AP Psych Research Methods

differences

random assignment is intended to control for pre-existing between groups of participants in an experiment

experiment

research design characterized by random assignment of participants to groups, one group recieves a one time treatment and the other does not. later the groups are compared

scientific

a study can be regarded as only if its conclusion can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies

difficult

a teacher finds the distribution of scores on a final exam to be positively skewed with low variablility. on the basis of this info, the teacher would be most justified in concluding that the exam was too

76-84

a test has a mean of 80 with a standard deviation of 4. identify a score that is within one standard deviation of the mean

all measures of central tendency

a test with normally distributed results was returned to a class of 100 students. later, the teacher realized an error was made and added 10 points to each students score. which measures of central tendency must have changed as a result of the increase in scores

what is the key strength of naturalistic observation

observe peoples authentic behaviors, and minimizes artificiality

10

on a test, the mean score for a class of 100 students is 80 and the standard deviation of the scores is 10. the professor who gave the test then realizes that she made a scoring error, which she corrects by adding 5 points to each students score. the standard deviation of the students new scores is what

experiments because they must be replicated

precise operational definitions are required for

placebo effect

a client who improvement during therapy is the result of his or her expectation of improvement rather than the result of the therapy itself is indicative of the

1.0

a correlation is strongest if it is close to

standard deviation

a measure of how much scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

statistical inference

a research psychologist generalizes from a particular sample to an entire population. this is an example of a

42%

a students test score of 86 is at the 42nd percentile. this means that this student has scored the same or higher than percent of her fellow students.

case study

because of the rarity of a circumstance, researchers are likely to choose a what to study it

They have developed codes of ethics for research with both human participants and animal subjects. including but not limited to informed consent, confidentiality, and no harm.

describe the american psychological association's position on ethical issues in research.

68%

in a normal distribution, what percentage of scores fall between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean

representative

in order to yield info that is generalizable to the population from which it was drawn, a sample must be of the population

-participants right to privacy must be protected -no physical/psychological harm -right to withdraw

list all of the american psychological association ethical guidelines for researchers

sampling bias

research shows that women who are referred by a physician to participate in a study have more severe problems than women who volunteer on their own to participate in the study. if the research regularly involves only women referred by physicians, the results might be limited because of the prescence of

it is a positive correlation

researchers find that in general, the higher an incoming college student scores on a given test, the higher the student's GPA. describe this relationship.

more

researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. the researchers would be justified in concluding that students who earn good grades tend to sleep than those who do not

as income increases, the likehood of dental problems decreases

researchers have found a negative correlation between income and dental problems. what conclusion can be drawn from this statement

the social desirability bias

respondents to surveys and questionnaires often report they are healthier, happier and less prejudiced than would be based on the results of other types of research, this is known as the

scatterplot

the correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a

there is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occured by chance

the results of an experiment show that the average amount learned by the group using one method of study was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other method. however, the difference was not statistically significant. what is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn from this info

When the client provides written permission to share results

when is it permissible for a psychologist to share a client's test scores with another person

meta-analysis

when someone analyzes the results of several previous studies

debriefing

which procedure can reduce problems associated with the use of deception by a researcher

positively

while reviewing scores from a chapter test, a teacher discovered that the mean score was higher than the median. therefore the distribution of the test scores were skewed