click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
Psychology Chapter 2
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Naturalistic observation | Research method in which the psychologist observes the subject in a natural setting without interfering. |
| Case study | Research method that involves an intensive investigation of one or more participants. |
| Longitudinal study | Research method in which data are collected about a group of participants over a number of years to assess how certain characteristics change or remain the same during development. |
| Cross-sectional study | Research method in which data are collected from groups of participants of different ages and compared so that conclusions can be drawn about differences due to age. |
| Correlation | The measure of a relationship between two variables or sets of data. |
| Variable | Any factor that is capable of change. |
| Experimental group | The group to which an independent variable is applied. |
| Control group | The group that is treated in the same way as the experimental group except that the experimental treatment (the independent variable) is not applied. |
| Self-fulfilling prophecy | A situation in which a researcher’s expectations influence that person’s own behavior, and thereby influence the participant’s behavior. |
| Single-blind experiment | An experiment in which the participants are unaware of who received the treatment. |
| Double-blind experiment | An experiment in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know which participants received which treatment. |
| Placebo effect | A change in a participant’s illness or behavior that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than from the actual treatment. |
| Frequency distribution | An arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs. |
| Normal curve | A graph of frequency distribution shaped like a symmetrical, bell-shaped curve; a graph of normally distributed data. |
| Central tendency | A number that describes something about the “average” score of a distribution variance. |
| Standard deviation | A measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean. |
| Variance | A measure of variability that is the mean of the squares of the deviations from the mean of the set of data. |
| Correlation coefficient | Describes the direction and strength of the relationship between two sets of variables. |
| Inferential statistics | Numerical methods used to determine whether research data support a hypothesis or whether results were due to chance. |