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| a saying or a description in which you use a concept to help better explain an idea typically using "like" or "as" |
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| metaphysical explanations |
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| explanations that violate physical laws, primarily by attributing behavior or experiences to nonphysical forces such as spirits or deities. ex) animism, mythology and religion, and astrology. |
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| the belief that natural phenomena are alive and influence behavior. ex) |
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| both make assumptions that deities who exist in some of spiritual rather than physical plane, play an important role in human behavior. |
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| first practiced by ancient Egyptians, makes the assumptions that human behavior is determined by the activity of celestial bodies |
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| refers to the study of knowledge, behavior, and the nature of reality by making use of logic, intuition, and empirical observations |
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| idea based on only observations that can be made with absolute certainty |
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| the idea that the best way to learn is to make observations. became one of the core assumptions of the scientific method |
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| the study of the functions of and interrelations between different parts of the brain and body |
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| scientific method used to answer research questions |
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| both experimental and scientific. basically the scientific study of human behavior. |
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| fundamental principles that are more or less accepted on faith |
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| the doctrine that the universe is orderly. the idea that all events have meaningful, systematic causes. |
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| simply a statement about the causal relation between two or more variables |
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| says we should be extremely frugal in developing or choosing between theories by steering away from unnecessary concepts. makes it intellectually inappropriate to make more assumptions than needed |
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| the most important canon of science that is the assumption that scientific theories should be testable using currently available research techniques |
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| the idea that scientists should go a step beyond putting their theories to some kind of test by actively seeking out tests that could prove their theories wrong |
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| definitions of theoretical constructs that are stated in terms of concrete, observable procedures |
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| a universal statement of the nature of things that allows reliable predictions of future events |
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| the notion that the same behavior is often produced by many different causes |
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| predictions about specific events that are derived from one or more theories |
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| making many observations under controlled conditions and arriving at a general statement about how things are |
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| you can never make too many observations to prove that your law is true |
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| reasoning from the general to the specific. Deduction occurs in science when a general statement (a theory) is used to develop predictions (hypotheses) |
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| refers to the tendency for people who are evaluating hypotheses to attempt to confirm rather than to disconfirm these hypotheses |
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| the tendency for social perceivers to elicit behaviors from a person that are consistent with their initial expectancies of the person |
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| an approach to hypothesis testing in which researchers attempt to gather evidence that supports or confirms a theory or hypothesis |
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| an approach to hypothesis testing in which researchers try to identify the boundarys conditions under which a theory or hypothesis is and is not true |
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| reasoning form the specific to the general |
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| a inductive approach to generating research hypotheses that tries to account for paradoxical incidents (puzzling or nonsensical observations) |
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| carefully documented observations of a specific group or person |
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| analyzing the practitioner's rule of thumb |
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| analyzing things that experts in a particular area do to achieve certain outcomes |
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| a deductive argument where you draw an analogy between two things |
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| applying a functional or adaptive analysis |
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| a deductive argument that researches use by asking themselves basic questions about what organisms have to do to successfully master their environments |
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| hypothetico-deductive method |
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| a deductive argument where you begin with a set of a bassic assumptions (or observations) and then derive one or more logical consequences from these basic principles |
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| acounting for conflicting results |
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| aacounting for exceptions |
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| the idea that some greater good must c ome from psychologists' use of human subjects in their studies. At the least, this means that subjects shuold get something back for participating |
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| internal review boards (IRBs) |
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| perform risk-benefit analyses to ensure that all studies meet consensual community standards of ethical behavior at universities |
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| of a psychological statement refers to the relative accuracy or correctness of the statement |
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| refers to the extent to which a set of research findings provides compelling information about causality |
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| for one variable to cause another, changes in one variable must correspond with changes in the other (ex: high levels of frustration often goes hand in hand with high levels of aggression) |
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| saying that if we want to argue that changes in one variable causes changes in a second, the changes in the first variable must precede the changes in the second |
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| refers to the extent to which a set of research findings provdies an accurate description of what typically happens in the real world |
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| trained research assistant |
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| refers to the extent to which the independent and dependent variables in a study truly represents the abstract, hypothetical variables of interest to the researcher |
