Unit 0- Science Practices

Humanist Perspective- Believed that we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs. A ______ psychologist might explain that an introverted person may limit social contact with others because he or she finds that social needs are better satisfied by contact with a few close friends rather than larger groups.

Psychodynamic Perspective: This perspective believes that the unconscious mind— a part of our mind that we do not have conscious control over or access to— controls much of our thoughts and actions. This perspective thinks that to understand human thought and behavior, we must examine our unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association, and other techniques.

Biopsychology (or Neuroscience) Perspective: Explain human thought and behavior strictly in terms of biological processes. Human cognition and reaction might be caused by the effects of our genes, hormones, and neurotransmitters in the brain or by a combination of all three.

Evolutionary Perspective: Examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection. A _____ psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted as a survival advantage. This perspective is similar to the biopsychology perspective.

Cognitive Perspective- Examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events. A ______ psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted in terms of how he or she interprets social situations.

Social-Cultural Perspective: Look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary among cultures. They emphasize the influence culture has on the way we think and act. A ________ psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted by examining his or he cultural rules and social interaction.

Biopsychosocial Perspective: This modern perspective acknowledges that human thinking and behavior result from combinations of biological (bio), psychological (psycho), and social (social) factors. A ______ perspective might explain extroversion by focusing on the combination of several influences: a genetic tendency for extraversion, how a person has been conditioned toward extroverted behavior, and how social pressures influence his or her behaviors.

Hindsight Bias: People have the tendency upon hearings about research findings (and many other things) to think they knew it all along.

Confirmation Bias: The tendency to pay more attention to information that supports our preexisting ideas

Overconfidence: The tendency to be, well, overconfident about the thing we believe

Quantitive Research: Uses numerical measures

Qualitative Research: Uses more complex textual responses and looks for key themes within them

Hypothesis: expresses a relationship between two variables. Is also a proposed explanation for a phenomenon.

Variables: Things that can vary among the participants in the research

Independent Variable: A change in _______ variable will produce a change in the dependent variable

Dependent Variable: Things that can vary among the participants in the research

Falsifiable: it must be possible to gather data that would controvert the hypothesis

Operational Definition: You explain how you will measure it

Replicated: Research is reliable when it can be _______

Sample: a group of participants

Population: anyone or anything that could possibly be selected in the sample.

Random Sampling: Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. Maximizes the chance that the sample will represent the population from which is drawn and allows researchers to draw generalizations about hte populations based on their findings about the sample (best one by using a computer, a table of random numbers, or picking names out of a hat).

Convenience Sampling: collecting data from a group of people who are easily accessible to you

Stratified Sampling: A process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria (look into the population).

Random Assignment: Each participant has an equal chance of being placed into either group. This diminishes the chance that participants in the two groups differ in any meaningful way. In other words, it controls for participant-relevant variables. The idea behind this is that, in general, the groups will be equivalent. 

Experimenter Bias: The unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming the researcher's hypothesis. 

Double-Blind Study: This occurs when neither the participants nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome of the research. The most common way for it to be accomplished is for the researcher to have someone blind to the participant's condition interact with the participants

Single-Blind Study: When only the participants do not know to which group they have been assigned this strategy minimizes the effect of demand characteristics as well as certain kinds of response or participant bias. 

Subject Bias: The tendency for participants in a study to behave in certain ways

Social Desirability Bias: The tendency to try to give answers that reflect well upon oneself

Experimental Group: The one that gets the treatment operationalized in the indepnendent variable.

Control Group: Gets none of the indpendent variable. It serves as a basis for comparison. 

Placebo Method: A technique where the control group is given an inert substance that looks identical to the experimental substance to separate psychological effects from physiological effects (placebo effect).

Counterbalancing: A method in which participants are assigned to different orders of conditions to prevent order effects from influencing the results.

Order Effects: When the order in which participants experience different conditions affects their performance in an experiment.

Correlational Method: A research method used to express the relationship between two variables without establishing cause and effect.

Positive Correlation: A relationship where the presence of one variable predicts the presence of the other variable.

Negative Correlation: A relationship where the presence of one variable predicts the absence of the other variable.

Survey Method: A research method that involves asking participants to fill out surveys, often using Likert scales to measure attitudes or behaviors.

Likert Scale: A scale used in surveys to measure the level of agreement or disagreement with a statement, often ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree."

Directionality Problem: The issue of not being able to determine which variable comes first in a relationship, making it unclear if one causes the other.

Spurious Correlation: A false correlation where two variables appear related but are actually caused by a third variable, like a genetic predisposition.

Confounding Variables: Variables that are not controlled for in a study, which can affect the results. Participant-relevant confounding variables are differences between participants, and situation-relevant confounding variables are differences in the research setting.

Survey Method: A research method that involves asking participants to fill out surveys, but it cannot control for confounding variables or establish cause and effect.

Random Sample: A sample chosen in such a way that every individual in the population has an equal chance of being selected. It is difficult to achieve in survey research due to low response rates.

Naturalistic Observation: A research method where participants are observed in their natural environment without any interaction or manipulation by the researcher, often used to get a realistic view of behavior but sacrificing control.

Qualitative Data: Data that is descriptive and non-numeric, often collected through open-ended questions or interviews, allowing for richer but less controlled insights.

