AP Psychology Unit 1 - Introduction & Research Methods

Empirical

knowledge acquired through observation, gathering & analyzing data = evidence to support

Nature

genetics, inherited, innate

Nurture

environmental influences

Biological Perspective

behavior explained by genetics, hormones, neurotransmitters, brain structure, etc.

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Perspective

behavior explained by unconscious urges & impulses; repression of early childhood traumas

Cognitive Perspective

behavior explained by "thinking" - problem solving, decision making, reasoning, memory, information processing

Behavioral Perspective

behavior explained by learning through associations, rewards & punishments, obervation/modeling

Humanistic Perspective

behavior is explained by:

-humans are inherently good

-we are striving to reach our potential

-we each have a unique perception of the world & our self-concept

-we all have free-will

Sociocultural Perspective

behavior is explained by societal & cultural factos (eg. norms & expectations from family, peers, media, gender, religion, ethnicity, etc.)

Individualist v. Collectivist

individualist - "I"

collectivist - "we"

Evolutionary Perspective

behavior explained by the need for survival (eg. survivial of the fittest, adaptation, passing on genes)

Eclectic Approach

combining more than 1 approach to explain behavior

Informed Assent

a process that allows minors to agree to participate in clinical trials or research studies

Informed Consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Hypothesis

a testable, educated prediction about the relationship between 2 variables

a hypothesis is falsifiable if it can be tested and potentially proven wrong through scientific observation or investigation

Operational Definition

defining variables in research in a specific and measurable way

Correlational Research

goal: to observe & record behavior; to identify naturally occurring relationships; to assess how well one variable predicts another

Experimental

goal: to investigate cause and effect

Quantitative Research

quanitifiable, numerical data

Likert Scale

a rating scale used to measure survey participants' opinions, attitudes, motivations, and more

Qualitative Research

narrative data that cannot be translated into numbers

Structured Interviews

a standardized method of assessment in psychology, use a predetermined set of questions (and possible responses) for all interviewees

Non-Experimental Research

can be descriptive (narrative, describing general behaviors) or correlational (identifying patterns/relationships)

Naturalistic Observation

observing behavior a natural setting without interference, manipulation, or control

Advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observations

advantages: observing behavior as it naturally occurs (high ecological validity), can study topics that cannot be tested experimentally

disadvantages: no control over the environment, potential biases, qualitative data & cannot establish cause and effect, impossible to replicate

Case Study

intense examination of one person, small group, or unique situation using a variety of methods (eg. surveys, interviews, observations, archival records, psychological tests, etc.)

allows us to investigate rare behaviors/occurrences and topics that are impossible/unethical to test in other ways

Advantages and disadvantages of case studies

advantages: allows us to study rare/unique topics, can study topics that cannot be tested experimentally, in-depth, detailed information from many sources

disadvantages: small sample size, cannot generalize results, cannot explain behavior, time consuming & potential stress on those being studied

Survey

questionnaire used to learn about participants' opinions, beliefs, attitudes, general patterns of behavior, etc.

Social Desirability Bias

giving answers most desired/expected by the researcher or society

Self-Report Bias

people may not be fully truthful in their responses

Framing

how questions are worded can impact how people respond

Advantages and disadvantage surveys

advantages: large sample size, efficient & inexpensive, get info on attitudes/beliefs that you cannot from observation alone, can identify patterns

disadvantages: participants & sampling biases, framing, cannot explain behaviors

Meta-analysis

a type of statistical analysis where researchers review, combine, and analyze the results of multiple studies (integrate results)

meta-analysis is useful when there have been many previous studies on the same topic or asking the same question

Experimental Research

goal is to establish cause & effect by manipulating one variable (while controlling others) and measuring the effect on another variable and uses random assignment.. the only research method that can attempt to explain behavior

Advantages & disadvantages of experiments

advantages: lots of control, highly replicable, can establish cause and effect

disadvantages: artifical environment, can't test all topics, sampling errors, expensive & time consuming

