unit 0 ap psych

curiosity

does it work? when put to the test, can its predictions be confirmed?

skepticism

what do you mean? how do you know?

humility

be willing to be surprised by behavior and study further

hindsight bias

“knew-it-all-along” effect

the tendency to perceive past events as more predictable than they actually were → overestimate in one’s ability to foresee the outcome

overconfidence

when one’s belief in their knowledge and abilities is greater than their actual accuracy

perceiving order in random events

the tendency to find patterns in random data, especially where there are none, due to the brain’s inclination to try to make sense of the world through patterns

operational definition

defining a vague concept for a study in order to make it more replicable and observable for empirical testing

falsifiability

can it be proven false? important for good hypotheses

case study

descriptive non-experimental

one individual/group is studied to try to reveal universal principles

often used when the situation would be unethical to make an experiment

naturalistic observation

descriptive non-experimental

observe and record behavior in naturally occuring situations without manipulating/controlling the situation

self-report bias

when people provide inaccurate or incomplete information about themselves

social desirability bias

tendency for respondents to give answers that are perceived as socially acceptable or favorable, rather than truthful

random selection

choosing participants from a larger population, ensuring everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

random assignment

placing participants from a sample into different groups (experimental or control) within an experiment

sampling bias

when a research study doesn’t use a representative sample of a target population

correlational research

non-experimental

descrives the relationship between 2+ variables

scatterplots (r = +1 → perfect positive, r = 0 → no correlation, r = -1 → perfect negative)

directionality problem

don’t know which variable is the cause and which is the effect

third variable problem

when a correlation between two variables is because of a third, unmeasured variable

regression toward the mean

extreme measurements tend to be followed by measurements that are closer to the average

single-blind procedure

participants don’t know if they’re receiving the treatment or a placebo

double-blind procedure

participants and data collectors don’t know which participants are receiving the treatment or placebo

confounding variable

when a third variable not being studied affects the study

validity

the experiment actually tests what it’s trying to test

Likert scale

quantitative

survey tool, participants rate their level of agreement on a scale

confederates

experimentors pretending to be a fellow participant

informed consent/assent

informing possible participants in an experiment with enough information to allow them to decide if they should participate

debriefing

explaining post-experiment all the purposes of the study and any deceiptions used

descriptive statistics

numerical data used to measure/describe characteristics of groups

mean

the only measure of central tendency that is affected a lot by outliers

skewed right

tail on the right

skewed left

tail on the left

normal curve

bell-shaped

68% of data within -1 to 1 SD

95% of data within -2 to 2 SD

99.7% of data within -3 to 3 SD

inferential statistics

numerical data that allow one to generalize (to infer information that applies to a sample applies to the population)

meta-analysis

analyzes results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion

null hypothesis

a statement that there is no significant difference/relationship/effect between groups

statistically significant

observed result happens 5% or less when there is no relationship between the groups

effect size

strength of the relationship between 2 variables

confidence interval

range of values that likely include the population’s true mean value