions

Self reporting bias

occurs when a sample does not accurately reflect the population it's meant to represent, leading to flawed conclusions

Sampling bias (convenience,representative)

a subgroup of individuals, objects, or data points selected from a larger population where every member has an equal and independent chance of being included in the sample

Random sample (generalizing)

A positive correlation means the variables move in the same direction: when one increases, the other also tends to increase, and vice versa

Correlation (positive and negative)

all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.

Population

a statistical phenomenon where results that are extreme on a first measurement are likely to be closer to the average on a second measurement, not because of an intervention but due to natural variation or chance

Regression toward the mean

a group of participants that does not receive the experimental treatment or intervention, serving as a baseline for comparison with the experimental group

Control group

an experimental method where participants are randomly allocated to either a treatment group, receiving a real intervention, or a placebo control group, receiving an inert substance or treatment that looks identical to the real one

Random assignment (placebo)

a research method where only one party—either the study participants or the researchers/observers—is unaware of the specific treatment or intervention being administered to the participants

Single blind procedure

a scientific method, primarily in clinical research, where neither the study participants nor the researchers know which treatments are being administered

Double-blind procedure

a beneficial effect produced by a placebo drug or treatment, which cannot be attributed to the properties of the placebo itself, and must therefore be due to the patient's belief in that treatment.

Placebo effect

a factor that can be changed or controlled in an experiment to test its effect on a dependent variable, or it's the input to a function whose value doesn't depend on other variables

Independent variable

an external variable that is not part of the research or study but influences both the independent and dependent variables, distorting the true relationship between them and potentially leading to false conclusions

Confounding variable

an unintentional research bias where a researcher's expectations, beliefs, or desires about a study's outcome influence the experimental process and results, leading to skewed data and conclusions

Experimenter bias

the factor being measured or tested in a scientific experiment or study; it is expected to change in response to the manipulation of an independent variable, which is the presumed cause

Dependent variable

the quality of being logically or factually sound; soundness or cogency.

Validity

a psychometric tool used to measure attitudes, opinions, or behaviors by asking respondents to rate statements on a bipolar continuum

Quantitative research (likert scale)

Qualitative research (structured interviews, confederate)

the voluntary agreement by a legally competent individual to participate in research or a medical procedure, after receiving clear and complete information about the risks, benefits, and alternatives involved

Informed consent (informed assent)

a post-research process that explains any deception or incomplete disclosure to participants, justifying why it was necessary and allowing them to withdraw their data if they choose

Debriefing (deception,institutional review)

a single value that summarizes or describes the center, or "typical" value, of a dataset

Measure of central tendency

a set of data that has two distinct peaks, or "modes," representing two clusters of values that occur with higher frequency than other values in the dataset

Mode (bimodal distribution)

the arithmetic mean, calculated by summing all the values in a dataset and dividing by the total count of those values

Mean

the middle value in a data set that has been ordered from smallest to largest

Median

indicates the percentage of scores in a distribution that fall below a specific score

Percentile Rank

how the data deviates from perfect symmetry

Skewed Distribution (variation)

the difference between the highest and lowest values in a data set (used in statistics to show data spread), or it's the set of all possible output values of a function

Range

a measure of how spread out the data is from the mean (the center of the curve)

Standard deviation (normal curve)

examination of data from a number of independent studies of the same subject, in order to determine overall trends.

Meta-analysis

measures the probability of the null hypothesis being true compared to the acceptable level of uncertainty regarding the true answer

Statistical significance

a statistical measure of the magnitude or strength of a phenomenon, such as the difference between groups or the strength of a relationship between variables

Effect size

something that is usual, typical, or standard.

Norms