psychology as a science

Question 1

control group

Answer 1

group that has not been or will not be exposed to the independent variable.

Question 2

correlation

Answer 2

predictable relationship between two or more variables.

Question 3

correlation coefficient

Answer 3

statistic expressing the strength and nature of a relationship between two variables.

Question 4

debriefing

Answer 4

the supplying of full information to participants at the end of their participation in a research study.

Question 5

deductive reasoning

Answer 5

reasoning proceeding from broad basic principles applied to specific situations.

Question 6

dependant variable

Answer 6

condition or event that you expect to change as a result of variations in the independent variable.

Question 7

descriptive research methods

Answer 7

studies that allow researchers to demonstrate a relationship between the variables of interest, without specifying a causal relationship.

Question 8

double blind procedure

Answer 8

study in which neither the participant nor the researcher knows what treatment or procedure the participant is receiving.

Question 9

empiricial

Answer 9

group that is exposed to the independent variable.

Question 10

Hawthorn effect

Answer 10

what happens when people who are being observed in studies or at their workplace improve or change some of their behaviour simply because they are being watched or studied, not in response to an experimental manipulation.

Question 11

Hypothetico-deductive reasoning

Answer 11

process of modern science where scientists begin with an educated guess, perhaps based on previous research, about how the world works, and then set about designing small controlled observations to support or invalidate that hypothesis.

Question 12

independent variable

Answer 12

condition or event that is thought to be a factor in changing another condition or event.

Question 13

mean

Answer 13

arithmetic average of a set of scores.

Question 14

inductive reasoning

Answer 14

reasoning process proceeding from small specific situations to more general truths.

Question 15

informed consent

Answer 15

what occurs when researchers give as much information as possible about the purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits of the study so that a participant can make an informed decision about whether or not to participate.

Question 16

naturalistic observation

Answer 16

a study in which researchers directly observe people in a study behaving as they normally do.

Question 17

negative correlation

Answer 17

relationship in which, on average, scores on one variable increase as scores on another variable decrease.

Question 18

operationalize

Answer 18

to develop a working definition of a variable that allows you to test it.

Question 19

perfect correlation

Answer 19

one in which two variables are exactly related, such that low, medium, and high scores on both variables are always exactly related.

Question 20

positive correlation

Answer 20

relationship in which, on average, scores on two variables increase together.

Question 21

research ethics board (REB)

Answer 21

research oversight group that evaluates research to protect the rights of participants in the study.

Question 22

standard deviation

Answer 22

statistical index of how much scores vary within a group.

Question 23

variable

Answer 23

condition, event, or situation that is studied in an experiment.

Question 24

ungrouped frequency distribution

Answer 24

the number of times that each of the unique scores occurs in a data set is calculated.

Question 25

Frequency polygons

Answer 25

typically used to graphically represent grouped frequency distributions.

Question 26

measures of central tendency

Answer 26

to summarize a collection of data with a single number that represents the entire data set

Question 27

mean

Answer 27

it is equivalent to the (arithmetic) average of the data set.

Question 28

median

Answer 28

represents the midpoint or middle in an ordered set of data

Question 29

mode

Answer 29

which is the most frequently occurring score or observation

Question 30

measures of variability.

Answer 30

provide some idea of a typical number in a set of data, they do not tell us anything about how different the numbers in a set of data are from one another

Question 31

range

Answer 31

which is the difference between the largest and the smallest values in a data set.

Question 32

deviation score

Answer 32

exam score minus the mean

Question 33

variance

Answer 33

is the average of the squared deviation scores.

Question 34

standard deviation

Answer 34

the square root of the variance

Question 35

positively skewed

Answer 35

the average (or mean) for the distribution is considerably larger than the median value since the few extremely large salaries are included in the calculation of the mean.

Question 36

positive or direct relationship

Answer 36

Positive values of the correlation coefficient (r > 0.00)

Question 37

negative or inverse relationship

Answer 37

where the correlation coefficient is negative (i.e., r< 0.00)

Question 38

coefficient of determination

Answer 38

indicates the degree to which values on one variable can be predicted by knowing the values of the other variable.

Question 39

null hypothesis

Answer 39

the psychologist asserts that in the underlying population from which the sample was obtained, there is no difference between the average performance of individuals who might receive the drug and those who might not receive the drug

Question 40

alternative hypothesis

Answer 40

would be that in the population from which the sample was obtained, the average performance on the memory test for individuals receiving the memory drug would be better than that for individuals not receiving the drug (in other words, asserting that the memory drug is effective).