Psych Final Exam

Which method of acquiring knowledge is used when people make decisions based on instinct or hunches?

intuition

A young child, without doubt or challenge, believes everything their kindergarten teacher says is true. This is an example of ____.

the method of faith

Which potential problem can occur when the rational method is used?

People may lack skills in logical reasoning

When your doctor uses a stethoscope to listen to your heart, the doctor gathers information using the _____.

empirical method

When people make an observation, then form a hypothesis that explains the observation, and the make more observations to test the credibility of the hypothesis, they are using the ____.

scientific method

Using observations of a small number of humans to make a statement about human behavior in general is an example of _____.

inductive reasoning

pseudoscience is based on ___.

subjective evidence

You have dinner reservations at 7:30 at a restaurant that is 30 minutes away, and it is already 7:20, leading you to conclude that you will be late. This is an example of using which method?

empirical method

A researcher is intrigued by an explanation of children’s problem-solving strategies found in a journal article and develops a research study to determine whether the article’s ideas are correct. This study can be classified as_____.

basic research

A potential drawback of secondary sources is that they _____.

Typically do not contain detailed information about any specific study

The review of the literature in the introduction section of a research report is an example of a _____.

secondary source

A renowned resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles is _____.

PsychINFO

Which of the following words or phrases makes the best subject word(s) for a database search?

Extroverts

A brief summary of a psychology article is known as a(n) ____.

Abstract

What is a critical evaluation question you should ask when reading the method section of a research article?

Are the participants representative of the population being considered?

What is a critical evaluation question you should ask when reading the results section of a research article?

Are appropriate statistics used to analyze the findings?

When you identify a gap in the literature, you ____.

Have found a potential research idea

Why should a hypothesis contain a positive statement?

Researchers should assume that a relationship exists between two entities or actions

The purpose of an operational definition is to _____.

b. Provide a definition and a method for measuring a hypothetical construct

If people score low on one measure and then score low on another measure, there is _____.

b.      A positive relationship between the two measures

Research results indicate that the more extracurricular activities people participate in from age 15 to 18, the higher their grades are at graduation. This is an example of ___.

b.      Positive relationship between variables

A measurement procedure has face validity if it ___.

b. Looks like it measures the variable it claims to measure

Which type of validity involves demonstrating that we are measuring one specific construct and not combining two different constructs in the same measurement process?

b.      Divergent validity

Classification systems that describe the nature of information in assigned variable values are known as _____.

a.      Scales of measurement

Using a PET scan to measure brain activity while participants solve mathematics problems is an example of using what modality of measurement?

d.      Physiological

Counting the number of times a third-grade student leaves his seat without permission during a 30-minute observation period is an example of using what modality of measurement?

a.      Behavioral

A researcher plans to evaluate a new reading program by measuring students’ reading skill before and after the program begins. If all the student have high reading skills scores before the program begins, then the measurement procedure has a sensitivity problem known as a _____.

d.      Ceiling effect

A researcher found that the time of day when a test to measure anxiety was taken was an external factor that distorted the measurements of the study. In this study, time of day is ____.

b.      An artifact

A strategy for reducing experimenter bias is to ____.

a.      Standardize the experiment

A participant is upset that they must participate in an experiment and is directing their anger toward sabotaging the study. This participant is _____.

c.      Trying to act in a manner such that their data are in contrast to the hypothesis

What is the name for the type of bias that occurs when the measurements obtained in a study are influenced by the expectations or personal beliefs of the person conducting the study?

c.      Experimenter bias

A participant is overly concerned that their performance in the study will be used to evaluate their abilities or personal characteristics. This is called the ____.

c.      Apprehensive subject role

The responsibility of researchers to be honest and respectful to all individuals who are affected by their research studies or their reports of their studies’ results is known as ____.

a.      Research ethics

The Nuremberg Code was developed

a.      Following war crime trials after World War II in the 1940s

The Tuskegee study involved ____.

d.      Failing to provide treatment for men with syphilis

If individuals are pressured into participating in research because the researcher is in a position of power or authority, then which ethical principle is being compromised?

b.      Informed consent

A teacher pressures all students into participating in a classroom research study. Which ethical principle is being compromised?

a.      Informed consent

One responsibility of the Individual Review Board (IRB) is to ensure that ___.

a.      Human participants will be kept safe in research

One of the primary responsibilities of the IRB is to review carefully ____.

a.      The informed consent procedure

The primary cause of research fraud is ____.

c.      Competitive pressures

The group of individuals from which researchers actually select participants for research studies is called the ___.

d. accessible population

Which statement accurately describes the relationship between accessible populations and target populations?

d. the target population is also sometimes known simply as the population

a reasercher is conducting a study and gathering a random sample by selecting names from a hat. each time a name is selected, the name is removed from the hat. what is a concern regarding the researcher’s use of sampling without replacement?

b. it is a method that does not produce independent selctions

the major advantage of a simple random sample is that it ensures that ___.

c. the selection procedure is unbiased, although its outcome may be biased

a teacher obtains a sample of children from a fifth-grade classroom by randomly selecting the third, fifth, and eighth rows and taking all the students in those rows. this is an example of ___.

d. cluster sampling

A researcher would like to describe and compare the attitudes of four different ethnic groups of students at a local college. To obtain participants for the study while ensuring sufficient numbers of participants from each of the ethnic groups, the researcher should probably use ______.

