psychology, stage 1 sace test revision:

Biopsychosocial Model

A model that looks at three main areas of a person's life: biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors to understand behavior.

Biological Factors

Physical aspects such as genes, brain, hormones, and physical illnesses or injuries.

Psychological Factors

Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors including emotions and coping mechanisms.

Sociocultural Factors

Environmental influences such as family, culture, social status, and beliefs.

Ethical Practices in Psychological Research

Rules to ensure research is conducted safely and respectfully.

Informed Consent

The requirement that participants understand what a study entails before agreeing to participate.

Confidentiality

The practice of keeping participant information private.

Voluntary Participation

The principle that individuals should have the right to choose whether to participate in a study.

Withdrawal Rights

Participants can leave a study at any time.

Debriefing

Informing participants about the study and its outcomes after it has concluded.

No Harm

The ethical guideline that research should not cause physical or emotional harm to participants.

Inquiry Question

A research question formulated to investigate a specific topic.

Hypothesis

An educated guess that predicts the relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

Independent Variable (IV)

The variable that is changed or controlled in a study to test its effects on the dependent variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The variable that is measured to determine if the independent variable had an effect.

Constant Variable

Factors that remain constant throughout an experiment.

Confounding Variable

An uncontrolled variable that affects the dependent variable and may lead to erroneous conclusions.

Extraneous Variable

Any variable other than the independent variable that may have an impact on the dependent variable.

Quantitative Research

Research that uses numerical data and statistics.

Qualitative Research

Research that involves descriptive data and explores ideas through words.

Experimental Design

A research approach where the researcher manipulates the independent variable to determine cause-and-effect relationships.

Observational Design

A research method where the researcher observes subjects in their natural settings without manipulation.

Focus Group

A small group discussion used to gather in-depth information about a specific topic.

Delphi Technique

A method where experts provide feedback on a topic anonymously through several rounds of questions.

Quantitative Data

Data represented in numerical form, which is easier to analyze statistically.

Qualitative Data

Data that is descriptive and explores complex themes.

Objective Data

Data that can be measured and is factual.

Subjective Data

Data based on personal opinions or feelings.

Mean

The average value in a data set, calculated by adding all values and dividing by the number of values.

Median

The middle value in a data set, separating the higher half from the lower half.

Standard Deviation

A statistic that measures the dispersion of a dataset, indicating how spread out the values are.

Population

The entire group that a researcher is interested in studying.

Sample

A smaller subgroup taken from the population used for research purposes.

Reliability

The consistency of a measure; obtaining the same results on repeated trials.

Internal Validity

The extent to which a study demonstrates that the independent variable caused the dependent variable.

External Validity

The extent to which research findings can be generalized to, or have relevance for settings, people, times, and measures other than the ones used in the study.