Question 1

What is quantitative research?

Accepted Answer

Research that uses precise measurements and statistical techniques to draw conclusions from numerical data

(correlational studies)

Question 2

What is qualitative research?

Accepted Answer

Research that collects non-numerical data

Question 3

What is a correlation coefficient?

Accepted Answer

A number that represents how strongly two variables are correlated

(closer to -1 or +1 means a stronger correlation)

Question 4

What is a positive correlation?

Accepted Answer

When one variable increases, so does the other

(correlation coefficient above 0)

Question 5

What is a negative correlation?

Accepted Answer

When one variable increases, the other decreases

(a correlation coefficient below 0)

Question 6

What is naturalistic observation?

Accepted Answer

Research method that attempts to document behavior as it occurs in a real setting

(qualitative)

Question 7

What is structured observation?

Accepted Answer

Research conducted in a laboratory setting, where the researcher can control the environment

Question 8

What is coding in psychology research?

Accepted Answer

Classification of behaviors into categories

Question 9

What is inter-rater reliability?

Accepted Answer

Having multiple people/researchers assess a characteristic and getting similar values

(if different researchers get very different values, the data is not reliable)

Question 10

What is participant observation?

Accepted Answer

Research where the researcher becomes a member of the studied group (either overtly or covertly)

Question 11

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Accepted Answer

Phenomena of research subjects altering their behavior when they know they are being observed

Question 12

What is a longitudinal study?

Accepted Answer

Research design that examines how individuals develop by studying the same people for a long period of time

Question 13

What is a cross-sectional study?

Accepted Answer

Research design comparing groups of different ages to make conclusions about development

Question 14

What is a case study?

Accepted Answer

Research design involving an detailed examination of a single subject, such as an individual or group

Question 15

What is a survey?

Accepted Answer

A research method involving a list of questions for participants to fill out

Question 16

What is non-response bias?

Accepted Answer

Distortion of data that occurs when people who don't want to take a survey have a factor that makes them very different than people who would take the survey

Question 17

What is surveyor bias?

Accepted Answer

Distortion of data that occurs when survey questions are written in a way that prompts a certain answer

Question 18

What are experiments?

Accepted Answer

Procedures used to test a hypothesis

Question 19

What is a hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

A testable explanation for a phenomenon

Question 20

What is a controlled experiment?

Accepted Answer

Experiment where aspects are manipulated to test a hypothesis

Question 21

What is a field experiment?

Accepted Answer

Experiments conducted in the real world, without being able to manipulate events

Question 22

What is a natural experiment/quasi-experiment?

Accepted Answer

An experiment where researchers sit back and rely on natural variations for their observations

Question 23

What are independent variables?

Accepted Answer

Factors that the researcher manipulates

Question 24

What are dependant variables?

Accepted Answer

Factors the researcher measures

(depend on the independent variable)

Question 25

What are control variables?

Accepted Answer

Factors the research keeps constant

Question 26

What are confounding variables?

Accepted Answer

Factors other than the independent variables that influence dependent variables

Question 27

What is the placebo effect?

Accepted Answer

Psychological phenomenon that causes someone to be treated, simply believing they have been treated

Question 28

What is a placebo?

Accepted Answer

An imitation of a real treatment that has no effect, such as a sugar pill

Question 29

What is a single-blind experiment?

Accepted Answer

Experiment where researchers know which group is experimental/control, but participants do not

Question 30

What is a double-blind experiment?

Accepted Answer

An experiment where neither researchers nor participants know which group is the control/experimental group

(Researchers know after they make conclusions)

Question 31

What is a sample?

Accepted Answer

A group of individuals taken from a population to participate in a study

Question 32

What is a population?

Accepted Answer

The total set of individuals researchers select samples from

Question 33

What is random sampling?

Accepted Answer

Randomly selecting individuals from a population to get a more representative sample

Question 34

What is random assignment?

Accepted Answer

Giving every participant an equal chance of being assigned to the control/experimental group

Question 35

What is internal validity?

Accepted Answer

Measure of how much an experiment investigates what it is supposed to

Question 36

What is external validity?

Accepted Answer

How much the results of an experiment are applicable to real-world situations

Question 37

What are demand characteristics?

Accepted Answer

Participants unconsciously changing their behavior in a study, to be "good participants"

Question 38

What is the observer-expectancy effect?

Accepted Answer

A phenomenon where the researcher unintentionally communicates their expectations and influences the behavior of the participants

Question 39

What is an operational definition?

Accepted Answer

A statement of procedures the researcher will use to measure a variable

Question 40

What are descriptive statistics?

Accepted Answer

Numerical values that describe patterns and characteristics in data

(such as measures of central tendency and spread)

Question 41

What are inferential statistics?

Accepted Answer

Statistics used to make generalization about a population

Question 42

What is a confidence interval?

Accepted Answer

A range of values that's likely to include the real (unknown) value, with a certain degree of confidence

Question 43

What is the null hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

The claim no relationship exists between the independent and dependant variables

Question 44

What is the alternative hypothesis?

Accepted Answer

The claim that there is a relationship between the independent and dependent variables

Question 45

What is p-value?

Accepted Answer

The probability that the null hypothesis is true, given the results of the experiment

Question 46

What is significance level?

Accepted Answer

The percentage the p-value must be below to conclude the alternative hypothesis is supported (usually 0.01 or 0.05)

Question 47

What are statistically significant results?

Accepted Answer

Results that we have confirmed to not be due to random variation

Question 48

What is a Type I error?

Accepted Answer

False-positive; rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true

Question 49

What is a Type II error?

Accepted Answer

False-negative; accepting the null hypothesis when it is false

Question 50

What is a line graph?

Accepted Answer

A type of chart that displays information as a series of points connected by straight line segments

Question 51

What is a bar graph?

Accepted Answer

Graph that uses heights of bars to represent data

Question 52

What is a histogram?

Accepted Answer

A bar graph that represents the frequency of particular data points

Question 53

What is a scatterplot?

Accepted Answer

A plot that uses dots to represent two different numerical values

Question 54

What is the line of best fit?

Accepted Answer

A straight line draw in scatter plots to show relationships between variables

Question 55

What are measures of central tendency?

Accepted Answer

Statistics that describe the center of data

(mean, median, mode)

Question 56

What is the mean of a dataset?

Accepted Answer

The average

Question 57

What is the median of a data set?

Accepted Answer

The middle value, when the data set is sorted by value

Question 58

What is the mode?

Accepted Answer

The most frequent value in a data set

Question 59

What are outliers?

Accepted Answer

Points that are extreme relative to other data in a set

Question 60

What are measures of dispersion?

Accepted Answer

Statistics that describe how spread out a dataset is

(range, variance, standard deviation)

Question 61

What is the range of a data set?

Accepted Answer

The difference between the highest and lowest value

Question 62

What is the variance of a data set?

Accepted Answer

A value that describes how much individual points differ from the average

Question 63

What is the standard deviation of a data set?

Accepted Answer

A measure of the average difference between each point and the mean

Question 64

What is informed consent?

Accepted Answer

Practice of disclosing information to participants, then obtaining consent from them before experimenting

Research, AP Psychology Flashcards