Chapter 2

Question 1

Prefrontal Lobotomy

Answer 1

Surgical procedure that severs fibres connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the thalamus

Question 2

Heuristic

Answer 2

A mental shortcut, Rule of Thumb

Question 3

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 3

Watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate people’s behaviour

Question 4

Internal Validity

Answer 4

The extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences

Question 5

External Validity

Answer 5

The extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

Question 6

Case Study

Answer 6

Researchers examine one person or a small number of people, oftenover an extended period of time

Question 7

Existence Proofs

Answer 7

Demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur

Question 8

Random Selection

Answer 8

Every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate

Question 9

Reliability

Answer 9

Consistency of measurement

Question 10

Validity

Answer 10

Extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure

Question 11

Correlational Design

Answer 11

Examine the extent to which two variables are associated

Question 12

Illusory Correlation

Answer 12

The perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists

Question 13

Experiment

Answer 13

Research design characterized with random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an IV

Question 14

Random Assignment

Answer 14

Randomly sorting participants into groups

Question 15

Exprimental Group

Answer 15

The group of participants in an experiment that receives manipulation

Question 16

Control Group

Answer 16

The group of participants in an experiment that doesn’t receive manipulation

Question 17

Operational Definition

Answer 17

A working definition of what a researcher is measuring

Question 18

Placebo

Answer 18

Improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement

Question 19

Blind

Answer 19

Unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group

Question 20

Experimenter Expectancy Effect

Answer 20

Phenomenon where researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias theoutcome of a study

Question 21

Double-Blind

Answer 21

Neither researchers nor participants are aware of who’s in the experimental or control group

Question 22

Demand Characteristics

Answer 22

Cues that participants pick up that allow them to generate a guess on the researcher’s hypothesis

Question 23

Informed Consent

Answer 23

Informing research participants of what is involved in a study before asking them to participate

Question 24

Central Tendency

Answer 24

Measure of the central scores in a data set

Question 25

Mean

Answer 25

Average

Question 26

Median

Answer 26

Middle score in a data set

Question 27

Mode

Answer 27

Most frequent score

Question 28

Variability

Answer 28

How loosely or tightly bunched scores are

Question 29

Range

Answer 29

Difference between the highest and lowest scores

Question 30

Standard Deviation

Answer 30

Measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean

Question 31

Inferential Statistics

Answer 31

Methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population

Question 32

Base Rate

Answer 32

How common a characteristic or behaviour is in the general population

Question 33

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 33

high in external validity

Question 34

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 34

low in internal validity. Doesn't allow us to infer causation

Question 35

case studies

Answer 35

can provide existence proofs. Allows us to study rare or unusual phenomena. Can offer insights for later systemic testing

Question 36

case studies

Answer 36

are typically anecdotal. Don't allow us to infer causation

Question 37

Correlational Design

Answer 37

can help us to predict behavious

Question 38

Correlational Design

Answer 38

don't allow us to infer causation

Question 39

experimental designs

Answer 39

allow us to infer causation. High in internal validity

Question 40

experimental designs

Answer 40

can sometimes be low in external validity