PSY 2012 RECENT STUDY EXAMS GUIDE
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Applied research - ✔✔research examining how we can use basic research to solve
real world problems
✔✔Hypothesis - ✔✔testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
✔✔Prefrontal Lobotomy - ✔✔surgical procedure that severs fibers connecting the
frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus
✔✔Heuristic - ✔✔mental shortcut that helps us streamline our thinking and make sense
of our world
✔✔Representativeness Heuristic - ✔✔heuristic that involves judging the probability of
an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype (judge book by its cover
✔✔base rate - ✔✔how common a characteristic
✔✔availability heuristic - ✔✔heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an
occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our mind
✔✔cognitive biases - ✔✔systematic errors in thinking
, ✔✔Hindsight bias - ✔✔tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully
forecasted known outcomes
✔✔Overconfidence - ✔✔tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct
predictions
✔✔Naturalistic observation - ✔✔watching behavior in real-world setting without trying to
manipulate the situation
✔✔External validity - ✔✔extent to which we can generalize findings to real world
situations
✔✔internal validity - ✔✔extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a
study
✔✔case study - ✔✔research design that examines one person or a small number of
people in depth, often over an extended period of time
✔✔existence proof - ✔✔demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can
occur
✔✔Random selection - ✔✔procedure that ensures every person in a population has an
equal chance of being chosen to participate
✔✔reliability - ✔✔consistency of measurement
✔✔validity - ✔✔extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure
✔✔Response sets - ✔✔tendency of research participants to distort their responses to
questionnaire items
✔✔Correlational Design - ✔✔research design that examines the extent to which two
variables are associated
✔✔scatterplot - ✔✔grouping of points on a two dimensional graph in which each dot
represents a single person's data
✔✔illusory correlation - ✔✔perception of a statistical association between two variables
where none exists
✔✔Experiment - ✔✔research design characterized by random assignment of
participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Applied research - ✔✔research examining how we can use basic research to solve
real world problems
✔✔Hypothesis - ✔✔testable prediction derived from a scientific theory
✔✔Prefrontal Lobotomy - ✔✔surgical procedure that severs fibers connecting the
frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus
✔✔Heuristic - ✔✔mental shortcut that helps us streamline our thinking and make sense
of our world
✔✔Representativeness Heuristic - ✔✔heuristic that involves judging the probability of
an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype (judge book by its cover
✔✔base rate - ✔✔how common a characteristic
✔✔availability heuristic - ✔✔heuristic that involves estimating the likelihood of an
occurrence based on the ease with which it comes to our mind
✔✔cognitive biases - ✔✔systematic errors in thinking
, ✔✔Hindsight bias - ✔✔tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully
forecasted known outcomes
✔✔Overconfidence - ✔✔tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct
predictions
✔✔Naturalistic observation - ✔✔watching behavior in real-world setting without trying to
manipulate the situation
✔✔External validity - ✔✔extent to which we can generalize findings to real world
situations
✔✔internal validity - ✔✔extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a
study
✔✔case study - ✔✔research design that examines one person or a small number of
people in depth, often over an extended period of time
✔✔existence proof - ✔✔demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can
occur
✔✔Random selection - ✔✔procedure that ensures every person in a population has an
equal chance of being chosen to participate
✔✔reliability - ✔✔consistency of measurement
✔✔validity - ✔✔extent to which a measure assesses what it purports to measure
✔✔Response sets - ✔✔tendency of research participants to distort their responses to
questionnaire items
✔✔Correlational Design - ✔✔research design that examines the extent to which two
variables are associated
✔✔scatterplot - ✔✔grouping of points on a two dimensional graph in which each dot
represents a single person's data
✔✔illusory correlation - ✔✔perception of a statistical association between two variables
where none exists
✔✔Experiment - ✔✔research design characterized by random assignment of
participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable
