EXAM 1, 2, & 3 Q & A's

Dr. Smith created a survey of political opinions. He wants to administer it to participants of a different culture and language. To ensure the survey was properly translated he would

Back translate the survey

The Nuremberg Code is a(n)

Code of medical and research ethics

Graphically, the results of a factorial interaction are depicted with

Intersecting lines

In the t-test, the degrees of freedom are a function of

The sample size

The simplest possible factorial design is a

2 x 2

A factorial design in which participants are randomly assigned to groups is called a __________ design.

Between-subjects factorial

Pretest sensitization occurs when

Completing a pretest changes how participants respond to the independent variable

An approach that studies the strength of the relation between two variables is a(n)

Correlation

Students are asked to recall two lists, List A and List B. The lists are presented by the same research assistant, under the same conditions, and in the exact same order each time. Given this design, you would want to consider the issue of

Counterbalancing

John describes himself as a hard-working conservative and traditional male from the Midwest. He attributes these traits to how he was raised by his family. He is identifying his

Culture

__________ research methods do not involve the manipulation of variables by the researcher.

Descriptive

If a significant main effect involves an independent variable that has more than two conditions, the main effect is interpreted by

Doing post hoc tests

As a psychology student, you conduct a series of studies investigating behaviors among children of divorced parents, and you formulate a theory that parental divorce negatively affect childhood social skills. You are using __________ reasoning.

Inductive

The effect of a single independent variable is a(n)

Main effect

In an experiment, the independent variable is

Manipulated

Dr. Snow studies attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among 4th grade students by attending the 4th grade class and spending the majority of time tallying how often students fidget in their seats. Dr. Snow is a(n)

Observer as participant

Replication of previous research must include __________ variables.

Operationally defined

Which of the following survey method results in the highest completion rate?

Personal interviews conducted in the participant's home

A qualitative research report may lack a(n)

Results section reporting statistical significance of the findings

In the analysis of a two-way factorial design, how many main effects are tested?

Two

Experimental studies are unique in that they help researchers understand __________ a cause-and-effect relation occurs.

Why

In a culture that values monogamy and loyalty, interviewing couples about infidelity could lead to

A response set

If you were a professor, what advice would you give a student who proposes the following research project in order to increase the efficiency of the experiment? Study 1 will investigate the effect of an instructor's gender on student evaluations of the course and Study 2 will investigate the effect of upper level versus lower level courses on student evaluations of the course.

Conduct a 2 x 2 factorial design instead of two individual experiments

To learn what other studies have discovered about the research problem of interest, a researcher would

Conduct a literature review

A clinical psychologist treats a client with a very unique presentation of symptoms. The psychologists writes a report detailing the client's symptoms and the treatment process. This is an example of a(n)

Descriptive

Inferential statistics such as t-tests are used to test

Differences between condition means

Imagine that you are conducting a study involving adolescents who live in a residential facility. You randomize some residents to receive information about nutrition and healthy eating. The other residents do not receive this information. Which of the following may threaten the internal validity of your results?

Diffusion of treatment

The primary difference between quasi-experiments and true experiments is that quasi-experiments

Do not involve random assignment

If the independent variable had absolute no effect on participants' responses, all of the variance in the data is __________ variance.

Error

A researcher is studying the effect of caffeine on students' performance on a visual-spatial test. He tells his research assistant that some students are visual-spatial "gifted" and other students are visual-spatial "challenged," even though there are no actual differences between the two groups. After the assistant collects the data, the results indicate that the "gifted" group outperformed the "challenged" group. This illustrates

Experimenter expectancies

Study 1 investigated the effects of a new medication on blood pressure. The groups included either 40 mg of the medication or a placebo. Study 2 proposes to investigate the same medication in the following groups: 10 mg, 20 mg, 30 mg, or placebo. Study 2 is an example of an

Extension

If administering a pretest to all participants sensitized the participants to the future treatment, __________ has been threatened.

External validity

If the vast majority of psychological research studied Behavior A exclusively in Species X and Species Y, the __________ is threatened.

