Psykologi kap 2

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• hypothesis a specific prediction about some phenomenon or other
• Theory a set of formal statements that explains how and why certain events are related to one another
• variable any characteristic or factor that can vary
• perational definition defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it.
• electroencephalography (EEG) measures the activity of large groups of neurons through a series of large electrodes placed on the scalp
• unobtrusive measure records behaviour in a way that keeps participants unaware that they are being observe
• archival measure: record or document that already exists
• informed consent before people agree to par- ticipate in research they should be informed about: the study’s purpose and procedures; the study’s potential benefits; potential risks to participants; the right to decline participation and with- draw at any time without penalty; whether responses will be confi- dential and, if not, how privacy will be safeguarded
• Deception which occurs when participants are misled about the nature of a study, is con- troversial
• descriptive research seeks to identify how humans and other animals behave, particularly in natural settings
• case study an in-depth analysis of an individual, group or event
• naturalistic observation technique in which the researcher observes behaviour as it occurs in a natural setting
• survey research technique where information about a topic is obtained by administering questionnaires or interviews to many people
• population all the individuals that we are interested in drawing a conclusion about
• sample a subset of individuals drawn from the larger population
• representative sample reflects the important characteris- tics of the population
• correlational research measures one variable (X), measures a second variable (Y), and statistically determines whether X and Y are related
• correlation coefficient a statistic that indicates the direc- tion and strength of the relation between two variables
• positive correlation higher scores on one variable are associated with higher scores on a second variable
• negative correlation when higher scores on one variable are associated with lower scores on a second variable
• scatterplots graphs that show the correlation between two variables
• Experiment in an experiment the experimenter manipulates one or more variables, measures whether this manipula- tion influences other variables and attempts to control extraneous factors that might influence the outcome of the procedure
• independent (predictor) variable the factor that is manipulated by the experimenter
• dependent (response, output, outcome) variable the factor that is measured by the experimenter and may be influ- enced by the independent variable
• experimental group the group that receives a treat- ment or an active level of the independent variable
• control group the group not exposed to the treatment or that receives a zero level of the independent variable
• random assignment procedure in which each participant has an equal likelihood of being assigned to any one group within an experiment
• counterbalancing procedure in which the order of conditions is varied so that no condition has an overall advantage relative to the others
• Qualitative study More open data-gathering techniques, such as interviews, self-report questionnaires and analysis of video material, are used and analysed, looking for patterns laid down by the researcher
• internal validity the degree to which an experiment supports clear causal conclusions
• confounding of variables two variables are intertwined in such a way that we cannot deter- mine which one has influenced a dependent variable
• demand characteristics cues that participants pick up about the hypothesis of a study or about how they are supposed to behave.
• Placebo a substance that has no pharma- cological effect
• Placebo effect people receiving a treatment show a change in behaviour because of their expectations, not because the treatment itself had any specific benefit
• experimenter expectancy effects subtle and unintentional ways in which researchers influence their participants to respond in a man- ner that is consistent with the researcher’s hypothesis
• double-blind procedure approach in which both the par- ticipant and experimenter are kept blind as to which experimental condition the participant is in
• external validity the degree to which the results of a study can be general- ized to other populations, settings and conditions
• Replication process of repeating a study to determine whether the original findings can be duplicated
• descriptive statistics statistics that allow us to summarize and describe the characteristics of a set (or dis-tribution) of data
• Mode the most frequently occurring score in a distribution
• Median the point that divides a distribu- tion of scores in half when those scores are arranged in order from lowest to highest
• mean the arithmetic average of a set of scores
• Range the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution
• standard deviation statistic that takes into account how much each score in a distribution differs from the mean
• inferential statistics allow us to make inferences about a population from data provided by a sample of that distribution
• statistical significance holds that it is very unlikely that a particular finding occurred by chance alone
• meta-analysis a statistical procedure for combin- ing the results of different studies that examine the same topic

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