Psychology 100 - Final Exam (Chapter 2)
What is a case study?
An in-depth analysis of the behaviour of one person or small number of people
What is confirmation bias?
The tendency to notice and remember instances that support your beliefs more than instances that contradict them
What are confounding variables?
Variables that are irrelevant to the hypothesis being tested but can alter a researcher's conclusions
What is a construct?
A hypothetical internal attribute that cannot be directly observed but is useful for describing and explaining behaviour
What is a correlation?
A measure of the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables
What is a cross-sectional study?
An experimental design for assessing age-related changes in which data are obtained simultaneously from people of differing ages
What are descriptive methods?
Techniques used to describe and understand characteristics of a specific group, situation, or phenomenon based on data collection
-> surveys, observations, case studies
What are descriptive statistics?
Statistical methods that organize data into meaningful patterns and summaries, such as finding the average value
What is a field experiment?
An experiment conducted outside of a laboratory setting
What are inferential statistics?
Statistical methods that allow experimenters to extend conclusions from samples to larger populations
What is a mean?
The numerical average of a set of scores
What is a measure?
A method for describing a variables quantity
What is a median?
The halfway mark in a set of data, with half of the scores above it, and half below
What is a meta-analysis?
A statistical technique used in research to combine the results of multiple studies on the same topic
What is a mode?
The most frequently occurring score in a set of data
What is a null hypothesis?
A statement of no effect or no difference and serves as the default or starting assumption in an experiment or study
What is operationalization?
Defining constructs in ways that allow them to be measured