Psychological Research Methods and Concepts

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms and definitions from the lecture notes on psychological research methods and scientific principles.

Scientific Attitude

Curiosity, skepticism, and humility that support scientific inquiry.

Curiosity

The desire to test whether predictions are confirmed through scientific methods.

Skepticism

An attitude of questioning and critically evaluating claims rather than accepting them blindly.

Humility

The willingness to be surprised by results that go against our expectations in scientific research.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it; also known as the 'I-knew-it-all-along' phenomenon.

Overconfidence

A cognitive bias where individuals overestimate their knowledge or ability.

Operational Definition

A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures and measurements used in a research study.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction derived from a theory.

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Correlation

A measure of how well two variables vary together and how well one predicts the other.

Placebo Effect

A phenomenon where participants experience perceived improvements due to their belief in receiving treatment.

Independent Variable (IV)

The factor that is manipulated in an experiment to observe its effect on the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The outcome measured in an experiment, which may change in response to the independent variable.

Random Assignment

Assigning participants to experimental groups by chance to minimize preexisting differences between those groups.

Descriptive Statistics

Numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of groups.

Inferential Statistics

Numerical data that allow one to infer from sample data the probability of something being true for a population.

Meta-analysis

A statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion.

Effect Size

The strength of the relationship between two variables; a larger effect size indicates a stronger relationship.

Significant Difference

A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance, indicating a true effect.