AP Psych Unit 2

research ethics

the basic principles of research and experiments

ethical guidelines

informed consent, confidentiality, full debrief, protect from harm, minimal deception

institutional review board

looks over experiments and research projects to ensure no ethics guidelines are violated

informed assent

informed parental consent if those who are used in an experiment are minors

protection from harm

ensures nobody involved will become hurt long-term

informed consent

when consent is given while fully knowing what exactly they’re saying yes to

debriefing

providing all of the info about an experiment to the participants after it is done

confidentiality

no participant info or results are leaked that can be specific to them (e.g. Michael Smith did ___ during the experiment)

minimal deception

keeping the participants as informed as possible without affecting the experiment

confederates

people who work with the researcher that are mixed into the population, pretending to be another participant

hindsight bias

the misconception that you believed in an outcome all along

overconfidence

thinking you know more about a topic than you actually do

hypothesis

the guess of an outcome of an experiment

operational definition

a detailed description of the experiment you’re doing, allows for others to replicate and further prove your theory

replication

the recreation of an experiment using the operational def.

case study

studying (usually) one specific person and the things that happened to them to apply a phenomenon to others

naturalistic observation

studying people, or animals, in their natural environment

survey

a set of questions presented to a population

sample

the group of people chosen to represent a bigger population to be studied

sampling bias

choosing a sample that does not properly represent the population

population

the entire group of people being studied

random sample

randomly selected people from a population to represent them equally

representative samples

a sample that represents the overall population well

convenience samples

choosing a sample based purely on convenience (e.g. the people closest to you in a room) instead of a representative sample

experimental vs non-experimental

experimental actively changes something in the observation while non-experimental doesn’t

correlation

the trend between two data sets, correlation does not equal causation

correlation coefficient

a number that quantifies the correlation between two data sets (from 1 to

variable

the thing that is being changed in an experiment

illusory correlation

a misconception that a correlation exists (e.g. superstition)

regression towards the mean

one outlier eventually falls into the average after many pieces of data being averaged

difference b/w correlation and causation

correlation ≠ causation, but can suggest it

experiment

a procedure done to test a hypothesis

experimental group

the group receiving the change

control group

a group that is not affected by the variable, shows the ‘normal’ for that sample

placebo group

the group given a placebo

random assignment

randomly separating people between placebo and control groups

single blind procedure

an experiment where the patients are unaware whether they’re given a placebo or not

double blind procedure

both the experimenter and the patients are unaware who is the placebo group and who isn’t

Placebo effect

when told a change is going to happen, people will start to feel the effects of the change even when not given the treatment

independent variable

the thing being changed in an experiment

dependent variable

the thing being observed in an experiment

confounding variable

a variable that isn’t being changed but can still affect the results of the experiment

third variable problem

in a correlational study, there can be a third variable affecting the relationship between the two data sets

scatterplots

a type of graph showing two data sets and their correlation

scatterplots

a type of graph showing two data sets and their correlation

directionality problem

a correlation is known and observed, but it’s unclear which data set is the cause and which is the effect

social desirability bias

when people respond differently to survey questions in order to be perceived differently

self-report bias

someone experimenting on themselves or reporting their own symptoms may be biased in their observations

generalizability

the ability to apply the findings of an experiment to an entire population

experimenter bias

when the person handling the experiment has a bias or a preconceived notion of how the experiment is going to end, affecting the results

falsifiability

a hypothesis must be able to be proven wrong in order to be proven right (eliminates vague hypotheses)

peer review

when a piece of research is overlooked and studied by others in your field to verify it