Psychology Fundamentals and Research Methods

Vocabulary flashcards generated from lecture notes covering the core ideas of psychology, scientific attitudes, and descriptive, correlational, and experimental research methods.

Psychology

The scientific study of human and animal behavior, mental processes, and feelings.

Critical Thinking

A practice in which thinkers ask critical questions, avoid assumptions, examine all aspects of an issue, and base conclusions on evidence.

Biopsychosocial Event

The concept that human behavior can be viewed from three levels: biological (such as genetics), psychological, and social-cultural, all of which provide valuable insight.

Dual Processing (Two-Track Mind)

The principle that human thinking, feeling, sensing, and acting operates largely on two tracks, with much of it occurring outside awareness.

Contemporary Psychology

A stage of psychology that continues the tradition of understanding and treating difficulties while extending research to include human flourishing.

The Scientific Attitude

An approach to asking and answering psychological questions characterized by being curious, skeptical, and humble.

Operational Definition

A carefully worded statement of exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory.

Descriptive Methods

Research techniques that describe behaviors by using case studies, naturalistic observations, or surveys.

Case Study

A descriptive method that examines one individual in depth to provide fruitful ideas, though it cannot be used to generalize.

Naturalistic Observation

A research method that records behavior in a natural environment; it describes behavior without explaining it.

Surveys and Interviews

Descriptive methods that examine many cases in less depth, subject to wording effects and relying on random sampling of a population for best results.

Positive Correlation

A relationship between $0$ and $+1.00$ indicating a direct relationship where two things increase together or decrease together.

Negative Correlation

A relationship between $0$ and $-1.00$ indicating an inverse relationship where as one thing increases, the other decreases.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure of how closely two things vary together and how well one predicts the other.

Correlational Methods

Research methods used to test hypotheses and refine theories by associating different factors, though correlation does not cause cause and effect.

Experimental Research

A research method that manipulates factors to discover their effects and calculate cause and effect between independent and dependent variables.

Independent Variable

The variable that represents the cause and is manipulated by the experimenter; it always comes first.

Dependent Variable

The variable that represents the effect or result and is expected to be influenced by the independent variable; it always comes second.

Confounding Variables

Factors that can disrupt the purity of an experiment and corrupt its results.

Selection Bias

An unethical research error where the experimenter purposely assigns participants to groups to guarantee a specific outcome.