Unit 0: Science Practices
Practice 1: Concept Application
1.A Apply psychological perspectives, theories, concepts and research findings to scenario.
1.B Explain how cultural norms, expectations and circumstances, as well as cognitive biases
apply to behavior and mental processes.
Practice 2: Research Methods and Design
2.A Determine the type of research design(s) used in a given study.
2.B. Evaluate the appropriate use of research design elements in experimental
methodology.
2.C Evaluate the appropriate use of research design elements in non-experimental
methodologies.
2.D Evaluate whether a scenario followed appropriate ethical procedures.
Practice 3: Data Interpretation
3.A Identify psychology related concepts in descriptions or representations of data.
3.B Calculate and interpret measures of central tendency, variation, & percentile rank in a given
data set.
3.C Interpret quantitative or qualitative inferential data from a given table, graph, chart, figure or
diagram.
Practice 4: Argumentation
4.A Propose a defensible claim
4.B Provide Reasoning that is grounded in scientifically derived evidence to support, refute, or modify
an established or provided claim, policy, or norm
Unit 0 – Science Practice Key terms
Perspectives
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Biological/Neuroscience
Evolutionary
Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic
Behavioral
Humanistic
Cognitive
Social-Cultural
Biopsychosocial
Ethics
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IRB
Informed consent
Protect from harm
Confidentiality
Deception (Confederates)
Debriefing
Human and animal ethics
Cognitive Biases
Data interpretation
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Confirmation Bias
Hindsight Bias
Overconfidence
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Research Methods and Design
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Experiment
o Independent, dependent
variables
o Random Assignment
o Experimental and control
group
o placebo
Non-experimental
o Correlation
 Directionality problem
 Third- variable
problem
 Correlation does not
equal causation
o Case study
o Meta-analysis
o Naturalistic observation
Hypothesis
Operational definitions
Confounding variable v third
variable
Sample
o Population
o Representative sample
o Random sample
o Convenience sampling
o Sampling bias
o Sample size
Generalizability
Single blind v Double Blind
Measurement tools Qualitative v Quantitative
Peer Review and
Replication
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Identify variables in
charts/graphs
Central tendency
o Mean
o Median
o Mode
o Range
Normal Curve
o Skew
o Bimodal
o Distribution of scores
o Standard Deviation
Scatterplot
Correlation Coefficient
Interpretation of results
o Effect size
o Statistical
Significance