AP Psychology - 0.1-0.3 (Perspectives, Research Methods, Correlational Research)

Psychodynamic Perspective

Behavior is influenced by unconscious thoughts, feelings, conflicts, and early childhood experiences.

Behavioral Perspective

Behavior is learned through experience, especially through conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, and observation.

Humanistic Perspective

Behavior is influenced by a person's free will, self-concept, personal growth, and desire to reach their full potential (self-actualization).

Cognitive Perspective

Behavior is influenced by how people think, interpret information, remember, solve problems, and make decisions.

Biological Perspective

Behavior and mental processes are influenced by the brain, nervous system, hormones, neurotransmitters, and genetics.

Evolutionary Perspective

Behaviors and traits may exist because they helped our ancestors survive and reproduce.

Sociocultural Perspective

Behavior is influenced by social groups, culture, family, social norms, and the environment we live in.

Biopsychosocial Perspective

Behavior and mental processes result from the combined influence of biological, psychological, and social factors.

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence.

Hindsight Bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (Also known as the I-knew-it-

all-along phenomenon.)

Overconfidence Bias

the tendency to be more confident than correct — to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgments.

Experiment

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process

Correlational study

a research method designed to discover the degree to which two variables are related to each other

Naturalistic Observation

a non-experimental technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation.

Case Study

a non-experimental technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

Meta-analysis

a statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion.

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.

Operational definition

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures. (Also known as operationalization.)

Population

all those in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn.

Sample

the smaller group of people selected from a larger population to participate in a study.

Random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion.

Replicate a study/Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding can be reproduced.

Representative sample

randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects

Generalizability

the extent to which we can claim our findings inform us about a group larger than the one we studied

Quantitative Research

a research method that relies on quantifiable, numerical data.

Qualitative Research

a research method that relies on in-depth, narrative data that are not translated into

numbers.

Likert Scales

questionnaires that require individuals to indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement with a set of statements

Structured Interviews

an interview process that asks the same job-relevant questions of all applicants, each of whom is rated on established scales.

Survey

a non-experimental technique for obtaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group.

Wording Effect

the effect that question phrasing and order have on how people answer surveys

Social Desirability Bias

bias from people's responding in ways they presume a researcher expects or wishes.

Third Variable Problem

A problem that occurs when the researcher cannot directly manipulate variables; as a result, the researcher cannot be confident that another, unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest.

Scatterplot

a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables. The slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables. The amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation (little scatter indicates high correlation).

Correlation Coefficient

a statistical index of the relationship between two things (from −1 to +1).

Positive Correlation

a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease together

Negative Correlation

the relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other variable decreases