AP Psych

unit 0 vocab

Critical Thinking

Directed, problem-focused thinking where the individual tests ideas or solutions for errors

Skepticism

An attitude of questioning, disbelief, or doubt

Curiosity

The impulse/desire to investigate, observe, or gather information

Humility

The quality of being humble, characterized by a low focus one’s self, an accurate sense if one’s accomplishments/worth, and a sense of one’s imperfections/mistakes

Hindsight bias

The tendency after an event has occurred, to overestimate the extent to which the outcome could have been foreseen

Confirmation Bias

The tendency to gather evidence to prove your beliefs right and dismissing evidence that proves your beliefs wrong

Overconfidence

a cognitive bias where a person's subjective confidence in their own ability, judgment, or knowledge is greater than their objective, actual performance

Peer reviewers

The evaluation of work done by experts

Hypothesis

A testable proposition about some facts, behaviors, or relationships (which are usually based on theory)

Falsifiable

A statement, hypothesis, or theory can be shown to be false by an observation, experiment, or evidence

Operational definition

A description of something in terms of operations/procedures in which it could be observed and measured

Case study

An in depth investigation of a single individual, family, event, or other entity

Meta analysis

A statistical method that combines the numerical values of multiple independent studies to find a single, overall result

Naturalistic Observation

Data collection in a field setting, without laboratory controls or manipulation of variables

Survey

A study where a group of participants is selected from a population and data about those participants are collected

Social desirability bias

The tendency of people to give socially acceptable answers instead of telling the truth

Self-reported bias

An error that happens when people give inaccurate information about themselves during surveys, interviews, or tests

Experimenter bias

An intentional or unintentional way a researcher’s expectations, beliefs, or desires can skew the results of an experiment

population

the total number of individuals (humans or other organisms) in a given geographical area

Sample

A smaller, manageable subset if people chosen from larger target population to participate in a study

Sampling bias

A systematic error that occurs when a researcher chooses study participants in a way that does not fairly represent the entire target population

Random sampling

A process for selecting a sample of study participants from a larger potential group of eligible individuals

Convenience sampling

Any process for selecting a sample of individuals or cases that is neither random nor systematic but is governed by chance or ready availability

representative sampling

A selection of study participates from a larger population in an unbiased way, when that sample obtained accurately reflects the total population

Experimental methodology

research method used to find cause and effect relationships by changing one variable and measuring the change in another

Non experimental methodology

research method that measures and observes variables as they occur naturally eith no manipulations to any of them

Correlation

the degree of a relationship between 2 variables

Correlation coefficient

a single number between +1.0 and -1.0 that tells you how strongly two variables are related (+1 is a positive relationship and -1 is a negative relationship)

Third variable problem

occurs when an unmeasured factor (third variable) causes a change in two other variables making them seem correlated not they actually are not

Scatterplot

A graph that uses dots to represent the values of two quantitative variables

regression toward the mean

A statistical phenomenon where an extreme result or score on the first measurement tends to be closer to the overall average (the mean) when measured a second time

Experiment

A series of observations conducted under controlled conditions to study a relationship with the ideas of drawing inferences

Experimental group

A group of participants who are exposed to the IV being tested

Control group

The participants in an experiment who don’t receive the IV being tested

Independent variable (IV)

A factor in an experiment that gets purposely manipulated

Dependent variable (DV)

The variable that changes due to the IV

Random assignment

The process of using chance (coin flip) to place participants into different groups for an experiment

Single blind procedure

A research method where the participants don’t know whether they are in the experimental group or control group

Double blind procedure

Research method where neither the participant nor the experimenter know who is receiving the real or fake treatment

Placebo

A fake treatment (sugar pill) that has no actual medical affect

Placebo effect

A response to the fake treatment based on expectation or beliefs regarding the treatment

Confounding variable

unmeasured extra factor that influences both the cause and effect in an experiment (can make things seem correlated even if they aren’t)

Experimenter bias

An intentional or unintentional way a researcher’s expectation, beliefs, or desires skew the results

Quantitative research

Research involving numerical measurements/observations to analyze data

Qualitative research

Method of research that is non numerical and uses descriptive observation

Likert scales

A rating scale in surveys to measure people’s attitudes, opinons, or feelings

Non human (animal) research

The use of animals in scientific studies to test behaviors, hypotheses, etc without risking humans

Instituional review

an independent committee that reviews, approves, and monitors research involving humans

Informed consent

A person’s agreement to participant in an experiment on the basis of their understanding of its risks or benefits

Informed assent

an agreement given by a minor to participant in a research study

Protect from harm

ethical principle in research stating that participants must not indure physical injuries/ long term negative effects during the study

Confidentiality

Principle requires that personal data collected must be kept private

Research confederates

An actor in an experiment who pretends to be a real participant but is actually a researcher

Debriefing

Fully explaining the purpose of an experiment during or after the experiment

Descriptive statistics

numerical data used to measure and describe characteristics of a group

Measure of central tendency

A single summary value that describes the center or typical score of a data set

Mode

The most frequent occurring number in a set of data

Mean

The numerical average of a set of scores by adding all the numbers and then dividing them by the amount of numbers in the data set

Median

The middle score in the distribution

Percentile rank

The percentage of scores that are lower than the given score

Positive skew

Occurs when a data set’s distribution has a long extending line toward the higher number on the right side of the graph

Negative skew

occurs when data sets have a long extending line toward the lower number on the left side of the graph

Measures of variation

Describes how spread out of scattered the scores are in a data set relative to its center

Range

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in the distribution

Standard deviation

A computed measure of how much scores vary around the means score

Normal curve

A symmetrical, bell shaped graph that describes the distribution of ,many types of physiological and real world data

Bimodal distribution

frequency distribution with two distinct peaks indicating two separate high frequency values in a data set

inferential statistics

refers to techniques that use data from a sample to make generalizations, draw conclusions, or predictions about larger populations

meta-analysis

statistical method that combines the numerical results of multiple independent studies to find an overall result

Statistical sugnificants

A determination that a research result or relationship between variables is unlikely to have occurred by random chance

Effect size

A quantitative measure of the magnitude, strength, or practical importance of a research result