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| refers to how well a specific research hypothesis maps ontot he broader theory that it was desgined to test |
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| refers to the consistency or repeatability of a measure or observation |
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| a way to assess the reliability of a meausre by measuring (or testing) a group of indivudals at one time and then having them come back a second time to take the test again |
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| interobserver agreement (interrater reliability) |
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| referst ot he degree tow hich different judges independently agree upon an observation or judgment |
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| nominal or categorical scale |
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| the simplest kind of measurement scale (or the "lowest level"). nominal scales are scales that invovle meaningful but potentially arbitrary |
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| scales that involve order or ranking |
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| measurement scales that make use of real numbers designating amounts to reflect relative differences in magnitude |
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| very much like interval scales except that they have a true zero point |
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| a research design in which someone tests a claim about a variable by exposing epople to the variable of interest and noting that these people feel, think or behave as expected |
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| sampling people from an unrepresentative sample (by using imperfect sampling techniques) |
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| closely related to selection bias except that the respondents themselves are the source of the bias in this case |
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| refers to changes that occur more or less across the board in a very large group of people such as a nation or culture |
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| referst ot he specific development or experiential changes that occur in a particiular person, or a particular age cohort over time |
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| regression toward the mean |
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| the tendency for people who recieve high or low scores on a particular measure to score closer tot he mean on a subsequent testing |
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| the increases in productivity that occur when workers know they are being studied |
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| the tendency for most participants to perform better on a test or personality measure the second time they take it |
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| experimental mortality or attrition |
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| the failure of some of the participants in an experiment to complete the study. This problem can represent a threat to internal validity, a threat to external validity, or a threat to both |
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| studies in which there is an equal level of attrition across all of the experimental conditions |
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| is a serious threat to internal validity, and occurs when the attrition rates in two or more conditions of an experiment are noticeably different |
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| participant reaction bias |
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| the bias that occurs when people realise that they are being studied and behave in ways that the normally wouldn't |
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| a form of participant reaction bias. this occurs when participants, consciously or unconsciously, try to behave in ways they believe to be conistent with the experimenter's hypthoesis |
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| characteristics of an experiment itself that subtly suggest how people are expected to behave (often play a role in the operation of participant expectancies) |
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| the tendency of participants to try to disconfirm an experimenter's hypothesis represents a second form of participant reaction bias |
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| third form of participant reaction bias that refers to people;s concerns about being judged favorably or unfavorably by another person. Cause people to do whatever they expect will portray them in a favorable light |
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| a false and often elvaborate story about the nature and purpose of the study |
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| when experimenters' expectations about their studies bias their experimental observations. |
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| in which both the experimenter and the ressearch participants are kept unaware of the participants' treatment conditions |
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| a broad term used to identify any situation in which some additional variable varies systematically with the independent variable and also varies systematically with the dependent variable |
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| term for important but overlooked variables that are held constant in a givens tudy or set of studies. serious threat tot he validity of a set of research findings |
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| a body of data collected form every (or virtually every) member of a population of interest |
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| identify a subset of people in the population who are then studied |
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| uses random selection (or random sampling) to identify a sample of people to be surveyed |
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| still a population sruvey but it uses a modified version of random selection |
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| by performing statistical calculations, survey researchers estimate how much error is likely to exist in any specific set of population survey findings. This is the error that may have gone into the estimate |
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| the scientific study of the causes of disease |
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| refers to descriptive studies that focus primarily on the prevalence of different psychological disorders within meaningful, well-defined populations |
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| research desgined to determine the attitudes and preferences of specific populations, such as voters or consumer |
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| research designed to assess consumers' attitudes about and preferences for different products and services |
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| to generate a fixed set of observations about a group of people and to test hypotheses about the associations between different variables (testing theories and hypotheses by looking at the associations of variables in natural settings) |
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| occurs when a variable (such as depression) seems to cause something because people who are high or low on this variable aslo happen to be high or low on some individual differense variable that is associated with the outcome variable of interest |
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| every much like person confounds except that they refer to environmental (situational) rather than personological nuisance variables |
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| occur when a measure designed to assess a specific construct such as depression, memory or foot size inadvertently measures somethign else as well |
