Chapter 2 Vocabulary PDF
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This document provides definitions for vocabulary terms related to research methods in psychology, including concepts like naturalistic observation, case studies, and statistical analysis.
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1. Specific - Relating to a particular category 2. Constitute - to be made up of, to compose, to form 3. Naturalistic observation - research method in which the psychologist observes the subject in a natural setting without interfering. 4. Case study - research method that invol...
1. Specific - Relating to a particular category 2. Constitute - to be made up of, to compose, to form 3. Naturalistic observation - research method in which the psychologist observes the subject in a natural setting without interfering. 4. Case study - research method that involves an intensive investigation of one or more participants. 5. Longitudinal study - research method in which data are collected about a group of participants over a number of years to assess how certain characteristics change or remain the same during development. 6. Cross-sectional study - research method in which data are collected from groups or participants of different ages and compared so that conclusions can be drawn about differences due to age. 7. Correlation - the measure of a relationship between two variables or sets of data. 8. Variable - any factor that is capable of change. 9. Experimental group - the group to which an independent variable is applied. 10.Control group - the group that is treated in the same way as the experimental group except that the experimental treatment (the independent variable) is not applied. 11.Eliminate - to remove or get rid of 12.Evaluate - to determine the significance of 13.Self-fulfilling prophecy - a situation in which a researcher's expectations influence that person’s own behavior, and thereby influence the participants behavior. 14.Single-blind experiment - an experiment in which the participants are unaware of who received the treatment. 15.Double-blind experiment - an experiment in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know which participants received which treatment. 16.Placebo effect - a change in a participant's illness or behavior that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than from the actual treatment. 17.Statistics - the branch of mathematics concerned with summarizing and making meaningful inferences from collections of data. 18.Significant - 19.Descriptive statistics - the listing and summarizing of data in a practical and efficient way. 20.Frequency distribution - an arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs. 21.Normal curve - a graph of frequency distribution shaped like a symmetrical, bell shaped curve, a graph of normally distributed data. 22.Central tendency - a number that describes something about the average score of distribution variance. 23.Standard deviation - a measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean. 24.Variance - a measure of variability that is the mean of the squares of the deviations from the mean of the set of data. 25.Correlation coefficient - describes the direction and strength of the relationship between two sets of variables. 26.Inferential statistics - numerical methods used to determine weather research data support a hypothesis or weather results were due to chance.
