Any event, situation, behavior, or individual characteristic that varies - that is, has at least two values. For example, self-esteem.
What is a VARIABLE?
100
In this type of relationship, an increase in one variable is accompanied by an increase in another variable.
What is a POSITIVE LINEAR RELATIONSHIP?
100
A variable that is not controlled in a research investigation and on which the experimental groups differ systematically.
What is a CONFOUNDING VARIABLE?
100
The extent to which conclusions about the relationships among variables reached on the basis of the data are in fact, correct.
What is CONCLUSION VALIDITY?
100
The tendency of people to report that any treatment has helped them, regardless of whether it has a real therapeutic element.
What is the PLACEBO EFFECT?
200
Examples of this type of variable are: performance on a cognitive task or reaction time.
What is a RESPONSE VARIABLE?
200
In this type of relationship, increases in one variable are associated with both increases AND decreases in another variable.
What is a CURVILINEAR RELATIONSHIP?
200
Controlling for the effects of extraneous variables by ensuring that the variables operate in a manner determined entirely by chance. Ensures that the individual characteristic composition of the two groups will be virtually identical in every way.
What is RANDOMIZATION?
200
The degree to which the results of an experiment may be generalized to other settings, people, etc.
What is EXTERNAL VALIDITY?
200
The phenomenon whereby some proportion of recovery rate is due to the passage of time.
What is SPONTANEOUS REMISSION?
300
Psychological processes that mediate the effects of a situational variable on a particular response. For example, research has shown that people are less likely to help another person when there are a lot of bystanders around.
What is a MEDIATING VARIABLE?
300
Another name for a linear relationship.
What is a MONOTONIC RELATIONSHIP?
300
The variable that is the subject's response to the manipulated variable.
What is a DEPENDENT VARIABLE?
300
Correlations that arise not because a causal link exists between the two variables being measured, but because both variables are related to a third variable.
What are SPURIOUS CORRELATIONS?
300
The finding that the vast majority of individuals will endorse generalized personality summaries as accurate and specific descriptions of themselves.
What is THE P.T. BARNUM EFFECT?
400
Individual differences - also known as subject variables. These include gender, intelligence level, age, and personality traits.
What are PARTICIPANT VARIABLES?
400
An index of how strongly two variables are related to each other (and in what direction they are related to each other).
What is a CORRELATION COEFFICIENT?
400
An experiment that is conducted in a natural setting rather than a lab setting.
What is a FIELD EXPERIMENT?
400
The certainty with which results of an experiment can be attributed to the manipulation of the IV rather than to some other, confounding variable.
What is INTERNAL VALIDITY?
500
They describe the nature of the relationship between two variables and allow us to generate graphs that capture the relationship.
What is a FUNCTION RULE?
500
A method of determining whether variables are related, in which the researcher manipulates the IV and controls all other variables either by randomization or by direct experimental control.
What is the EXPERIMENTAL METHOD?
500
A variable that impacts the DV, but that the researcher is not necessarily interested in.