AP Psychology
O’Meara Unit 1 Study Guide: Scientific Inquiry
Ch 2 Scientific Inquiry (8-10% of AP test) After concluding this unit, students understand: 1. Research methods and measurements used to study bx and mental processes 2. Ethical issues in research with humans and non-human animals 3. Basic concepts of data analysis Objective Questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
Describe the scientific method and why it’s important to the study of psychology. Surveys, correlations and experiments are called “quantitative” research methods. Why? Interviews, narratives and focus groups are called “qualitative” research methods. Why? Describe a circumstance where a quantitative method is better than a qualitative method of research to understand bx or a mental process. Describe three ethical standards that must be considered with research on humans. On animals. Define descriptive stats and explain how they are used by psychological scientists. Describe inferential statistics and explain why they are important to psychological research. Draw a hypothetical scatterplot. Line graph. Bar graph. Describe the component parts of a correlational coefficient and explain how it’s interpreted. What does it mean that a correlation is “strong” or “weak?” What is statistical significance? What is effect size? What does it mean to have a valid measuring tool in research? What does it mean to have a reliable measuring tool in research?
Vocabulary you MUST understand, not just memorize: 1. Applied Research: research that can immediately be used to solve a practical problem. 2. Bias: a preconceived perception about how something should be/turn out. (there are several types of bias we will learn over the year) 3. Basic Research: research that explores questions psychologists have but is not intended to have immediate, real world applications; this research builds our understanding and knowledge 4. Case study: an in depth and very detailed study of an individual or a very small group 5. Confounding variable: a difference between the experimental group and the control group in ap psychological experiment that might affect the outcome of the study but it’s NOT the independent variable (the one the researcher is trying to study) 6. Control Group: the group of subjects in an experiment to whom the independent variable is NOT applied. They are used to compare results of the effect of the IV 7. Correlational Coefficient: the numerical outcome of a correlational study that allows researchers to interpret the strength and direction of a relationship
1
AP Psychology
O’Meara
8. Confirmation Bias: the act of referencing only those perspectives that conform to our preexisting views, and disregarding or ignoring perspectives that conflict with ours no matter how rational they are. The internet has really fueled this cognitive bias. 9. Dependent Variable: the variable in an experiment that the researcher is going to measure to see how it’s influenced by the action of the independent variable 10. Descriptive statistics: the statistics used to describe the immediate outcome of an experiment. They are derived from a sample and include mean, median, mode, range, variance and standard deviation. You calculate these stats from your SAMPLE 11. Double blind research design: a design that reduces bias in research and ensures that neither the participants nor the researcher (or observer) are aware of which subject has received the independent variable. 12. Effect size: A calculation of the size of the difference between the control and experimental group. More than just a difference between groups, effect size helps researchers understand how big the difference is with respect to the range of scores getting measured. (mean of xp group-mean of control group/standard deviation) 13. Ethics: guidelines for research that prioritize the physical, mental and emotional safety of participants, as well as improve the credibility of research conducted in psychology 14. Experiment: a type of research whereby variables are manipulated and controlled to measure their effects on each other. 15. Experimental Group: the group of subjects who get exposed to the action of the independent variable 16. Experimenter bias: the usually unintentional tendency of researchers to treat members of the experimental group differently than those of the control group, potentially influencing the outcome of the study. Double blind studies help reduce experimenter bias. 17. Generalizability: the desired outcome of a research study whereby researchers can take the conclusions they derived from their sample and apply it to the larger population of subjects they were studying. 18. Hindsight bias: the tendency to believe, after hearing the outcome, that one would have been able to foresee the outcome. 19. Hypothesis: a statement that expresses a relationship between two variables which gets tested in experiments by isolating the effect of one variable (IV) on another (DV) while controlling for confounding variables. 20. Illusory Correlation: the appearance that two variables are related to each other in a predictable way when in fact they are not. 21. Independent Variable: the variable in an experiment that the researcher isolates and manipulates in order to measure its effect on a second variable (DV) 22. Inferential statistics: the branch of mathematics that produces the statistics which enable a researcher to draw conclusions back to the general population of research subjects from the sample she has just studied. These stats enable researchers to measure statistical significance and effect size. 23. Informed Consent: an ethical requirement of research on human subjects whereby a subject is informed of all the risks involved in participation in a given study and still agrees to participate. 2
AP Psychology
O’Meara
24. Mean, Median, Mode 25. Natural Observation: observations of a research subject in their natural setting without interference 26. Normal Distribution: a pictorial representation of data that produces a smooth and symmetrical curve when the DV is plotted against the IV 27. Operational Definitions: the exact descriptions of how a variable is to be measured. 28. Observer Bias: synonymous with experimenter bias 29. Placebo: a chemically inert substance given to research subjects in the control group that helps to prevent subjects from knowing who is in the ExG and who is in the CoG. Part of a blind study design AND a double blind study design. 30. Placebo Effect: the fact that subjects on placebo often report reduction of symptoms even though they are not receiving exposure to the IV 31. Random Assignment: assigning subjects to either the control group or the experimental group in such a way as to ensure that no one has an advantage over another to get into one group or another. 32. Random Selection: a method of selecting research subjects from a population that ensures that all members of the population have an equal chance of getting into the study. 33. Range: the spread of data collected from a sample 34. Replication: the ability of a second research team to perform a study and achieve the same results as the original research team. An important part of scientific inquiry that is a component of “peer review.” You put your study out there so that others can replicate it and confirm your results. Bold stuff, science… 35. P-values: mathematical statements that provide parameters for researchers to determine whether their findings are “statistically significant” or not. Must be set BEFORE the study unfolds. 36. Sample: the small group taken from the population who will be the subjects of a study 37. Standard deviation: a statistic that enables researchers to quantify how different a particular score is from the mean thus enabling researchers to quantify the spread of data. 38. Statistical significance: a mathematical statement that the difference calculated between an ExG and a CoG is NOT due to chance, but rather is due to the action of the IV on the DV. Always written with decimals and typically, .05 is the cut off (there is less than a 5% chance that this difference would have happened on its own, without the action of the IV) 39. Survey: type of research study that questions respondents. Gets lots of data cheaply. Framing of questions can interfere with results of study. 40. Theory: the birthplace of many hypotheses, a theory is an attempt to explain some phenomenon which allows the generation of testable hypotheses intended to guide the collection of data. 41. Variables: the objects of researcher’s studies. Can be dependent, independent or confounding.
Know your historical people: John B Watson, Baby Albert, Stanley Milgram, Philip Zimbardo, Eleanor Gibson 3
AP Psychology
O’Meara
4