External validity

As a researcher, you have spend several months conducting literature reviews and composing your research project. At last, your data do not support your hypothesis. You decide to go back to the raw data to correct any deficiencies. You are most likely committing

Fabrication of data

In a pie graph partitioning the variability of a factorial design with two independent variables, there are __________ "slices" in the pie

Four

A between-within factorial design

Has features of a randomized groups and repeated measures design

The simplest possible experimental design

Has two conditions

Compared to true experiments, quasi-experiments tend to

Have lower internal validity

A researcher measures students' understanding of plagiarism before and another administering a training session to teach students about honesty. Between the pre- and post-assessments, the students' instructor gave a lecture about ethical behavior. The researcher should consider which of the following threats to internal validity?

History

What is the most important part about an experiment?

Internal validity

When interpreting factorial design data as presented on a line graph

Main effects are parallel lines and interactions are converging lines

A researcher has the following items on a survey, in which items 1 and 2 are scored differently than items 3 and 4: 1. I drink every day. 2. I drink more than I should. 3. My drinking is under control. 4. I drink very little. The researcher is trying to control for

Nay-saying

A probability value equal to .07 would be interpreted as

Near statistical significance

A(n) __________ scale allows data to be rank ordered.

Ordinal

A researcher asks participants to complete a brief, trail making test at two points, with 24 hours between testing. The researcher uses the same test for constancy at each assessment. At the post test, participants' scores were significantly better. The researcher should consider the effect of

Practice effects

Alcohol is a depressant and has a different effect on the brain than nicotine, which is a stimulant. However, when an individual drinks and smokes simultaneously, this appears to create a novel, third effect on the brain. This third effect an example of

Synergistic effects

Which of the following is an advantage of matched-sets over randomized groups designs?

The experimental groups are more likely to be similar

A professor wants to know if having her students watch an online tutorial explaining what plagiarism is and how to avoid it will decrease incidents of plagiarism in her class. She randomly assigns students to either watch the tutorial or not to watch it. She tracks incidents of plagiarism before and after the tutorial is shown. The dependent variable is

The rate of plagiarism

Unlike experimental research reports, a qualitative research report would incorporate

The views of informants

Why do researchers not conduct several t-tests to analyze experiments that have more than two conditions?

Type I error is inflated

Failing to reject the null hypothesis when it is false is

Type II error

An extraneous variable is also referred to as a confounding variable because it can have a(n) __________ influence on the experiment.

Unintended

A difference between means that is statistically significant is

Unlikely to be due to error variance

A researcher designed an experiment in which four independent variables were manipulated. Which of the following is most likely to describe his design?

2 x 2 x 4 x 3

An experiment which two independent variables, both of which have three levels would be indicated as a __________ design?

3 x 3

An effect size of .40 indicates that

40% of the variability in the dependent variable is due to the independent variable

An experiment in which the researcher does not know which treatment the participants receive is an example of

A single-blind experiment

An ex post facto study means that a researcher is studying the effects of a variable

After the fact

High inter observer reliability is an indication of __________ among observers.

Agreement

Which of the following contribute to error variance?

All of the above (treating individual participants differently, differences in participants' personal characteristics, participants' current moods, & measurement error)

What statistical analysis is used to analyze data from experimental designs that involve more than two conditions?

Analysis of variance (ANOVA)

Using letters and photographs found in the Archives of the History of American Psychology to conduct your research is an example of using

Archival data

The precedent for using college students research participants is due to their

Availability

A researcher hypothesizes that babies will fall to sleep more quickly if they can hear the sound of a recorded heartbeat. The null hypothesis for this study is that

Babies who hear a heartbeat will fall asleep just as quickly as those who don't hear a heartbeat

In order to determine the cause-and-effect relations between two variables, a researcher would

Conduct an experiment

Dr. Smith has conducted an extensive literature review, but cannot find an established survey that pertains to her research question. She decided to create her own survey. Prior to conducting her research project, she should

Conduct pilot testing of her survey

A study of college student drinking measures binge drinking by defining a binge as six or more drinks in an occasion. Indicators of risky alcohol use and associated negative consequences are assessed using psychometrically sound instruments. These aspects of the study are described by which of the following components of the scientific method?