d. stratified random sampling

One criticism of a stratified random sample is that ______.

d. the sample may not be representative of the population

Which sampling technique is most likely to result in a biased sample?

c. convenience sampling

A non-probability sampling method where researchers select participants based on predetermined proportions within specific demographic categories is called ______.

c. quota sampling

A sample consists of 25 first-year students, 25 second-year students, 25 third-year students, and 25 fourth-year students from a local high school with an equal number of students in each class. If the sample was obtained using a list of all the students in the high school, it is probably an example of stratified random sampling. If the sample was obtained without a list of students, it is likely an example of ______.

b. quota sampling

The probability of observing a significant result if a relationship exists in the population is called ______.

d. statistical power

As the values for one variable increase from one person to another, the values for a second variable tend to decrease. This is an example of a(n) ______.

a. negative relationship

A scatter plot showing the relationship between two variables shows data points that form a straight-line pattern. What kind of relationship is indicated by this pattern?

d. linear

Which research strategy attempts to address questions about cause-and-effect relationships but fails to produce an unambiguous answer because the study contains a flaw?

a. quasi-experimental

Which research strategies produce similar data structures and therefore use similar statistical analyses?

c. experimental, quasi-experimental, nonexperimental

A general approach that is intended to address a specific question is a research ______.

d. strategy

The type of validity that is concerned with factors in the research study that raise doubts or questions about the interpretation of the results is ______.

c. internal validity

When a study produces only one explanation for the results, it is considered ______.

d. internally valid

The factors in a study that raise doubts about the interpretation of the results threaten ______.

a. internal validity

Any characteristic of a study that limits the ability to generalize results from a research study is called a(n) ______.

d. threat to external validity

A researcher studies test anxiety before and after an intervention. The first test occurred a week before midterms and the second test occurred two weeks after exams. This study appears to have a problem with ______.

c. internal validity

Sensitization (repeated exposure to a stimulus) can threaten external validity because results may be limited to ______.

b. individuals who have experienced a pretest

The phenomenon that occurs when the effect of one treatment on a subject is influenced by the effect of another treatment is called ______.

d. multiple treatment interference

In which research situation would an extraneous variable become a confounding variable?

a. an extraneous variable varies systematically with the variables being studied

a research study finds that a group of participants who received relaxation training had lower exam anxiety scores than a group who did not receive training. however, the researcher suspects that the difference between groups may be caused by the fact that the participants in one group are generally smarter than those in the other. this study has a problem with ___.

d. internal validity

A variable in a study that is not being directly studied is known as a(n) ______.

b. extraneous variable

a study examining the relationship between humor and memory compares memory performance scores for one group presented with humorous sentences and a second group presented with nonhumorous sentences. the participants in both groups consist of a mixture of males and females. in this study, gender (male/female) is best characterized as a(n) ____.

a. extraneous variable

A potential threat to the internal validity of a study is ______.

a. the environment of the study

A research study often maximizes the differences for one of the variables to increase the likelihood of revealing a relationship with a second variable. This practice contributes to a concern in validity known as ___.

c. exaggerated variables

When research is conducted in a laboratory, participants may be particularly influenced by ______.

b. reactivity

If a study finds a strong relationship between two variables, this means that ______.

c. there is a relationship between the variables, but causality has not been established

Dr. Ramos is interested in studying how indoor temperature can influence people’s sleep quality during the summer. A sample of 100 households is selected in which the residents keep their houses at 76 degrees during the summer. The residents wear a monitoring device that measures their sleep cycles for several nights to get baseline readings. Then, 50 of the homes are randomly assigned to the warm temperature condition, in which the residents agree to keep their houses at 86 degrees. In the other 50 houses, the residents agree to keep their houses as 70 degrees. For several nights, Dr. Ramos collects the sleep data for the people living in the houses to see how the residents’ sleep patterns have changed. In this study, the independent variable is the ____.

a. temperature of the houses

A researcher is performing an experiment to determine whether eating chocolate can improve reaction time. Measurements of reaction time in this experiment would be the ___.

c. dependent variable

In an experiment, participants are usually assigned to treatments using random assignment. The reason for using random assignment is to ___.

c. help control the huge number of existing extraneous variables

what is the purpose of using a control condition in an experiment?

d. it provides a baseline to evaluate the size of the treatment effect

Dr. Sian varies the amount of a new sedative given to three groups of participants (0, 1, and 2 mg) and then observes the reaction for each group. the 0 mg condition represents the ____.

d. no-treatment control condition

a researcher moves an experiment out of the laboratory and into the real world. this type of research is called a ___.

a. field study

although field studies tend to have higher external validity than traditional laboratory studies, they also tend to have ___.

b. lower internal validity

A design that compares different groups of scores obtained from separate groups of participants is a ___.

b. between-subjects design

in a between-subjects experiment, when the process of assigning participants to the treatment conditions produces groups with different characteristics, the ___.

d. internal validity of the study is threatened

personal characteristics that differ from one participant to another are called ___.

b. individual differences

if a between-subjects study explores the effects of caffeine on appetite by comparing the appetites of teenagers with no caffeine in their systems to the appetites of middle-aged adults with 100 mg of caffeine in their systems, the study is ___.

d. confounded

which is a necessary characteristic of the separate groups in a between-subjects design?

d. the groups must be as similar in participant characteristics as possible