Psychology Perspectives, Research Methods, and Statistics

Vocabulary flashcards covering psychological perspectives, experimental design, research ethics, and statistical analysis based on lecture notes.

Biology Perspective

Explains behavior and mental processes in terms of the brain, nervous system, hormones, and genetics.

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on studying, predicting, and modifying observable behaviors rather than internal mental states.

Cognitive Perspective

Studies mental processes like attention, memory, language, and problem-solving.

Psychodynamic Perspective

The view that unconscious processes drive personality.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

Emphasized unconscious influences and early childhood experiences.

Humanistic Perspective

Emphasized growth, meaning, and personal agency.

Sociocultural Perspective

Emphasizes how social contexts and cultural norms shape behavior and thinking.

Evolutionary Perspective

Explores how natural selection affects behavior and mental processes to increase survival.

Experimental research

The only type of research that can establish cause and effect by manipulating an independent variable and measuring the effect on a dependent variable.

Independent variable

The variable in an experiment that intentionally changes.

Dependent variable

The variable that is measured to see if it was affected by the independent variable.

Confounding variable

Outside factors that change along with the independent variable and could influence the dependent variable.

Random assignment

The process of randomly placing participants into experimental or control groups once they are in the study to prevent confounding variables.

Experimental group

The group in a study that receives the experimental treatment.

Control group

The group in a study that does not receive the experimental treatment.

Placebo

A fake treatment that looks like the real one to determine if results are due to the actual treatment.

Placebo effect

Changes in a participant's behavior or symptoms because they expect a treatment to work, even without real effects.

Descriptive statistics

Statistics that summarize and organize sample data (mean, median, mode, standard deviation) describing only the specific group studied.

Inferential statistics

Statistics using sample data to make generalizations, predictions, or draw conclusions about a larger population.

Sample

The group of people who actually participate in a study, drawn from a larger population.

Sampling bias

A flaw in the process of picking a sample group that makes it unrepresentative and prevents generalizing findings to the broader population.

Random sampling

A selection method where every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected, producing the most representative sample.

Convenience sampling

A method where participants are chosen because they are easy to access.

Institutional review

A requirement for conducting research involving human and non-human animals.

Informed consent

An ethical requirement where participants must be told about the study and agree to participate.

Informed ascent

A term used for the consent process when the participants are minors.

Confederate

A person who works with the researcher and pretends to be a participant to manipulate social situations.

Debriefing

The process after a study where researchers fully inform participants about the true purpose and any deception used.

Measures of central tendency

Statistics that describe the center of a data set, including mean, median, and mode.

Mean

The average calculated by the sum of all values divided by the number of values.

Median

The middle value in a data set after arranging the values from lowest to highest.

Mode

The most frequently occurring value in a data set.

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest values in a data set.

Standard deviation

A measure of how spread out the data points are from the mean.

Normal distribution

A distribution where specific percentages of scores fall within each standard deviation from the mean.

Positively skewed distribution

A distribution where the tail extends to the right due to a few extremely high scores pulling the mean up.

Negative skewed distribution

A distribution where the tail extends to the left due to a few extremely low scores pulling the mean down.

Bimodal distribution

A distribution that has two peaks.

Percentile ranks

The percentage of scores that fall at or below a particular score.

Regression towards the Mean

The phenomenon where outlier results (very high or very low) are followed by results closer to the average.

Effect size

The strength of a relationship between variables or the size of difference between groups (Small: $< 0.2$, Medium: $0.3 - 0.7$, Large: $> 0.8$).

Statistical significance

Indicates that study results are likely due to the variables being studied and not likely due to chance.

Defensible claim

A specific statement about a perspective, theory, or finding that can be supported with evidence.

p-value

A probability measure from $0$ to $1$ indicating evidence strength against the null hypothesis; a smaller value (< 0.05) implies stronger evidence.