FRQ Terms by Unit
Wow! What a resource. Especially during this wacky year where 100% of your AP Psych grade will be FRQ based. Below is document created by Ms. Stiles that shows every FRQ term tested by the College Board in the last 9 years. Do you want a great place to start your studying? I'd start right here. Let's use this post to discuss any terms that you don't feel 100% comfy with.
I'll start off with a commonly confused term from Unit 1 that's appeared 6 times in the last 9 years, operational definitions. Scientific research requires that we can quantify our findings. That means we need to be able to measure our variables using numbers so that we can performance helpful statistical analysis of the variables. The problem in psych is that sometimes the variables we are measuring don't have rules on how to measure them.
We have rules on how to measure height (inches and feet), time (seconds and hours), speed (miles per hour) and temperature (degrees in Fahrenheit or Celsius). But what if your variable is success in school. What will be your rule to measure that. We often use GPA as the set of rules. But is that the best definition of academic success? What are the specifics of your rule. Does it weight harder classes as more? Does it count PE?
When you do psych research you need to create rules on how you plan to measure your variables. You need to explain those rules very carefully so that additional research that is done can be compared to your findings. You can't compare a study that uses an unweighted definition of GPA and compare that directly one that does weighted. The data isn't the same. Making a clearly defined operational definition helps keep this clear.
An operational definition is the statement of procedures the researcher is going to use in order to measure a specific variable.
I'll start off with a commonly confused term from Unit 1 that's appeared 6 times in the last 9 years, operational definitions. Scientific research requires that we can quantify our findings. That means we need to be able to measure our variables using numbers so that we can performance helpful statistical analysis of the variables. The problem in psych is that sometimes the variables we are measuring don't have rules on how to measure them.
We have rules on how to measure height (inches and feet), time (seconds and hours), speed (miles per hour) and temperature (degrees in Fahrenheit or Celsius). But what if your variable is success in school. What will be your rule to measure that. We often use GPA as the set of rules. But is that the best definition of academic success? What are the specifics of your rule. Does it weight harder classes as more? Does it count PE?
When you do psych research you need to create rules on how you plan to measure your variables. You need to explain those rules very carefully so that additional research that is done can be compared to your findings. You can't compare a study that uses an unweighted definition of GPA and compare that directly one that does weighted. The data isn't the same. Making a clearly defined operational definition helps keep this clear.
An operational definition is the statement of procedures the researcher is going to use in order to measure a specific variable.
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