Psychology as a Science
Psychologists rely on careful observation and evidence rather than intuition or persoal opinion. This approach is known as this.
What is Empiricism.
This testable prediction states the expected relationship between 2 or more variables in a psychological study.
What is a Hypothesis.
A psychologist carefully observes and records the behavior of children on a playground without manipulating the situation. This descriptive research method is being used.
What is Naturalistic Observation.
What is Informed Consent?
To calculate this measure of central tendency, add all the scores together and divide by the number of scores.
What is the Mean?
A good scientific explanation must be capable of being tested and potentially proven wrong. This characteristic is called this.
What is Falsifiability.
Researchers create this precise description of how a variable will be measured so that other researchers can repeat the study.
What is an Operational Definition?
A researcher collects information about students' sleep habits by asking 500 students to complete a quationnaire. This research method is being used.
What is a Survey?
Participants in psychological research have this ethical right, meaning they can leave a study at any time wihtout penalty.
What is the Right to Withdraw?
When test scores are arranged from lowest to highest, this measure of central tendency is the score located in the middle.
What is the Median?
Psychologists use this systematic process of developing hypotheses, collecting data, analyzing results, and drawing conclusions.
What is the Scientific Method.
After developing a hypothesis, psychologists systematically gather this information through observation, measurement, survey, or experiment.
What are Data.
Researchers find that as hours of sleep increase, reported stress levels tend to decrease. This type of research examines the relationship between 2 variables without manipulating either one.
What is Correlational Research.
Researchers must protect participants' personal information and prevent identifying information from being improperly disclosed. This ethical responsibility is known as this.
This measure of variation indicates how much scores typically differ from the mean; a larger value indicates that scores are more spread out.
What is Standard Deviation?
A psychologist repeats another researcher's study using similar procedures to determine whether the original findings can be obtained again. This process is called this.
What is Replication.
A psychologist repeats a previous experiment using the same basic procedures to determine whether similar results can be obtained. This important scientific practice is called this.
What is Replication?
A psychologist manipulates the amount of sleep participants receive and measures their performance on a memory test. This research design allows the psychologist to investigate a cause-and-effect relationship.
What is an Experiment?
When psychologists use deception in a study, they must typically provide this afterward to explain the study's true purpose and address any misconceptions.
What is Debriefing?
A researcher finds a correlation coefficient (r) of -0.85 between stress and hours of sleep. This describes the strength and direction of this relationship.
What is Strong, Negative Correlation?
After repeatedly observing that students who sleep more tend to earn higher test scores, a researcher concludes that additional sleep causes higher scores. This research principle explains why that conclusion is not justified.
What is "Correlation does not imply causation"?
A researcher predicts that "students who get more sleep will perform better academically". To meet this scientific requirement, the prediction must be capable of being tested and potentially shown to be incorrect.
What is Falsifiability?
A researcher wants every student in a high school to have an equal chance of being selected to participate in a study. This sampling procedure helps create a more respresentative sample.
What is Random Sampling?
Before a psychological study involving human participants can begin, this committee reviews the research procedures to ensure participants are protected and ethical standards are followed.
What is an Institutional Review Board?
Researchers obtain a result that is unlikely to have occurred by chance alone. In psychological research, this is commonly evaluated using a p-value.
What is Statistical Significance?