Empiricism

In the classic Pavlov experiments investigating conditioning in dogs, the sound of a metronome (which preceded the dogs' exposure to food) is an example of a(n) __________ variable.

Environmental

After conducting a literature review, you conclude that there is strong support for the use of a treatment with hospitalized adolescent females with eating disorders. You propose a study to test the treatment of adolescent females with eating disorders who live at home and receive weekly outpatient treatment. You are testing

Environmental generalization

If the independent variable had absolutely no effect on participants' responses, all of the variance in the data is __________ variance.

Error

Why is it possible for condition means to differ at the end of an experiment even if the independent variable had no effect?

Error variance

A multitude of studies support the finding that people of all cultures have an aversion to the sound of an infant crying. This is an __________ phenomenon.

Etic

An experimental design involves comparing psychology majors and history majors on a measure of study skills and course performance at the end of the semester. Given that the experimenter is unable to randomly assign students to a major (psychology or history), this is an example of a(n)

Ex post facto design

After a large, natural disaster, researchers study the effect of the disaster on mental health functioning among people directly exposed to the disaster compared to those not directly exposed. This is an example of a(n)

Ex post facto study

Dr. Smith is curious if teaching students a relaxation technique will reduce their test taking anxiety. The best research method to evaluate this phenomenon is a(n)

Experiment

If statistical analysis show that the difference between condition means is larger than would be expected on the basis of error variance alone, a researcher will

Fail to reject the null hypotheses

Which of the following is an advantage of repeated measures over randomized groups designs?

Fewer participants are needed

When conducting research in a natural setting, the researcher commits to spending a significant amount of time in the

Field doing observation

A researcher is interested in determining how college student athletes perceive steroid use among other athletes. The researcher prepares a list of questions and conducts several sessions with small groups (about 7-10 athletes). This is an example of a(n)

Focus group

To identify which means differ following a significant F-test, researchers use

Follow-up tests

A clinical psychologist conducted an experiment to examine the effects of three therapeutic approaches on post traumatic stress disorder. He assigned participants randomly to one of three experimental conditions or to a control group that received no treatment. He then collected measures of stress, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and hostility. How many conditions are in this experiment?

Four

Which of the following is the correct order of the research process?

Identify a problem, conduct a literature review, conduct the project, analyze data

An experiment includes randomized participants to receive one of six treatment conditions to evaluate the function of sex and socioeconomic status upon daily functioning. Participants cannot participate in more than one treatment condition. This is an example of __________ in a __________ design

Independent group; factorial

Factor is sometimes used as a synonym for

Independent variable

A document that provides a general statement about a research study and the right to withdraw participation without penalty is called a(n)

Informed consent

If a significant main effect involves an independent variable with two conditions, the main effect is interpreted by

Inspecting the means

A research assistant is conducting a data collection session with a participant, and the stopwatch ails to record. The assistant forgot to check the battery. This is an example of

Instrumentation

A(n) __________ is the joint effect of multiple independent variables on a dependent variable.

Interaction

When the effect of one independent variable differs across the levels of another independent variable, a(n) __________ is present.

Interaction

The degree to which a researcher draws accurate conclusions about the effects of an independent variable refers to a study's

Internal validity

To test if the manipulation of the independent variable has an effect on the dependent variable, a researcher would analyze

Internal validity.

When considering potential complications of a factorial design with four or more independent variables, which of the following statements is true?

Interpretation between interactions of the independent variables becomes more difficult

A factorial design

Involves the manipulation of two or more variables

The simplest possible mixed factorial design

Is a 2 x 2 design

A quasi-experiment variable

Is not manipulated by the researcher

The paired t-test

Is used to analyze within-subjects designs

An example of a stimulus independent variable is the

Lighting level in a lab room

Research suggests that the majority of college student binge drinkers reduce their alcohol user at three years after graduation. If you wanted to replicate these findings, you would need to employ a(n)

Longitudinal study

A research project that involves a lengthy, three-hour long assessment of the dependent variable, without any break period for the participants, may be susceptible to the effects of

Maturation

In an experiment, the dependent variable is

Measured

A __________ design has a mixture of independent groups for one independent variable and correlated groups for another independent variable.