Structured Interview: An interview where the researcher asks a fixed set of questions in a set order, similar to a survey.

Semi-Structured Interview: An interview where the researcher has a set of questions but can adapt based on the participant's responses to gain more in-depth information.

Unstructured Interview: An interview with no fixed set of questions, allowing for the most flexibility and a more detailed, conversational approach to gathering data.

Case Study: A research method that focuses on a detailed analysis of a single individual or small group, often used in clinical psychology to understand specific disorders. However, findings cannot always be generalized to a larger population.

Measures of Central Tendency: Statistical measures used to identify the center of a distribution, including the mean, median, and mode.

Mean: The average score of a distribution, calculated by adding all scores and dividing by the number of scores.

Median: The middle score in a distribution, found by arranging scores in order and selecting the middle one (or the average of the middle two if there is an even number of scores).

Mode: The score that appears most frequently in a distribution. A distribution can be bimodal if two scores appear most frequently.

Outliers: Extreme scores in a distribution that can distort the accuracy of the mean, making the median a better measure of central tendency when outliers are present.

Positively Skewed Distribution: A distribution where more low scores are present than high scores, and the mean is higher than the median due to one or more extreme high scores.

Negatively Skewed Distribution: A distribution where more high scores are present than low scores, and the mean is lower than the median due to one or more extreme low scores.

Skew: A distortion in the distribution of scores caused by extreme high or low values (outliers).

Range: A measure of variability that represents the distance between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.

Variance: A measure of variability that calculates the average squared deviation of each score from the mean.

Standard Deviation: A measure of variability that represents the average distance of each score from the mean; the square root of the variance.

Z-Score: A measure of how many standard deviations a score is from the mean. Positive z-scores are above the mean, and negative z-scores are below the mean.

Normal Curve: A theoretical bell-shaped curve that represents a normal distribution, where approximately 68% of scores fall within 1 standard deviation of the mean.

Percentile: A measure indicating the percentage of scores below a particular score. For example, a 90th percentile means a score is better than 90% of the others.

Correlation: A statistical measure that describes the relationship between two variables. A positive correlation means that as one variable increases, the other also increases, while a negative correlation means one variable increases as the other decreases.

Positive Correlation: A relationship where the presence of one variable predicts the presence of the other. For example, studying and earning good grades are positively correlated.

Negative Correlation: A relationship where the presence of one variable predicts the absence of the other. For example, skipping classes and earning good grades are negatively correlated.

No Correlation: When no relationship exists between two variables. For example, the number of stuffed animals someone has and their grades likely have no correlation.

Correlation Coefficient: A statistic that measures the strength and direction of a correlation, ranging from -1 to +1. A correlation of -1 or +1 indicates a perfect negative or positive correlation, respectively, while 0 means no correlation.

Strong Correlation: A correlation that is close to -1 or +1, indicating a strong relationship between the variables.

Weak Correlation: A correlation closer to 0, indicating a weak or no relationship between the variables.

Scatterplot: A type of graph that plots pairs of values, with one variable on the x-axis and the other on the y-axis, used to visually represent the relationship between two variables.

Line of Best Fit (Regression Line): A line drawn through a scatterplot that minimizes the distance of all data points from the line, helping to show the overall trend in the data.

Positive Correlation (in Scatterplot): When the line of best fit slopes upward from left to right, indicating that as one variable increases, the other variable also increases.

Negative Correlation (in Scatterplot): When the line of best fit slopes downward, indicating that as one variable increases, the other variable decreases.

Inferential Statistics: A branch of statistics used to make inferences or generalizations about a larger population based on a sample. It helps determine if the findings can be applied beyond the sample studied.

Descriptive Statistics: Statistics that summarize and describe the features of a dataset, without making inferences about the larger population.

Sampling Error: The difference between a sample and the population from which it was drawn, which can impact the generalizability of the results.

Representative Sample: A sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population it is drawn from, essential for making valid inferences about the larger group.

Sampling: The process of selecting a subset of individuals from a larger population to represent that population in a study.

p-Value: The probability that the difference between groups is due to chance. A p-value of 0.05 or less is considered statistically significant, meaning there is only a 5% chance the results occurred by chance.

Statistical Significance: The likelihood that the results of a study are not due to chance. It is typically considered significant if the p-value is 0.05 or lower.

Practical Significance: The real-world importance or size of the effect, regardless of statistical significance. A result may be statistically significant but have little practical importance if the effect size is small.

Effect Size: A measure of the strength or magnitude of an effect, used to assess practical significance. Larger effect sizes indicate stronger, more meaningful results.

Replication Crisis: A situation in science, including psychology, where many studies have failed to replicate, leading to doubts about the reliability of certain research findings.

Meta-Analysis: A research method that combines the results of multiple studies on the same topic to determine the overall effect and provide a more reliable estimate of the effect.

Peer Review: The process by which a research paper is reviewed by experts in the field before publication, ensuring the quality and accuracy of the research.

Animal Research Ethical Guidelines: Clear scientific purpose, answer a specific, important question, best-suited animals, humane care and housing, legally acquired animals, minimize suffering.

Human Research Ethical Guidelines: No coercion (voluntary participation), informed consent, deception (minimal), confidentiality (or anonymity), no significant risk, debriefing.