Psychology General
Psychology is the (blank) study of human behavior and mental processes. (what word goes in the blank space?)
Psychology is the SCIENTIFIC study of human behavior and mental processes.
What is the name of the variable that is measured in a study?
The dependent variable.
What is the name of the sampling technique where participants volunteer?
Self-selected sample
What is the definition of "psychology?"
The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.
The group in an experiment that receives a treatment that is expected to have an effect is called the ....(what)... group?
Treatment group
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and ...?
mental process / cognitive processes / cognition / internal processes (any of these terms is fine).
What is the name of the variable that is manipulated by the researcher/s in a study?
Independent variable
What makes a sample biased?
If it is non-representational
When one variable increases, so does the other. What's this called?
A positive correlation.
What is it called when you give someone a treatment (e.g. pill or injection) that has no biological effects, but may have an effect if the person believes it will?
A placebo.
In psychology, is anecdotal or empirical evidence more valuable?
Empirical
What is the name given to a variable that might affect the dependent variable, but is not what the researchers are interested in studying?
Extraneous variable.
What is the difference between purposive and stratified sampling?
Stratified employs random sampling from each sub-group of the target population and is thus more representational and expensive to carry-out. Purposive sampling is cheaper and is easier when the target population is difficult.
When one variable increases, the other decreases. What is this called?
Negative correlation.
What is the name of our next unit?
How do we get influenced by others?
In the scientific approach to studying psychology, after we gather data and form a hypothesis, what's the next step?
Test the hypothesis.
Why are laboratory experiments used to investigate causational relationships?
Because extraneous variables can be controlled in a laboratory, so the IV can be isolated as the only variable influencing the DV.
How can psychologists minimize sampling biases?
Making sure the sample is representational of the target population by using different times, places, and even sampling techniques.
What are weaknesses of an independent samples design?
Participant variability, more participants are required
Name one way that we discussed in class that other people influence us.
Conformity, decision making, cognition, memory, etc
What is the difference between a mental process and a cognitive process?
There is none.
What are two reasons why we might not be able to conclude a causational relationship from a study?
1) There are too many extraneous or confounding variables. 2) We do not know the direction of the relationship in the study (i.e. which variable is affecting which).
What is the name of your Math teacher?
Ms Atlay
What is it called when we're not sure of the direction of influence in a relationship between two variables?
Bidirectional ambiguity
How many pets does Mr Wheeler have?
1