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| All circumstances that occur or exist before the event or behavior to be explained; also called antecedents |
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| Research that is designed to solve real-world problems |
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| Research designed to test theories or explain psychological phenomena |
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| Cause and effect relationship |
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| The relation between a particular behavior and a set of antecedents that always precedes it- whereas other antecedents do not- so that the set is inferred to cause the behavior |
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| Everyday, nonscientific collection of psychological data used to understand the social world and guide our behavior |
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| Facts and figures gathered from observations in research. |
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| The process undertaken to demonstrate that particular behavioral events will occur reliably in certain specifiable conditions; a principal tool of the scientific method |
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| To challenge an existing explanation or theory by testing a hypothesis that follows logically from it and demonstrating that this hypothesis is false |
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| Organized and rational thought, characterized by open-mindedness, objectivity, and parsimony; a principle tool of the scientific method. |
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| General scientific principles that explain our universe and predict events |
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| The systematic estimation of the quantity, size, or quality of an observable event; a principle tool of the scientific method |
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| The scientific techniques used to collect and evaluate psychological data |
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| The systematic noting and recording of events; a principle tool of the scientific method |
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| An aspect of good thinking, stating that the simplest explanation is preferred until ruled out by conflicting evidence; also known as Occam's razor |
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| A controlled procedure in which at least two different treatment conditions are applied to subjects whose behaviors are then measured and compared to test a hypothesis about the effects of the treatments on behavior |
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| The process of repeating research procedures to verify that the outcome will be the same as before; a principle tool of the scientific method |
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| The systematic gathering of data to provide descriptions of events taking place under specific conditions, enabling researchers to explain, predict, and control events. |
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| Steps scientists take to gather and verify information, answer questions, explain relationships, and communicate findings |
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| The scientific term for an individual who participates in research |
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| Capable of being tested; typically used in reference to a hypothesis. Two requirements must be met to have this: procedures for manipulating the setting and the predicated outcome must be observable |
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| A set of general principles that attempts to explain and predict behavior or other phenomena |
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| A specific set of antedent conditions created by the experimenter and presented to subjects to test its effect on behavior. |
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| The degree to which scores on the measuring instrument correlate with another known standard for measuring the variable being studied. |
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| An error that occurs when the value of an extraneous variable changes systematically along with the independent variable in an experiment; an alternative explanation for the findings that threatens internal validity |
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| The degree to which an operational definition accurately represents the construct it is intended to manipulate or measure |
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| The degree to which the content of a measure reflects the content of what is being measured |
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| The specific behavior that a researcher tries to explain in an experiment; the variable that is being measured |
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| Experimental operational definition |
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| The explanation of the meaning of independent variables; defines exactly what was done to create the various treatment conditions of the experiment |
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| A variable other than an independent or dependent variable; a variable that is not the focus of an experiment and that can confound the results if not controlled |
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| The degree to which a manipulation or measurement technique is self-evident |
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| A threat to internal validity in which an outside event or occurrence might have produced effects on the dependent variable |
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| Concepts used to explain unseen processes, such as hunger or learning; postulated to explain observable behavior |
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| Independent variable (IV) |
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| The variable (antecedent condition) that the experimenter intentionally manipulates |
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| A threat to internal validity produced by changes in the measuring instrument itself |
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| The degree to which different items measuring the same variables attain consistent results |
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| The certainty that the changes in behavior observed across treatment conditions in the experiment were actually caused by the independent variable |
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| The degree of agreement among different observers or raters |
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| The type of scale or measurement- either ratio, interval, ordinal, or nominal- used to measure a variable |
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| Levels of the independent variable |
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| The two or more values of the independent variable manipulated by the experimenter |
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| An assessment to determine whether the independent variable was manipulated successfully |
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| A threat to internal validity produced by internal (physical or psychological) changes in subjects |
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| Measured operational definition |
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| The description of exactly how a variable in an experiment is measured |
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| The section of a research report in which the subjects and experiment are described in enough detail that the experiment may be replicated by others; it is typically divided into subsections, such as Participants, Apparatus or Materials, and Procedures |
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| The specification of the precise meaning of a variable within an experiment; defines a variable in terms of observable operations, procedures, and measurements |
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| The degree to which a measuring instrument yields information allowing prediction of actual behavior or performance |
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| The consistency and dependability of experimental procedures and measurements |
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| A family of threats to internal validity produced when a selection threat combines with one or more of the other threats to internal validity; when a selection threat is already present, other threats can affect some experimental groups but not others |
