Unit 2 AP Psych

Because of hindsight bias, judgmental overconfidence, our tendency to perceive patterns in random events overestimates our intuition.

‘i knew it all along’ phenomenon, tendency to believe that one would have foreseen it after learning the outcome

because of our eagerness to make sense of the world

awareness of our own vulnerability to error & an openness to surprises & new perspectives

skepticism, curiosity, humility

a passion to explore and understand

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments. It examines assumptions, assesses the source, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence & assesses conclusions

results partly from our bias to seek information that confirms our judgements

keeps us from accepting ideas without sound support

a self correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis

an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations & predicts behaviors/events.

a testable prediction, often implied by a theory

Theories produce hypotheses.

a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study, important for replication

repeating the essence of a research study with different participants/situations to see if the basic findings extends to other circumstances.

describe behaviors (case study, survey, observations)

associate different factors/variables

manipulate variables to discover effects

a descriptive technique in which one individual is studied in depth to reveal universal principles

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate/control the situation, a descriptive technique

a technique for finding the self-reported attitudes/behaviors of a particular group by asking questions

flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample

all those in a group being studied

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

describe, but do not explain behavior as these methods don’t control the variables that affect behavior

no hypothesis, non random sample, no operational definition

measure of the extent to which 2 variables change together & how well either variable predicts the other

a statistical index of the relationship between 2 variables (from -1.0 to +1.0), reveals the extent to which things relate

graphed clusters of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables

suggests the direction of the relationship between 2 variables

suggests the strength of the correlation, little scatter = high correlation

sets of scores relate inversely, one set goes up, one goes down

both sets go in the same direction

-

perception of a relationship when none exists

research method in which an investigator manipulates one/more factors to observe the effect on some behavior processes

the group exposed to the treatment

the group not exposed to the treatment, serves as comparison

assigning participants to groups by chance to minimize preexisting differences

experimental procedure in which participants & staff are blind about the treatments groups received, used in drug evaluation studies

experimental results caused by expectations alone

the experimental factor that is being manipulated

factors apart from the independent variable that might produce effects in experiments

outcome factor, variable that changes due to the manipulation of the independent factor

extent to which an experiment measures what it is supposed to

when scores are closer to -1 or +1

numerical data used to measure & describe characteristics of groups (organizes data meaningfully)

bar graph depicting a frequency distribution

a single score that represents a whole set of scores

the most frequently occurring score (simplest measure)

arithmetic average - sum of scores/total scores (most common)

middle score in a distribution, half are above, half below

could distort the mean

representation of scores that lack symmetry around the average value

Low variability is more reliable

difference between highest and lowest scores

computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

form a symmetrical, bell shaped curve

normal distribution, symmetrical bell-shaped curve, most scores fall near the mean

numerical data that allows one to generalize, helps us determine if results can be generalized to other populations

• Depends on the population sampled (representative is better than random)

• Less variable observations (average is better)

• More cases are better than fewer

a statistical statement of how likely it is that the result has been obtained by chance

measure of variation

to test theoretical principles

W - Western

E - Educated

I - Industrialized

R - Rich

D - Democratic

shared ideas & behaviors that one generation passes on to the next

emphasizes group goals

prioritizes individual goals

1. obtain potential participants informed consent

2. protect them from physical/emotional harm

3. keep participants’ information confidential

4. fully debrief

ethical principle that participants be told enough to choose whether they wish to participate

post experimental explanation of a study

compares different groups for one point in time

follows one group and gathers data over a long time