| Term | Definition |
|---|
| Hypothesis | A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables. |
| Variables | Any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study. |
| Theory | A system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations. |
| Operational Definition | Describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable. |
| Participants/Subjects | The persons or animals whose behavior is systematically observed in a study. |
| Data Collection Techniques | Procedures for making empirical observations and measurements. |
| Journal | A periodical that publishes technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined area of injury. |
| Research Methods | Consist of various approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies. |
| Independent Variable | A condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable. |
| Dependent Variable | The variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable. |
| Experimental Group | Consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable. |
| Control Group | Consisists of similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group. |
| Extraneous Variables | Any varibales other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study. |
| Confounding of Variables | Occurs when two variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects. |
| Naturalistic Observation | When a researcher engages in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects. |
| Case Study | An in-depth investigation of an individual subject. |
| Survey | When researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants' background and behavior. |
| Variability | Refers to how much the scores in a data set vary from each other and from the mean. |
| Standard Deviation | An index of the amount of variability in a set of data. |
| Statistics | The use of mathematics to organize, summarize, and interperet numerical data. |
| Descriptive Statistics | Used to organize and summarize data. |
| Median | The score that falls exactly in the center of a distribution of scores. |
| Mean | The arithmetic average of the scores in a distribution. |
| Mode | The most frequent score in a distribution |
| Correlation | Exists when two variables are related to one another. |
| Correlation Coefficient | A numerical index of the degree of a relationship between two variables. |
| Inferential Statistics | Used to interperet data and draw conclusions. |
| Statistical Significance | Exists when the probability that the observed findings are due to chance is very low. |
| Replication | The repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated. |
| Sampling Bias | Exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn. |
| Sample | The collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study. |
| Population | The much larger collection of animals or people (from which the sample is drawn) that researchers want to generalize about. |
| Placebo | A substance (in pharmacology) that resembles a drug but has no actual pharmacological effect. |
| Placebo Effects | Occur when a participants' expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment. |
| Response Set | A tendency to respond to questions in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the questions. |
| Experimenter Bias | When a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained. |
| Double-Blind Procedure | A research strategy in which neither the subjects nor the experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups. |
| Anecdotal Evidence | Consists of personal stories about specific incidents and experiences. |
| Random Assignments | Occurs when all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study. |
| Social Desirability Bias | The tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself. |
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