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| A threat to internal validity that can occur when nonrandom procedures are used to assign subjects to conditions or when random assignment fails to balance out differences among subjects across the different conditions of the experiment |
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| Statistical regression threat |
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| A threat to internal validity that can occur when subjects are assigned to conditions on the basis of extreme scores on a test; upon retest, the scores of extreme scorers tend to regress toward the mean even without any treatment |
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| A threat to internal validity produced by differences in dropout rates across the conditions of the experiment |
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| A threat to internal validity produced by differences in dropout rates across the conditions in the experiment |
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| Consistency between an individual’s scores on the same test taken at two or more different times |
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| The soundness of an operational definition; in experiments, the principle of actually studying the variables intended to be manipulated or measured |
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| A technique used to control the impact of extraneous variables by distributing their effects equally across treatment conditions |
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| A control procedure used to avoid confounding; keeping all aspects of the treatment conditions identical except for the independent variable that is being manipulated |
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| Extraneous variable stemming from procedures created by the environment or context of the research setting |
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| A plausible but false explanation of the procedures in an experiment told to disguise the actual research hypothesis so that subjects will not guess what it is |
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| The aspects of the experimental situation itself that demand or elicit particular behaviors; can lead to distorted data by compelling subjects to produce responses that conform to what subjects believe is expected of them in the experiment |
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| An experiment in which neither the subjects nor the experimenter know which treatment the subjects are in; used to control experimenter bias |
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| A technique used to control extraneous variables by removing them from an experiment |
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| Any behavior of the experimenter that can create confounding in an experiment |
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| The personal characteristics that an experimenter or volunteer subject brings to the experimental setting |
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| Aspects of the testing conditions that need to be controlled |
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| The result of giving subjects a pill, injection, or other treatment that actually contains none of the independent variable; the treatment elicits a change in subject's behavior simply because subjects expect an effect to occur |
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| Rosenthal effect, Pygmalion effect |
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| The phenomenon of experimenters treating subjects differently depending on what they expect from the subjects |
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| An experiment in which subjects are not told which of the treatment conditions they are in; a procedure used to control demand characteristics |
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| The qualities of the relationships between subjects and experimenters that can influence the results of an experiment |
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| A design in which different subjects take part in each condition of the experiment |
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| A process of randomization that firsts creates treatment blocks containing one random order of the conditions in the experiment; subjects are then assigned to fill each successive treatment block |
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| A condition in which the subjects receive a zero value of the indpendent variable |
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| A statistical estimate of the size or magnitude of the treatment effect (s) |
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| A treatment condition in which the researcher applies a particular value of an independent variable to subjects and then measures the dependent variable; in an experimental group-control-group design, the group that receives some value of the independent variable |
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| The general structure of an experiment (but not its specific content) |
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| A between subjects design with one independent variable, in which there are more than two treatment conditions |
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| Multiple independent groups design |
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| The most commonly used multple groups design in which the subjects are assigned to the different treatment conditions at random |
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| A mini-experiment using only a few subjects to pretest selected levels of an independent variable before conducting the actual experiment |
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| In drug testing, a control condition in which subjects are treated exactly the same as subjects who are in teh experimental group except for the presence of the actual drug; the prototype of a good control group |
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| Creating pairs whose subjects have identical scores on the matching variable |
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| The technique of assigning subjects to treatments so that each subject has an equal chance of being assigned to each treatment condition |
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| Creating pairs of subjects whose scores on the matching variable fall within a previously specified range of scores |
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| Creating matched pairs by placing subjects in order of their scores on the matching variable; subjects with adjacent scores become pairs |
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| A design in which two groups of subjects are exposed to different levels of the indpendent variable |
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| The simplest experimental design, used when only two treatment conditions are needed |
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| Two independent groups design |
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| An experimental design in which subjects are placed in each of two treatment conditions through random assignment |
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| Two matched groups design |
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| An experimental design with two treatment conditions and with subjects who are matched on a subject variable thought to be highly related to the dependent variable |
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| Alternative hypothesis (Ha) |
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| A statement that the data came from different populations; the research hypothesis, which cannot be tested directly |
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| Portion in the tails(s) of the distribution of a test statistic extreme enough to satisfy the researcher's criterion for rejecting the null hypothesis- for instance the most exteme 5% of a distribution where p < .05 is the chosen significance level |
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| The standard procedures used to summarize and describe data quickly and clearly; including mean, range, and standard deviation |
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| Specific principles for the way people behave and that we can discover them thru research |
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