UH Manoa PSY100 Masuda Exam 1 Study Guide Questions and answers

directionality problem - a problem encountered in correlational studies; the researchers find a relationship between two variables, but they cannot determine which variable may have caused changes in the other variable observer bias - systematic errors in observation that occur because of an observer's expectations selection bias - in an experiment, unintended differences between the participants in different groups; it could be caused by nonrandom assignment to groups confirmation bias - ignoring or downplaying evidence that is inconsistent with one's beliefs stream of consciousness - a phrase coined by William James to describe each person's continuous series of ever-changing thoughts localization of function - the idea that various brain regions have particular functions personality psychology - the study of enduring characteristics that people display over time and across circumstances nature/nurture debate - the arguments concerning whether psychological characteristics are biologically innate or acquired through education, experience, and culture descriptive research - research designed to observe behavior and describe that behavior systematically and objectively experimental research - research designed to discover causal relationships between variables psychological science - the study, through research, of mind, brain, and behaviorhindsight bias - accepting after-the-fact explanations; reinterpreting old evidence to make sense of an unexpected outcome correlational research - research designed to describe and predict how variables are naturally related in the real world, without any attempt by the researcher to alter them or assign causation between them Law of Parsimony - Occam's Razor, the idea that good theories tend toward simplicity reliability - the degree to which a measure is stable and consistent over time confound - anything that affects a dependent variable and may unintentionally vary between the experimental conditions of a study replication - repetition of a research study to confirm or contradict the results reactivity - the phenomenon that occurs when knowledge that one is being observed alters the behavior being observed Hawthorne effect - another name for reactivity experimenter expectancy effect - actual change in the behavior of the people or nonhuman animals being observed that is due to the expectations of the observer