Definitions

Question 1

Method of posing questions to people with the goal of understanding relationship between variables.

Answer 1

Survey

Question 2

Asking two questions in one.

“Do you like pizza and agree that tacos should always have cheese?”

Answer 2

Double-Barreled Questions

Question 3

A question which offers alternatives that the responder must choose from.

“Of the following, which best describes your relationship with pizza?”

Answer 3

Close-Ended

Question 4

A question to which the responder provides their own answer.

“What is your opinion on coffee?”

Answer 4

Open-Ended

Question 5

A rating scale which uses numeric rating with words, most commonly 5 points to choose from.
Ex. Strongly Agee (1) - Strongly disagree (7)

Answer 5

Likert Rating Scale

Question 6

A scale which you can select anywhere along the line.

“Studying is: Enjoyable - - - - - - - - I - Not Enjoyable”

Answer 6

Graphic Rating Scale

Question 7

A scale which incorporates the question and answer into one.

“The effects of smoking are: Harmless (1), Okay (2), Annoying (3), Horrible (4), Deadly (5)”

Answer 7

Semantic Differential Scale

Question 8

A scale which uses images instead of words.

“Which of the following faces best represents your mood?”

Answer 8

Non-verbal scale

Question 9

A shortcut used on long surveys where people are answering in a specific manner instead of responding to the actual content.

Answer 9

Response Set

Question 10

A response set in which respondents play it safe by answering in the middle of the scale.

Answer 10

Fence-sitting

Question 11

A response set in which people answer ‘yes’ or ‘agree’ to everything.

Answer 11

Yea-Saying

Question 12

A response set in which people answer according to what they believe is the socially acceptable answer.

Answer 12

Faking Good

Question 13

A construct validity threat in which observers expectations influence their interpretation of participants behaviour or the overall outcome of a study.

Answer 13

Observer bias

Question 14

A construct validity threat in which participants conform to observer expectations.

Answer 14

Observer effects

Question 15

A research design in which observers are unaware of the conditions to which participants have been assigned or what the study is about

Answer 15

Masked Research Design

Question 16

A construct validity threat in which participants behaviour changes due to the presence of an observer

Answer 16

Reactivity

Question 17

An association between two variables

Answer 17

Correlation

Question 18

The strength of an association

Answer 18

Effect Size

Question 19

How likely it is that a correlation is not due to chance

Answer 19

Statistical Significance

Question 20

A value which helps evaluate the probability of whether a sample’s association came from a population in which the association is zero

Answer 20

p Value

Question 21

Extreme scores which stand out from the rest and can pull results towards them

Answer 21

Outliers

Question 22

Lack of variability in responses, not a full enough range of scores on a particular variable

Answer 22

Restriction of Range

Question 23

When results end up with mostly high scores

Answer 23

Ceiling Effect

Question 24

When results end up with mostly low scores

Answer 24

Floor Effect

Question 25

A change in behaviour that emerges more or less spontaneously over time

Answer 25

Maturation Threat

Question 26

An external event that effects most members of the treatment group at the same time

Answer 26

History Threat

Question 27

When a performance is extreme (low or high) due to random chance and scores regress back to the mean (average) during subsequent testing

Answer 27

Regression Threat

Question 28

Reduction in participant numbers that occurs when people drop out before the end of a study

Answer 28

Attrition Threat

Question 29

Change in the participants as a result of taking a test more than once (practice, fatigue effects)

Answer 29

Testing Threats

Question 30

When an instrument changes over time or is not precise at measuring what its supposed to

Answer 30

Instrumentation Threat

Question 31

When participants guess what the study is supposed to be about and change their behaviour in the expected direction

Answer 31

Demand Characteristics

Question 32

When people receive treatment and improve but only because they believe they are receiving a valid treatment

Answer 32

Placebo Effect

Question 33

Separate dependent variable used to make sure the manipulation of a variable worked

Answer 33

Manipulation Check

Question 34

Any factor that can inflate or deflate a person's true score on a dependent measure

Answer 34

Measurement Error

Question 35

When a study is repeated as closely as possible to the original just with a new sample

Answer 35

Direct Replication

Question 36

When a study is repeated with the same hypothesis and variables but the method is changed

Answer 36

Conceptual Replication

Question 37

When a study is repeated with the same hypothesis and method but a new variable is added

Answer 37

Replication with Extension

Question 38

A way of mathematically averaging the results of all studies that have tested the same variable to see what conclusion that whole body of evidence supports

Answer 38

Meta-Analysis

Question 39

The idea that a meta-analysis might be overestimating the true size of an effect because null effects have not been included in the collection process

Answer 39

File Drawer Problem

Question 40

Logical process of using data from a sample to make inferences about some population as a whole

Answer 40

Inferential Statistics

Question 41

Point at which researchers place the p-value to determine whether or not to reject a hypothesis

Answer 41

Alpha Level

Question 42

A test which allows researchers to test whether the difference between two group means in an independent-group design is statistically significant

