AP Psychology Unit 0

Critical Thinking

an analysis or “going deeper” by asking in depth questions to help deeper thinking

Critical Inquiry

exploring something in order to gain a deeper understanding

Hindsight Bias

“I knew it all along” phenomenon or the belief you could have predicted it all along just because you know the final result

Overconfidence

being more confident than you actually are which makes us think we know more than we actually know

Dunning Kruger Effect

rating abilities, accuracy, or skills higher than they actually are

Perceiving Order in Random Events

the tendency for our brains to look at some things as patterns or rules when really they occured by chance or coincidence

Scientific Method

self correcting process for observing ideas and analyzing (process of trial and error)

Peer Reviewers

other experts in the field who evaluate work that is published

Theory

creating/offering ideas from observations which explains behaviors; basically a prediction of what you think will happen

Hypotheses

predictions that need to tested/expierimented

Falsifiability

the question if the hypothesis can be proven false; used as a measure to see how strong the hypothesis is

Operational Definitions

scientists prevent bias by using measurable and precise of a more abstact/broad variable/concept

Replication

the recreation of a method in order to find new findings; can occur when people use precision and carefully worded statements

Case Study

examines one individual/group in depth to find answers about an entire population

Naturalistic Observation

recording/observing responses when a subject is in its natural environment; no interference

Descriptive Studies

describes behaviors and does not manipulate any variables

Survey

looks at many cases and asks people to share behavior and opinions

Social Desirability Bias

answering a question in order to please the overall opinions of society

Self-Report Bias

answering a question inaccurately or answering wrong because you can’t remember behavior

Sampling Bias

when a target group has a lower/higher chance of being chosen; unrepresentative of population

Convience Sampling

collecting information from a readily available group; unrepresentative of population

Population

all those who are being studied

Random Sampling

every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen and fairly represents a population

Correlation

a measure of the extent to which 2 factors vary or predict one another

Correlation ______ Causation

Correlation Coefficient

statistical measure that helps identify how close two things vary; measured by the absolute value of the number (1.0 to -1.0)

• positive = positive correlation

• negative = inverse correlation

• 0 = no correlation

Variable

anything that can be measured

Positive Correlation

when variables fall/rise together

Negative Correlation

variables fall/rise inversely

Illusionary Correlation

when we believe there is a relationship we are more likely to perceive instances/facts that do not actually exist; jumping to conclusions

Experiment

a research method which variables are manipulated in order to find a result

Cause and Effect is determined by ______

Experimental Group

group that is receiving the treatment/being tested

Control Group

group that does not receive any treatment and is used to compare results

Random Assignment

giving people equal chance to be put into the experiment group or the control group

Single-Blind Procedure

when the participants do not know if they are receiving the treatment or not but the researchers know who is and isn’t; can cause placebo effect

Double-Blind Procedure

when the participants and researchers do not know who is receiving the treatment

Placebo Effect

a physical/mental change that participants experience after a person gets a fake treatment making them think it is working; gives results simply from expectations and beliefs

Independant Variable

the experiment variable or the one that is being altered

Dependant Variable

the variable/outcome when another variable is altered

Confounding Variable

a factor that is not apart of the ones being studied but it could affect the results

Valiaty

the extent to which the test/experiment predicts or measures what it is supposed to do

Quantitative

data that is measured numerically

Qualitative

data that is a in-depth narrative measuring

Ethics Code

a set of guidelines put in place and enforced by Institutional Review Board which protects participants of experiments from harm

What are the Ethics Codes?

1) obtain informed consent 2) protect from greater than usual harm 3) keep info. confidential 4) debrief results

Informed Consent

giving enough information about the study so the person can choose to participate

The Lancet Experiment

researcher falsely reported that vaccines did not work which led to people dying because they did not get vaccines

Deception

hiding information about of study (can be good/bad)

Statistical Illiteracy

reading a statistic incorrectly or not analyzing them

Descriptive Statistics

uses numerical data to measure and describe characteristics of groups; best showcases descriptive studies

Histograms

a type of descriptive statistic which shows the frequency of certain variables

Mode

most frequently occurring element

Mean

the average

Median

midpoint

Percentile Rank

percentage of score that are less than a given score

Skewed Distribution

scores that have extreme outcomes that skew their data/means

Range

the gap between the lowest and highest score

Standard Deviation

measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Normal Distribution

symmetrical, bell shaped

Inferential Statistics

numerical data that allows inferences/generalization

Meta Analysis

analyzing results of other already performed studies

Effect Size

the strength of the relationship between 2 variables (larger = better explanation)

Generalizability

how well can we apply or extend results to a larger population