Population

target group of interest for the study from which sample group is drawn

Sample

members of the population who are chosen to participate in research

Representative Sample

when the demographics of the sample are proportional to the demographics of the population

Biased Sample

an unrepresentative sample (group of participants chosen for a study that does not fairly or accurately represent the larger population researchers want to study)

Random Sample

every member of the population has an equally likely chance of being chosen to participate in research; a large enough random sample will approximate a representative sample and therefore allow you to generalize the results to the population

Convenience Sample

participants are chosen because they are the easiest for the researcher to access. (This can be due to geographical proximity, availability at a given time, or willingness to participate in the research)

Independent Variable

variable being manipulated

Dependent Variable

variable being measured

Confounding Variable

a variable, other than the IV, that may impact the results of the study (DV)

Experimental Group

group(s)/condition(s) that receives the IV

Control Group

group(s)/condition(s) that does not receive the IV

Random Assignment

every participant has an equal chance of being placed into any of the groups/conditions

Quasi-Experiment

experimental design that does not use random sampling or random assignment because either impossible or unethical

Participant Bias

bias caused when participants may unintentionally influence results

Experimenter Bias

bias caused when researchers may unintentionally influence results to confirm their own beliefs

Single-Blind Procedure

when participants do not know whether they are in the experimental group(s) or control group (reduces participant bias)

Double-Blind Procedure

when neither participants nor the experimenter know who is in the experimental group(s) or control group (reduces experimenter bias)

Placebo Effect

occurs when participants expectations cause a change in behavior/the way you feel, when given an inactive treatment

Replication

the process of repeating a study or experiment to validate its findings and ensure the results can be reliably reproduced

Reliability

the consistency of the findings or results of a psychology research study

Validity

does the test/measurement tool actually measure what it is supposed to measure?

Correlation does not imply causation

when we say that two variables are correlated, this means that there exists a relationship between the two variables, it does not mean that one variable caused a change in the other variable

Illusory Correlation

perceiving a relationship between two variables where nine existsm or perceiving a stronger-than-actual relationship

Regression Towards the Mean

the tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back toward the average

Directionality Problem

a limitation of correlationalr research that occurs when it's unclear which variable influences another. this can make it difficult to establish vausal relationships.

Third-Variable Problem

a limitation of correlational research that occurs when a third variable leads to a mistaken causal relationship between two others

Descriptive Statistics

organize and summarize data; do not determine cause & effect

Mean

average

Median

middle number

Mode

most frequent occurring score

Negatively Skewed Distribution

mean < median < mode

Positively Skewed Distribution

mean > median > mode

Bimodal Distribution

a set of scores with two peaks or modes around which values tend to cluster, such that the frequencies at first increase and then decrease around each peak

Range

highest-lowest

Standard Deviation

average distance between each score and the mean of the data set

Positive Correlation

the variables head in the same direction

Negative Correlation

the variables head in opposute directions

Correlation Coefficient (r)

statistical value that describes the strength of the relationship between two variables

Inferential Statistics

statistical methods that allow one to generalize - to infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population

Statistical Significance

how likely is it that changes to the DV were due to IV v. just due to chance

Statistically Significant

confident that IV caused changes in DV

Statistically Insignificant

not confident that the IV caused changes in DV

Effect Size

the strength of the relationship between two variables; the larger this is, the more one variable can be explained by another

Normal Distribution (skew)

The mean, median, and mode are all the same number.

Why is random assignment of participants to groups an important aspect of a properly designed experiment?

If the participants are randomly assigned, the researcher can assume that each group is similar to each other at the beginning of the study.

A social psychology researcher operationally defines aggression as loudness of a noise blast (ranging from 0 to 105 decibels) supposedly delivered to a stranger. This research method is best described as

quantitative

Which of the following is an ethical principle regarding experimental research on humans:
A. Researchers must protect participants from needless harm and discomfort

B. Participant’s should sign informed consent form regardless of experiment design

A