All About Experiments
General Research Methods
Approaches to Psychology
Vocabulary
Potpourri
100
The assignment of participants to experimental or control groups
What is random assignment? pg 38
100
An in depth look at a single individual
What is a case study? pg 31
100
This approach to psychology focuses on ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining scientific human behaviors
What is the evolutionary perspective of psychology? pg 13
100
the group to which an independent variable is applied
What is the experimental group?
100
Thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly
What are mental processes? Pg 4
200
A carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable?
What is an experiment? pg 37
200
You can use this to collect scientific data quickly, however, remember that people do not always tell the truth
What is a survey or questionnaire? pg 31
200
This approach to psychology most clearly focuses on observable responses
What is the behavioral approach? pg 11
200
This type of scientist studies how the levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain create the condition of depression
What is a neuroscientist? pg 15
200
A professional with a medical degree who specializes in abnormal behavior is known as this
What is a psychiatrist? pg 14
300
This type of variable is the variable the researcher is measuring
The DV or dependent variable
300
This type of research allows a scientist to examine the relationship between variables
What is correlational research?
300
This approach to psychology emphasizes unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives and society’s demands, and early childhood family experiences
What is the psychodynamic approach? pg 12
300
a statistic that describes the direction and strength of the relationship between two sets of data
What is a correlation coefficient?
300
1 800 273 TALK
What is the Suicide Prevention Lifeline? pg 17
400
The influence of the experimenter's expectations on the outcome of the research
What is experimenter bias?
400
An experiment where the participants nor the experimenters know which participants received the independent variable
What is a double-blind experiment? pg 43
400
This approach to psychology emphasizes the role of free will as a determinant of behavior
What is the humanistic approach? pg 12
400
The idea that organisms that are better adapted to their environment will survive and produce more offspring.
What is natural selection? pg 9
400
This type of psychologist studies about the behavioral differences between people from two religions, he or she is most likely following what approach to psychology
What is the sociocultural approach? pg 13
500
A change in a participant's illness or behavior that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect, rather than the actual treatment
What is the placebo effect? pg 43
500
The circumstance in which a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between 2 other variables
What is the third variable problem? pg 34
500
Dr. Stanley, a psychologist, conducts a study on the effect of the color red on babies. Although there is no visible change in the babies when they see the color, he studies their neural patterns and notes that specific sections of their brains are being stimulated by the color. In this scenario, which approach has Dr. Stanley used for her research?
What is the biological approach? pg 11
500
The is a process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating evidence
What is critical thinking? pg 4
500
In the field of psychology, individuals who advocate for this are most likely to consider the mind as flexible and fluid, characterized by constant change in response to a continuous flow of information from the world.
What is functionalism? pg 9