Unit 0 Mr. Sinn

perspectives

7

psycodynamic perspective

Focuses on the unconscious mind and early childhood experiences

sociocultural perspective

social and cultural influences on behavior

Humanistic Perspective

emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the freedom to make choices

cognitive perspective

how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

Biological Perspective

concerned with the links between biology and behavior

Biospsychosocial Perspective

explains behavior through the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors

evolutionary perspective

the theory that seeks to identify behavior that is a result of our genetic inheritance from our ancestors

Cultural norms

behavior patterns that are typical of specific groups

Expectations

anticipated outcomes of a behavior and roles an individual is expected to fulfill

circumstances

the situation a person is in

Bias

3

Confirmation bias

a tendency to search for information that confirms your own preconceptions, but can lead to no new information being learned

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it, but can cause in overestimation on one's ability's

Overconfidence Bias

holding unrealistically positive views of oneself and one's performance, but can lead to make poor declines and not being prepared

experimental methodology

Aim to determine cause and effect relationships by manipulating, and controlling for, certain factors/variables

nonexperimental research

studies in which the researcher collects data without introducing an intervention; also called observational research

Case studies

a research method that involves the intensive examination of unusual people or organizations

Hawthorne effect

A change in a subject's behavior caused simply by the awareness of being studied

Correlational studies

a type of research that is mainly statistical in nature; determines the relationship between two variables

third variable problem

A problem that occurs when the researcher cannot directly manipulate variables; as a result, the researcher cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest.

meta-analysis

a "study of studies" that combines the findings of multiple studies to arrive at a conclusion

naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

Hypothesis

A testable prediction

theory

well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations

falsifiable

able to be disproven by experimental results

operational definition

a statement of the procedures used to define research variables, what is being measured

indeoendent variable

manipulated variable, cause

dependent variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable., effect

confounding variable

a factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study's results

Population

Entire group being studied

Sample

A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole.

random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

stratified sampling

a variation of random sampling; the population is divided into subgroups and weighted based on demographic characteristics of the national population

representative sample

randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects

Sampling bias

a flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample

convience sample

sample chosen without any random mechanism; samples chosen based on ease of selection

Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

Experimental group

the group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested

Control group

the group that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Placebo

something which has a mental effect, but no physical effect

random assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

quasi-experiment

A comparison that relies on already-existing groups (i.e., groups the experimenter did not create).

Single-blind procedure

the subjects do not know to what group they belong

social desirability bias

A tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself.

Placebo effect

the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior

double-blind procedure

A research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups.

experimenter bias

the influence of the experimenter's expectations on the outcome of research

Qualitative measures

contributors to text leveling that include analysis of text elements such as structure, language clarity, and knowledge demands

Structured interviews

interviews in which all applicants are asked the same set of standardized questions, usually including situational, behavioral, background, and job-knowledge questions

Quantitate measures

readability scores determined by computer algorithms that evaluate text elements such as word fluency and sentence length, facts

Likert Scale

a numerical scale used to assess people's attitudes; it includes a set of possible answers with labeled anchors on each extreme

informed consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Informed Assent

Participant's agreement to participate in the absence of full understanding

Commonly applies to individuals who have not attained legal majority and/or capacity

peer review

a review by people with similar professional qualification

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

descriptive statistics

statistics that summarize the data collected in a study

inferential statistics

numerical methods used to determine whether research data support a hypothesis or whether results were due to chance

null hypothesis

the hypothesis that there is no significant difference between specified populations, any observed difference being due to sampling or experimental error.

alternative hypothesis

The hypothesis that states there is a difference between two or more sets of data.

P-valve

Insight to statistical significance

Effect size

the magnitude of a relationship between two or more variables

statistical significance

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

Frequency Distribution Table

presents the number of times that each category of a qualitative variable or value is observed within a sample. for a large number of values it is common for the frequencies to be reported in ranges or intervals.

Frequently polygon

produced by line from mid-point top of each bar in histogram

two or more frequently distributions can be compared on same graph

Histogram

a bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

Pie chart

a chart that shows the relationship of a part to a whole

central tendency

mean, median, mode

Mean

average, sum of all values and divide by total values

regression toward the mean

the tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average.

Mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

Median

Middle number, smallest to greatest

Range

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution, subtract them

standard deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

normal distribution

A function that represents the distribution of variables as a symmetrical bell-shaped graph.

Positive skew

Low, cluster to the left

Negative skew

Hig, cluster to the right

bimodal distrubution

distribution of data with two distinct peaks (2 bell curves)

Z-scores

measure the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation

percentile rank

the percentage of scores below a specific score in a distribution of scores

positive correlation

a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease together

negative correlation

as one variable increases, the other decreases

Defensible Claim

A statement about a subject that requires support with evidence.

Scientifically derived evidence

Evidence that's been peer reviewed and is a credible source