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| when researchers follow people over time and make repeated assessments of the variables in which they are interested |
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| refers to research in which investigators examine naturally existing public records to test a theory or hypothesis |
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| research in which investigators record the real behavior of people in their natural environments |
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| occurs when an experimenter systematically alters the levels of a variable |
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| involves placing people in conditions on a totally arbitrary bias. in studies that use exerpiemtnal maipulations, this means that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any specific condition of an experiment |
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| occur when an experimenter unwittingly maipulates two or more things at once. They happen when somethign that the experimenter did not intend ( a seemingly innocuous or tangential aspect of a procedure) is allowed to covary with the independent variable |
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| refers to the finding that people recognize most words more quickly than usual when they have just been exposed to words that have a similar meaning |
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| studies that physically resemble the real word. to increase mundane realism, simply make a study as similar as possible to the real world setting you care about |
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| refers to the degree to which a research study is psychologically meaningful to reserach participants |
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| a check on your manipulation( a measure taken to see if participants in different experiemtnal conditions were, in fact, experiencing different levels of the variable you were hoping to manipulate) |
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| research designs in which researchers have only partial control over their independent variables. strictly speaking, this means that participants are assigned to one or more conditions in a study by some means other than random assignment |
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| person-by-treatment qasi-experiment |
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| designs in which the researcher measures at least one independent variable and manipulates at least one other independent variable. |
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| quasi-experiments that involve naturally occurring manipulations |
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| all our participants are in one group, the group that receives the quasi-experimental treatment |
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| researchers look at long runs of data to show equivalence prior to a quasi-manipulation |
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| pschologists break one or more groups into additional subgroups to test for subgroup differences that are consistent with the focal theory or with conpeting theories |
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| refers to the finding that people like letters that occur in their own names quite a bit more than they like letters that do not |
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| there is only one independent variable (experimental manipulation) and this variable has only two levels. Often consists of an experimental group and a control group |
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| one-way, muliple-groups design |
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| there is only a signel independent variable, but the independent variable takes on three or more levels |
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| designs that contain 2 or more independent variables that are completely crossed, meaning that every level of every independent variable appears in combination iwth every level of every other independet variable |
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| the simple, straightforward effects of independent variables in factorial studies |
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| exist when the effect of one independent variable on a dependent variable depends on the level of a second independent variable |
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| ordinal or spreading interaction |
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| when an effect exits at one level of a second independent variable but is weaker or nonexistenct at a different level of the second independent variable |
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| designs in which each participant serves in one and only one condition of an experiment |
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| within-subjects or repeated measures designs |
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| those in which each particpant serves in more than one (perhaps all) of the conditions of a study |
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| occur when the simple passage of time begins to take its toll on people's responses (ex: when people get bored or tired) |
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| occur when people's responses to one stimulus in a study directly influence their responses to a second stimulus |
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| a particular kind of carrover effect that occurs when a wuestion takes on a different meaning when it follows one question than when it follows another |
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| a carryover effect that occurs when participants knowingly or unknowingly learn something by performing an experimental task. It may make it easier for the to perform a different task that comes along later |
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| when performing one task disrupts people's performance on a second task |
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| a useful control technique for reducing or elimination both sequence and carryover effects. This is a method of control whereby the researcher varies the order in which participants experience the different conditions of a within-subjects study |
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| complete counterbalancing |
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| researchers who use this technique present every possible order of all their experimental treatment conditions |
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| researchers who use this technique simply generate a single order (either a meaningful order or a random order) and then they reverse it. This not only produces two different orders, but it also guarantees that the average serial position of any given condition in a study is exactly the same for all the unique conditions |
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| a second general category of incomplete counterbalancing that invovles choosing a limited number of orders (say 10 or 12) at random from the pool of all possible orders. In this way, the experimenter is using random selection and choosing a sample of oders from the entire population of possible orders. |
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| an interview conducted with participants immediately after they have completed a study to determine exactly what they thought the researcher expected to find |
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| mixed or mixed-model designs |
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| desings in what least one independent variable is manipulated on a between-sbjects basis and at least one other independent variable is manipulated on a within subjects basis |
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