AP Psych Notes Unit 1

Method of Authority: Going to something or someone to answer your question/solve your problems (Ex: asking your parents to fix something for you)

Rational Method: Solving a problem yourself using logic (Ex: outlet example, just click the reset button)

Correlational Study: a relationship/connection between two things (Ex: GPA + Memory, a person with a good memory probably has a higher GPA)

Experimentation: The purpose is to determine cause and effect

Random: everybody has an equal chance of being selected

Subject/sample/parts: the organisms being used in the study

Population: the larger group being represented by the subjects

Independent Variable: what is being compared in the study (Ex: amount of alcohol in the men and 8 beers experiment)

Dependent Variable: what is being measured in the study. Always DEPENDS on the independent variable (Ex: the score on the coordination test)

Experimental group: the group that gets the real thing or the group you are concentrating on.

Control group: the group being compared to the experimental group

Placebo: some kind of fake

Single Lind: none of the participants know if they are in the experimental or control group

Double Blind: neither the participants nor researchers know who is in the experimental or control group. Done to decrease bias

Confounding Variable: things that the experimenter doesn’t control for that can affect the study

Collecting Data: Doing the experiment

Analyzing Data: looking over the findings and determining if the hypothesis is true or not

Revise and Retest: looking for consistent results. Do the experiment again and possibly make changes to fit hypothesis better

Develop a Conclusion: valid,, not valid, inconclusive (no certain response)

Hypothesis: a possible explanation to a question

Theory: A hypothesis that has a lot of support from several sources

Law: a theory that is 100% correct all the time.

survey: series of questions asked anonymously (Ex: election polls) Cons: most people don’t do them

Interview: face to face questions ; cons people can lie

Case study: collecting information from a single person over a long period of time Ex: conjoined twins that have been studied

Longitudinal study: a group of individuals has information collected over a long period of time (ex: mothers doing cocaine while pregnant, researchers collect information about the children for 20 years) cons; lots of people drop out of the study, very expensive

Cross sexual Study: taking different groups of a population and taking information over a short period of time (Ex: women A: newborn baby, women b: 1 year old, women c: 2 year old) cons; aren’t the same kids, information isn’t as accurate, cheaper

Naturalistic observation: observing something in its natural state without it knowing its being watched (ex: hunting cameras) cons; people act differently if they know they are being watched

Informed consent: subjects allow researchers to use them in a experiment

Out at any time: subjects has the freedom to leave experiment at any time

Contact researcher: that researchers must give a method of being reached in case a subject has any questions or concerns.

Confidentiality: things that must remain unknown (ex: names, address)

Treat animals with as little pain “as possible” : Ex( rat with cancer)