Chapter 2: The Methods of Social Psychology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards generated from Chapter 2 of Social Psychology (6th Edition), covering key research concepts, methodological terminology, validity types, and ethical considerations.

Hindsight bias

People's tendency after learning about a given outcome to be overconfident about whether they could have predicted a given outcome.

Thought experiment

Speculating about how you would test a given idea.

Hypothesis

A prediction about what will happen under particular circumstances.

Theory

A body of related propositions intended to describe some aspect of the world.

Observational research

A type of research that involves observing participants in social situations, often taking notes and interviewing participants.

Archival research

A type of research involving analyzing social behaviors documented in past records, such as newspapers, police reports, and hospital records.

Surveys

Research methods involving asking participants questions, usually through an interview or a questionnaire.

Random sampling

A sampling method where every person in a population has an equal chance of being studied, creating an unbiased sample.

Convenience sampling

A non-random sampling method (e.g., contacting people as they enter the library) that can produce severely skewed proportions relative to the population.

Correlational research

Research that does not involve random assignment to different situations or conditions, conducted to determine whether there is an association among two or more variables.

Reverse causation

In correlational research, the direction of causation where variable 2 is assumed to causally influence variable 1, opposite of assuming variable 1 influences variable 2.

Third variable

In correlational research, a variable that exerts a causal influence on both variable 1 and variable 2.

Self-selection

In correlational research, a problem arising when participants, rather than the researcher, select their level on each variable, bringing unknown properties that make causal interpretation difficult.

Experimental research

Research in social psychology that randomly assigns people to different conditions or situations to enable strong inferences about causal relationships.

Independent variable

In experimental research, the variable that is manipulated and hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome.

Dependent variable

In experimental research, the variable that is measured (as opposed to manipulated) and hypothesized to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable.

Random assignment

Assigning participants in experimental research to different groups randomly, so they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as to another.

Control condition

A condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one component hypothesized to produce the expected effect on the dependent variable.

Natural experiment

A naturally occurring event or phenomenon with somewhat different conditions that can be compared with rigor similar to an experiment manipulated by an investigator.

External validity

An indication of how well the results of a study generalize to contexts other than those of the study itself.

Field experiment

An experiment conducted in the real world (not a lab), usually with participants who are not aware that they are in a study of any kind.

Internal validity

In experimental research, the likelihood that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results.

Reliability

The degree to which the particular way that researchers measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results.

Measurement validity

The correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predict.

Regression to the mean

The tendency of extreme scores on a variable to be followed by, or associated with, less extreme scores.

Statistical significance

A measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance.

Replication

Reproducing the results of a scientific study.

Institutional review board (IRB)

A university committee that examines research proposals and makes judgments about the ethical appropriateness of the research.

Informed consent

A person's signed agreement to participate in a procedure or research study after learning all the relevant aspects.

Deception research

Research in which the participants are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them.

Debriefing

In preliminary versions of an experiment, asking participants directly if they understood instructions and setup; in later versions, educating participants about the research questions.

Applied research

Research concerned with using current understanding of a phenomenon in order to solve a real-world problem.

Intervention

An effort to change a person's behavior.

Basic science

Science or research concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right, to build valid theories about the nature of some aspect of the world.