Answer 42

t Test

Question 43

Concluding that there IS an effect in a population when there is NO effect

Answer 43

Type I Error

Question 44

Concluding there is NO effect in a population when there IS an effect

Answer 44

Type II Error

Question 45

Designs with two or more independent varibales

Answer 45

Factorial Design

Question 46

The simplest factorial design

Answer 46

2 x 2 Factorial Design

Question 47

Each independent variables potential effect

Answer 47

Main Effect

Question 48

When one thing changes because of another variable

Answer 48

Interaction

Question 49

A design in which all levels receive different groups of people

Answer 49

Independent group design

Question 50

A design in which one group receives all levels of a study

Answer 50

Repeated measure design

Question 51

A design which is used when random assignment can not be done

Answer 51

Quasi-Experimental design

Question 52

A control group which receives treatment later

Answer 52

Parallel group

Question 53

A design which is usually focused only on a single case (or select few)

Answer 53

Small-N design

Question 54

The extent to which the subjects in a study represent the population they are intended to represent - how well the setting in a study represent other settings or contexts

Answer 54

Generalizability

Question 55

Aspect of external validity in which the focus is on whether a laboratory study generalizes to real-world settings

Answer 55

Ecological Validity

Question 56

Laboratory research which is just as realistic as the real world

Answer 56

Experimental Realism

Question 57

All other things equal, the simplest solution is the best

Answer 57

Parsimony (Occam's Razor)

Question 58

When we accept a conclusion because it appears to make sense

Answer 58

Swayed by a Good Story

Question 59

When we are persuaded by what comes easiest to mind, can lead us to overestimate frequency

Answer 59

Availability Heuristic

Question 60

When we fail to think about what we can not see and focus only on what is readily present

Answer 60

Present/Present Bias

Question 61

When we don't want to let go of our beliefs so we seek out information that supports them

Answer 61

Focusing on Evidence we Like Best

Question 62

Asking only questions that lead to a particular, expected response

Answer 62

Confirmatory Hypothesis Testing

Question 63

Belief that we are unlikely to fall prey to cognitive biases

Answer 63

Bias Blind Spot

Question 64

Something that could vary but only has one level in a study

Answer 64

Constant

Question 65

Variable whose levels are measured

Answer 65

Dependent Variable

Question 66

Variable whose levels are manipualted

Answer 66

Independent Variable

Question 67

Turning a concept of interest into a measured or manipulated variable

Answer 67

Operationalize

Question 68

Variables with no meaningful numeric value

Answer 68

Categorical (nominal)

Question 69

A claim which describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable

Answer 69

Frequency Claim

Question 70

A claim which argues that one level of a variable is linked with a particular level of another variable

Answer 70

Association Claim

Question 71

A claim which argues that one variable is responsible for changing the other

Answer 71

Causal Claim

Question 72

How well the variables in a study are measured or manipulated

Answer 72

Construct Validity

Question 73

The extent to which results of a study generalize to some larger population as well as other situations

Answer 73

External Validity

Question 74

The strength of an effect and its statistical significance

Answer 74

Statistical Validity

Question 75

The extent to which a third variable is not responsible for the outcome of a study

Answer 75

Internal Validity

Question 76

Statistical tool used to organize and summarize the properties of a set of data

Answer 76

Descriptive Statistics

Question 77

A measure of what value the individual scores tend to center on

Answer 77

Central Tendency

Question 78

The most common score

Answer 78

Mode

Question 79

The value of the middlemost score

Answer 79

Median

Question 80

The average score

Answer 80

Mean

Question 81

Computation that captures how far, on average, each score is from the mean

Answer 81

Standard Deviation

Question 82

Computation that quantifies how spread out scores of a sample are around their mean

Answer 82

Variance

Question 83

A variable whose values can be recorded as meaningful numbers

Answer 83

Quantitative Variable

Question 84

A scale whose levels represent ranked order in which it is unclear the distance between levels Example: Handing in exams in a pile- can determine order but not time between each

Answer 84

Ordinal Scale

Question 85

A scale which has no true zero and numbers represent equal intervals Example: IQ - difference between numbers are equal but you can't have zero intelligence

Answer 85

Interval scale

Question 86

A scale whose numerals have equal intervals but the value of zero really means nothing Examples: How many time someone sneezes

Answer 86

Ratio scale

Question 87

How consistent a measure is at measuring what its supposed to measure

Answer 87

Reliability

Question 88

The consistency in results every time a measure is used

Answer 88

Test-Retest Reliability

Question 89

The degree to which two or more observers give consistent ratings

Answer 89

Interrater Reliability

Question 90

The consistency in answers no matter how a question is phrased

Answer 90

Internal Reliability

Question 91

A measures accuracy in measuring what its supposed to

Answer 91

Validity

Question 92

The extent to which a measure is subjectively considered valid due to how it appears

Answer 92

Face Validity

Question 93

The extent to which a measure captures all parts of a defined construct

Answer 93

Content Validity

Question 94

The extent to which a measure is correlated with a behaviour or concrete outcome it should be related to

Answer 94

Criterion Validity

Question 95

Extent to which a measure is associated with other measures of a theoretically similar construct

Answer 95

Convergent Validity

Question 96

Extent to which a measure does not associate strongly with measures of theoretically different constructs

Answer 96

Discriminant Validity

Question 97

Degree to which the causal variable is related to the effect

Answer 97

Covariance

Question 98

Degree to which the causal variable comes before the effect variable in time

Answer 98

Temporal Precedence

Question 99

Alternative explanations

Answer 99

Confounds

Question 100

Participants in one levels are systematically different than those in the other

Answer 100

Selection effects