Psychology Research Methods and Ethics Vocabulary

Flashcards covering key research methodology, statistical biases, and ethical guidelines from the Chapter 2 lecture transcript.

Critical Thinking

Approaching information in an intellectually engaging manner by challenging existing beliefs, remaining open to contradictory evidence, and evaluating speaker expertise, motivations, evidence justification, and expert consensus.

Correlational Research

A research design that investigates whether a statistical relationship exists between two variables, including its strength and direction, but cannot establish cause and effect.

Confounding Variables

Uncontrolled factors outside a researcher's control that affect the variables in a study, potentially giving a false appearance of a causal relationship between them.

Illusory Correlations

The perception of a relationship between two variables when no actual relationship exists, often serving as a basis for misconceptions, prejudiced attitudes, and discriminatory behaviors.

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to focus on and pay attention to information that confirms existing expectations or beliefs while ignoring evidence that contradicts them.

Ethics

Moral principles used in psychology to guide researcher behavior, standard of care, and the treatment of human participants and animal subjects.

National Research Act

A piece of legislation passed in $1974$ that established official rules and regulations for protecting human research subjects.

Tuskegee Study

An unethical $40$-year research project launched in $1932$ by the United States Public Health Service involving $600$ black men in Tuskegee, Alabama, where syphilis treatment was withheld to observe the untreated progression of the disease.

Belmont Report

An ethical guideline document established in response to the National Research Act that outlines three primary principles for research involving human subjects: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

Respect for Persons

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report ensuring that research participants maintain autonomy, are protected, and voluntarily provide informed consent.

Beneficence

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report requiring researchers to minimize potential harms and maximize potential benefits for research participants.

Justice

An ethical principle from the Belmont Report dictating that the benefits and burdens of research must be fairly distributed among all study participants.

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

A committee composed of administrators, scientists, and community members that reviews proposed human research projects for ethical compliance prior to data collection.

Informed Consent

A process and document provided to research participants disclosing the study's purpose, intended data use, potential risks, voluntary nature, right to withdraw, and confidentiality protections.

Debriefing

A required procedure following the use of deception in a study where researchers explain the nature and timing of the deception to participants to minimize potential harm.

IACUC

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, an oversight board responsible for ensuring that research involving animals adheres to ethical standards regarding care, living conditions, humane treatment, and lawful acquisition.

WEIRD Samples

Research samples drawing primarily from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic populations, which limits the ability to generalize findings to the general public.

Fidelity

An APA ethical principle emphasizing the importance of building trust with participants and exercising due diligence to act as responsible scientists.

Integrity

An APA ethical principle requiring scientific research, reporting, and practice to be accurate, honest, and truthful.