AP Psych Unit 0 Vocab

1. Hindsight bias – When someone thinks that they would have guessed the result correctly even though they didn’t and wouldn’t have.

2. Overconfidence – Overestimating how much we know about something. You’re “almost right”

3. Case study – An in-depth study and analysis with a small amount of individuals or one individuals. i.e. DID or abuse studies, because it would be unethical to conduct an experiment.

4. Naturalistic observation – A study where individuals are in their natural habitat and you record/observe discretely.

5. Correlation – A relationship between multiple variables. r is the correlation coefficient. Remember, correlation does not equal causation.

6. Meta-analysis – Combining results from multiple studies.

7. Experiment – A research method where a variable is manipulated while the others are held constant. An experiment is the only method that determines causation.

8. Hypothesis – Testable predictions that specify what results confirm and disconfirm it. Usually an if… then… statement

9. Operational definition – Concrete and quantifiable measurements to help us measure qualifiable or abstract things i.e. Sleep deprived vs # of hours of sleep.

11. Replication – Repeating the original observation with different participants, circumstances, materials. It helps us become more confident in the findings. Replication is confirmation.

12. Independent variable – The variable being manipulated, the “if” in a hypothesis.

13. Dependent variable – The variable being measured, the “then” in a hypothesis.

14. Confounding variable – An extraneous variable that could affect the findings i.e. IQ, temperature, weather, time, personality.

15. Population – The whole group you want to study and describe.

16. Random/representative sample – Every person in the entire group has an equal chance of participating, you choose people from your population at random for your sample.

17. Convenience sampling – Sampling a group thats the easiest to access.

18. Experimental group – The group that will receive the treatment.

19. Control group – The group that will not receive the treatment.

20. Placebo – A fake treatment given to individuals that looks/smells/tastes very similar to the real treatment.

21. Single-blind – The subjects don’t know what group they are in, but the researcher is aware of what group they are in.

22. Double-blind – Neither the subject nor researcher is aware of what group anyone is in.

23. Experimenter bias – The experimenter’s beliefs and biases affect the outcomes of the research.

24. Social desirability bias – The findings or experimenter presents things in a way that will be more acceptable to people even if it’s not the truth.

25. Likert scales – A numerical scale that rates opinions, attitudes, moviations, etc. One extreme attitude to another. i.e. 1–5, 1 is Strongly agree, 5 is strongly disagree.

26. Structured interviews – Set questions are asked to each individual to collect data.

27. Directionality problem – A could cause B, or B could cause A. We don’t know what variable causes what.

28. Third variable problem – There could be a potential third variable that causes A and B and we wouldn’t know because correlation doesn’t tell us this.

29. Wording effects – Effects caused by order or syntax of words used in questions, answers, etc.

30. Self-report bias – Whenever people are asked to report their feelings and behaviors they tend to dilute or over/underestimate themselves.

31. Peer review – People and scholars read over a work and edit it before it gets published.

32. Institutional review board – An organization in each institution that aims to ensure the experiments are safe. They try to minimize harm.

33. Informed consent – Participants need to be informed of the study, possible risks and harms, along with the (sometimes false) hypothesis. They need to be given the option to leave at any time, and if they were originally supposed to get compensation, they still have to receive it.

34. Informed assent – Minors cannot consent on their own, so they need a parent/guardian above the age of 18 to consent for them.

35. Debriefing – The research needs to be explained afterwards along with clearing up deceptions used.

36. Regression towards the mean – When things sampled above or below the mean get closer to the mean in more and more trials.

37. Normal curve – Bell-shaped and symmetrical, the median, mean, and mode are similar.

38. Bimodal distribution – When the data distribution has two peaks compared to one.

39. Inferential statistics – A way for us to determine if the data and differences are reliable and statistically significant.

40. Effect sizes – measuring the magitude of significance of a relationship. i.e. Cohen’s d is the number of standard deviation units between two means.

41. Correlation coefficient – r, indicates strength of relationship (not causation). The closer r is to positive one, the stronger the direct relationship is. The closer r is to negative one, the stronger the inverse relationship is. The closer r is to 0, the weaker the relationship.

42.Statistical significance – The differences between the samples is probably not due to chance