AP Psych- Unit 0 (Research Methods)

Psychoanalytical

Unconscious mind controls out thoughts and actions, personality by age 5

Evolutionary

Adaptions for survival, survival of the fittest

Humanistic

Personal potential and choice, strive for personal growth

Cognitive

Conscious thinking, how we interpret a situation memories, perceptions expectations

Sociocultural

Influenced by cultural factors, stereotypes, norms, and customs

Neurobiological

Biology: neurotransmitters, genes, hormones, chemicals

Behaviorism

rewards and punishments, conditioning behavior

Critical Thinking

Not automatic, examines assumptions, appraises, source, evaluate evidence

Hindsight Bias

Tendency to believe after learning outcome, no one would have foreseen it

Peer Reviwers

Experts who evaluate a research article's theory, original and accurate

Theory

Explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize observation

Hypothesis

testable prediction

Falsifiable

possibly that on idea, hypothesis, or theory can be disproven by observation or experiment

Operational Definiton

repeat experiment, statement of exact procedure

Replication

repeating research study, different participants and situations to see if it can be reproduced

Case Study

non-experiment, one individual or group is studied in depth in hope of revealing universal principles

Naturalistic Observation

non-experiment, observing and recording behavior in natural situations, no manipulation or control

Survey

self-reported attitude or behaviors from group

Social desirability bias

anserivng in a way they think will please researchers

Self-report bias

don’t accurately report or remember their behaviors

Sampling Bias

flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresented sample

Random sample

fairly represents a population in survey

Population

all those in a group being studied

Convenience Sample

Collecting research from a. group that is readily available

Longitudinal Study

Research in which people are retested and restudied over a long period of time

Cross-Sectional Study

Similar people of different ages are compared with one another

Correlation

Measure of which 2 factors vary together, how well one factor predicts the other

Correlation Coefficient

Stats. index of relationship between two things (-1 to +1)

Variable

Anything that can vary and is feasible to measure

Illusory Correaltion

Perceiving a relationship when none exists, or perceiving a stronger relationship

Regression towards the mean

Tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back to average

Experiment

Investigator manipulate one or more factors

Experimental Group

The group exposed to the the treatment contrasts with/ experimental group and serves as a comparison

Control Group

The group not exposed to the treatment

Random assignment

Assigning participants to experiment by chance

Single-Blind procedure

participants are ignorant about whether they have received placebo or treatment

Double-Blind procedure

both participants and researches are ignorant

Placebo Effect

Results caused by expectations alone

Indep. Variable

factor that is manipulated

Dep. Variable

The outcome that is measured and can change

Confounding variable

factor other than that being studied that might influence a study’s results

Experimenter bias

caused when researchers may unintentionally influence results to confirm their beliefs

Quantitative Definiton

research method that relies on numerical data

Qualitative Defintion

research method that relies on in depth narrative data that are not translated into numbers

Informed Consent

Giving participants enough information about a study to enable them to choose to participate

Debriefing

explanation go a study, purpose and deception

Institutional Review Board

5 people, review ethical principles

Range

Describes gap between highest and lowest scores

Standard Deviation

How much scores vary around the mean

Skewed distribution

a data set where the values are not distributed around the mean

Meta-analysis

analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion

Statistical Significance

How likely it is that a result occurred by chance

Effect Size

strength of relationship between 2 variables, larger the effect: more one can be explained by the other