PSY 101 Unit 1: Introduction & Research Methods

psychology

the scientific study of mind and behavior

overconfidence effect

the tendency to be overly sure of what we know

confirmation bias

the tendency to seek out evidence that supports what we are confident that we know

pseduoscience

a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly thought to be based on valid science

evolutionary perspective

seeks to identify how humans’ evolutionary past shapes certain cultural universals that all human beings share

cultural perspective

seeks to understand how cultural context affects people’s thoughts & perspectives

neuroscience

biological basis or the “hardware of the mind”

cognitive

mental operations that allow us to perceive objects, remember, use language, make decisions, and solve problems

affective science

helps us understand emotion & motivation, and how they drive thoughts + behaviors

social

focuses on how social interactions can affect how we think, feel, and behave

developmental

cognition, emotion, and social interactions, and how they develop and change across the lifespan

clinical

breakdowns or malfunctions in aspects of our psych to understand how treat them

operational definition

specific ways of measuring or manipulating an abstract variable in a particular study

random sampling

method for selecting participants for study

random assignment

method for assigning participants to different levels of the IV (only in experiments)

descriptive research

a type of study in which researchers measure on variable at a time

naturalistic observation

observing the behavior of animals and people in their normal, everyday worlds and environments

observational research

descriptive method- variable of interest is measures, observed, and recorded

case study

observational- researchers study 1 or 2 individuals in depth, often having a unique condition

correlational research

measures 2 or more variables in the same sample of people and then observes the relationship between them

experimental research

one variable is manipulated and the other is measured, can prove causal relationships

validity

accurately measures what it is supposed to

internal validity

ability of a study to rule out alternative explanations between 2 variables

external validity

reasonable to generalize from a sample to larger population

reliability

provides consistent measurement

descriptive statistics

graphs or computations that describe the characteristics of a batch of scores

variability

the extent to which the scores in a batch differ from each other

correlation coefficient

measure of strength & direction of the linear relationship between 2 variables

p-value

how likely it would be to get your study’s results if there were actually no real effect or relationship

statistically significant

p value less than 0.05

not statistically significant

p value greater than 0.05