PSYCHOLOGY 235
# Term Definition
1 Ecology Scientific study of relationship of living
organism with each other and their
environment
2 Ecological validity Seeks to determine whether the impacts of the
important relationships among scientist, the
participants and then context have been
considered fully in evaluating a given piece of
research what
3 What are subject factors? -potential source of misinterpretation - present
when researcher participants are not behaving
in a way we expect them to behave
4 What is placebo factors? - potential problems in an experiment -
phenomenon that some people show
physiological changes just from the suggestion
that a change will take place
5 What are experimenter effects? Portion of the results of an experiment affected
by the attitude or behaviour of the
experimenter
6 What are the two types of 1) Those due to biased data collection by the
experimenter effects? experimenter 2) Those stemming from the
experimenters biasing the participants
performance
7 Who is Bessel? Bessel was an astronomer. He pointed out the
effect that inherent differences in
experimenters can have on the data they record
8 Personal equations The constant error in the observations of
different scientist
9 What is self-fulfilling prophesy? Our passionate commitment to our hypotheses
may lead us to give special attention to the
outcomes we expect from our research
10 What are biased interactions with - Consider yourself a participant - Research
research participants? participants might react differently to different
experimenters
, PSYCHOLOGY 235
# Term Definition
11 What are some ways to avoid - use several different experimenters - keep the
experimenters bias? person who is interacting with the participants
blind to: the hypothesis and the particular
groups with which he or she is working and try
consciously to see the experiment from varying
perspectives
12 What is paradigm? An accepted worldview. Ideas about the value of
what one is doing and specific assumptions
about how the world operates
13 What are the three main control 1) Control as related to participant assignment
techniques used to reduce 2) Control as related as experimental design 3)
threats to internal validity? Control as related to the logic of
experimentation
14 What is random Each individual in the population had an equal
selection/sampling? chance of being chosen for the sample. It
reduces selection bias and can be accomplished
in many ways
15 What is participant assignment? We need to try to make sure out groups are
equivalent on variable that might influence the
scores on the DV
16 What is elimination procedure? Limit your participants to one level of the
potential confound only. It eliminates the
confound but it severely limits your external
validity
17 What is equating/matching Assign participants in a way that the two groups
procedure? are equal with respect to the potential
confound. It controls for the confound but
becomes tricky as the number of identified
potential confounds grow
18 What is counterbalancing Assign participants in a predetermined manner
procedure? in which each condition appears equally often,
and each condition precedes and follows the
other condition an equal number of times.
19 What is random assignment? Group membership is based on chance and
each participant is assignment solely on chance.
Every participant has an equal probability of
being placed in each group
# Term Definition
1 Ecology Scientific study of relationship of living
organism with each other and their
environment
2 Ecological validity Seeks to determine whether the impacts of the
important relationships among scientist, the
participants and then context have been
considered fully in evaluating a given piece of
research what
3 What are subject factors? -potential source of misinterpretation - present
when researcher participants are not behaving
in a way we expect them to behave
4 What is placebo factors? - potential problems in an experiment -
phenomenon that some people show
physiological changes just from the suggestion
that a change will take place
5 What are experimenter effects? Portion of the results of an experiment affected
by the attitude or behaviour of the
experimenter
6 What are the two types of 1) Those due to biased data collection by the
experimenter effects? experimenter 2) Those stemming from the
experimenters biasing the participants
performance
7 Who is Bessel? Bessel was an astronomer. He pointed out the
effect that inherent differences in
experimenters can have on the data they record
8 Personal equations The constant error in the observations of
different scientist
9 What is self-fulfilling prophesy? Our passionate commitment to our hypotheses
may lead us to give special attention to the
outcomes we expect from our research
10 What are biased interactions with - Consider yourself a participant - Research
research participants? participants might react differently to different
experimenters
, PSYCHOLOGY 235
# Term Definition
11 What are some ways to avoid - use several different experimenters - keep the
experimenters bias? person who is interacting with the participants
blind to: the hypothesis and the particular
groups with which he or she is working and try
consciously to see the experiment from varying
perspectives
12 What is paradigm? An accepted worldview. Ideas about the value of
what one is doing and specific assumptions
about how the world operates
13 What are the three main control 1) Control as related to participant assignment
techniques used to reduce 2) Control as related as experimental design 3)
threats to internal validity? Control as related to the logic of
experimentation
14 What is random Each individual in the population had an equal
selection/sampling? chance of being chosen for the sample. It
reduces selection bias and can be accomplished
in many ways
15 What is participant assignment? We need to try to make sure out groups are
equivalent on variable that might influence the
scores on the DV
16 What is elimination procedure? Limit your participants to one level of the
potential confound only. It eliminates the
confound but it severely limits your external
validity
17 What is equating/matching Assign participants in a way that the two groups
procedure? are equal with respect to the potential
confound. It controls for the confound but
becomes tricky as the number of identified
potential confounds grow
18 What is counterbalancing Assign participants in a predetermined manner
procedure? in which each condition appears equally often,
and each condition precedes and follows the
other condition an equal number of times.
19 What is random assignment? Group membership is based on chance and
each participant is assignment solely on chance.
Every participant has an equal probability of
being placed in each group
