PSY 230 UMAINE EXAM 1STUDY GUIDE 2026
social psychology - Answers -the scientific study of the way in which peoples thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people
social influence - Answers -the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other
people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior.
personality psychology - Answers -the study of the characteristics that make individuals
unique and different from one another.
fundamental attribution error - Answers -the tendency to overestimate the extent to
which people's behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the
role of situational factors.
behaviorism - Answers -a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human
behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment.
construal - Answers -the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the
social world.
gestalt psychology - Answers -a school of psychology stressing the importance of
studying the subjective way in which an object appears in peoples minds rather than the
objective, physical attributes of the object.
self esteem - Answers -peoples evaluations of their own self-worth that is, the extent to
which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent.
social cognition - Answers -how people think about themselves and the social world,
more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to
make judgments and decisions.
hindsight bias - Answers -the tendency for people to exaggerate, after knowing that
something occurred, how much they could've predicted it before it occurred.
observational method - Answers -the technique whereby a researcher observes people
and systematically records measurements of impressions of their behavior.
ethnography - Answers -the method by which researchers attempt to understand a
group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived
notions they might have.
, inter judge reliability - Answers -the level of agreement between two or more people
who independently observe and code a set of data: by showing that two or more judges
independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the
observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual.
archival analysis - Answers -a form of the observational method in which the
researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (diaries,
novels, magazines, and newspapers)
correlation method - Answers -the technique whereby two or more variables are
systematically measure and the relationship between them (how much one can be
predicted from the other) is assessed.
correlation coefficient - Answers -a statistical technique that assesses how well you can
predict one variable from another- for example, how well you can predict peoples weight
from their height.
random selection - Answers -a way of ensuring that a sample of people is
representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of
being selected.
experimental method - Answers -the method in which the researcher randomly assigns
participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical
except for the independent variable (the one thought to have a casual effect on peoples
responses)
independent variable - Answers -the variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it
has an effect on some other variable
dependent variable - Answers -the variables researcher measures to see if it is
influenced by the independent variable the researcher hypothesizes that the dependent
variable will depend on the level of independent variable
random assignment to condition - Answers -a process ensuring that all participants
have an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment; through random
assignment, researchers can be relatively certain that differences in the participants'
personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions
probability level (p value) - Answers -a number calculated with statistical techniques
that tells researchers how likely it is that the results of their experiment occurred by
chance. if the probability level is less than 5 in 100 that the results might be due to
chance factors and not the independent variables studied.
internal validity - Answers -making sure that nothing besides the independent variable
can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous
variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions.
social psychology - Answers -the scientific study of the way in which peoples thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people
social influence - Answers -the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other
people have on our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior.
personality psychology - Answers -the study of the characteristics that make individuals
unique and different from one another.
fundamental attribution error - Answers -the tendency to overestimate the extent to
which people's behavior is due to internal, dispositional factors and to underestimate the
role of situational factors.
behaviorism - Answers -a school of psychology maintaining that to understand human
behavior, one need only consider the reinforcing properties of the environment.
construal - Answers -the way in which people perceive, comprehend, and interpret the
social world.
gestalt psychology - Answers -a school of psychology stressing the importance of
studying the subjective way in which an object appears in peoples minds rather than the
objective, physical attributes of the object.
self esteem - Answers -peoples evaluations of their own self-worth that is, the extent to
which they view themselves as good, competent, and decent.
social cognition - Answers -how people think about themselves and the social world,
more specifically, how people select, interpret, remember, and use social information to
make judgments and decisions.
hindsight bias - Answers -the tendency for people to exaggerate, after knowing that
something occurred, how much they could've predicted it before it occurred.
observational method - Answers -the technique whereby a researcher observes people
and systematically records measurements of impressions of their behavior.
ethnography - Answers -the method by which researchers attempt to understand a
group or culture by observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived
notions they might have.
, inter judge reliability - Answers -the level of agreement between two or more people
who independently observe and code a set of data: by showing that two or more judges
independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the
observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual.
archival analysis - Answers -a form of the observational method in which the
researcher examines the accumulated documents, or archives, of a culture (diaries,
novels, magazines, and newspapers)
correlation method - Answers -the technique whereby two or more variables are
systematically measure and the relationship between them (how much one can be
predicted from the other) is assessed.
correlation coefficient - Answers -a statistical technique that assesses how well you can
predict one variable from another- for example, how well you can predict peoples weight
from their height.
random selection - Answers -a way of ensuring that a sample of people is
representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of
being selected.
experimental method - Answers -the method in which the researcher randomly assigns
participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical
except for the independent variable (the one thought to have a casual effect on peoples
responses)
independent variable - Answers -the variable a researcher changes or varies to see if it
has an effect on some other variable
dependent variable - Answers -the variables researcher measures to see if it is
influenced by the independent variable the researcher hypothesizes that the dependent
variable will depend on the level of independent variable
random assignment to condition - Answers -a process ensuring that all participants
have an equal chance of taking part in any condition of an experiment; through random
assignment, researchers can be relatively certain that differences in the participants'
personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions
probability level (p value) - Answers -a number calculated with statistical techniques
that tells researchers how likely it is that the results of their experiment occurred by
chance. if the probability level is less than 5 in 100 that the results might be due to
chance factors and not the independent variables studied.
internal validity - Answers -making sure that nothing besides the independent variable
can affect the dependent variable; this is accomplished by controlling all extraneous
variables and by randomly assigning people to different experimental conditions.
