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Ch 2 Methods
Psych 202
26
Psychology
Undergraduate 2
01/12/2009

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Term
Empiricism
Definition
Originally a Greek school of medicine that stressed the importance of observation, and now generally used to describe any attempt to acquire knowledge by observing objects or events.
Term
Method
Definition
A set of rules and techniques for observation that allow researchers to avoid the illusions, mistakes, and erroneous conclusions that simple observation can produce.
Term
Operational Definition
Definition
A description of an abstract property in terms of a concrete condition that can be measured.
Term
Measure
Definition
A device that can detect the measurable events to which an operational definition refers.
Term
Electromyograph (EMG)
Definition
A device that measures muscle contractions under the surface of a person's skin.
Term
Validity
Definition
The characteristic of an observation that allows one to draw accurate inferences from it.
Term
Construct Validity
Definition
The tendency for an operational definition and a property to have a clear conceptual relation.
Term
Predictive Validity
Definition
The tendency for an operational definition to be related to other operational definitions.
Term
Reliability
Definition
The tendency for a measure to produce the same result whenever it is used to measure the same thing.
Term
Power
Definition
The tendency for a measure to produce different results when it is used to measure different things.
Term
Case Method
Definition
A method of gathering scientific knowledge by studying a single individual.
Term
Population
Definition
The complete collection of participants who might possibly be measured.
Term
Sample
Definition
The partial collection of people who actually were measured in a study.
Term
Law of Large Numbers
Definition
A statistical law stating that as sample size increases, the attributes of a sample will more closely reflect the attributes of the population from which it was drawn.
Term
Frequency Distribution
Definition
A graphical representation of the measurements of a sample that are arranged by the number of times each measurement was observed.
Term
Normal Distribution
Definition
A frequency distribution in which most measurements are concentrated around the mean and fall toward the tails, and the two sides of the distribution are symmetrical.
Term
Demand Characteristics
Definition
Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think an observer wants or expects then to behave.
Term
Naturalistic Observation
Definition
A method of gathering scientific knowledge by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments.
Term
Third-Variable Correlation
Definition
The fact that two variables may be correlated only because they are both caused by a third variable.
Term
Matched Samples
Definition
An observational technique that involves matching the average of the participants in the experimental and control groups in order to eliminate the possibility that a third-variable cause changes in the dependent variable.
Term
Matched Pairs
Definition
An observational technique that involves matching each participant in the experimental group with a specific participant in the control group.
Term
Natural Correlation
Definition
A correlation observed between naturally occurring variables.
Term
Experiment
Definition
A technique for establishing the casual relationship between variables.
Term
Manipulation
Definition
A characteristic of experimentation in which the researcher artificially creates a pattern of variation in an independent variable in order to determine its causal powers.
Term
Internal Validity
Definition
The characteristic of an experiment that allows one to draw accurate inferences about the causal relationship between an independent and dependent variable.
Term
External Validity
Definition
A characteristic of an experiment in which the independent and dependent variables are operationally defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way.
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