Mixed correlational

A group assignment unique to the factorial design compared to a single independent design is the __________ group

Mixed correlational group

A researcher is studying individuals' mental health beginning when the participants are hospitalized in an inpatient psychiatric ward and continuing as the participants receive outpatient therapy. Which of the following could threaten the internal validity of the remaining sample of participants at the end of the study?

Mortality

Data are susceptible to the reactivity effect when using which of the following research methods?

Naturalistic observation

When graphed, interactions appear as __________ lines.

Nonparallel

Asking college students who are of legal drinking age to self-report their alcohol use is an example of

Participants at minimal risk

Clinical psychologists are not able to randomly assign mental illness to one group and mother another group. Thus, in studying mental illness such as depression, this is a(n)

Physiological variable

The research hypothesis is a(n) __________ about the relation between independent and dependent variables.

Prediction

A directional hypothesis

Predicts which of two means will be larger

One drawback of measuring the dependent variable both before and after the independent variable is manipulated is

Pretest sensitization

Designs in which the dependent variable is measured both before and after the independent variable is manipulated are

Pretest-posttest designs

Who is the coolest person in this room?

Professor Vidal

Of the five basic control techniques, which one ensures that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition?

Randomization

In a __________ design, participants are randomly assigned to one of two or more groups.

Randomized groups

A(n) __________ scale possesses a true zero point.

Ratio

Research suggests that having individuals keep track of their caloric intake helps individuals to reduce their food intake, regardless of exposure to any other treatment. Keeping a food diary as a dependent measure is an example of

Reactive measures

A Type I error can only occur when a researcher

Rejects the null hypothesis

As a job applicant, you are asked to give a presentation about your program research. For such a presentation, you would present a series of

Related studies you have conducted on a topic

A good dependent variable can be measured

Reliably and validly

Asking college students to self-report past incidents of childhood sexual abuse is an example of participants at

Risk due to the potential of emotional risk related to recalling a traumatic event

You conducted an exhaustive literature review, but there are a few publications you cannot gain access to. You should cite the

Secondary source

A factorial design gives the experimenter power to investigate __________ variables in a single experiment

Several independent

There is a substantial amount of research addressing alcohol use among university or college fraternity members, but you hypothesize that alcohol use may vary with religiosity. Therefore, you want to survey specifically religiously-associated fraternities (for example, a Catholic fraternity, a campus Christian fraternity). You are using which of the following research strategies?

Single strata approach

A couple is expecting a child. The male is 5'4" and the female is 5'3." The likelihood that their child will be short, but not quite as short as the parents, is explained by

Statistical regression

To increase objectivity, researchers strive for

Subjectvitiy

Which of the following studies is an example of qualitative research?

Surveying college students' perceptions about alcohol use among peers at their campus

Which of the following is an advantage of repeated measures over randomized groups designs?

The experimental groups are more likely to be similar

In your general psychology class, you are required to participant in research, you sign up to complete a survey about ethical behavior. You assume the researchers want ethical participants in the study and this influences your responses. This is an example of

The good participant effect

Your literature review suggests substantial support of a treatment for civilians with post traumatic stress disorder. When you attempt to replicate the finding in a sample of Vietnam War veterans, you do not get the same results. Which of the following could contribute to your findings?

The interaction of selection and treatment

A researcher designed an experiment to determine whether working under time pressure causes people to make more errors on moderately difficult math problems. In this study, the independent variable is

The time participants were given to complete the problem

A(n) __________ is a formal statement of the relation among variables that is supported by experimental research.

Theory

A(n) __________ is like a state road map and a(n) __________ is like a town map.

Theory; hypothesis

In a two-way design,

There are two main effects and one interaction

In a two way design?

There is one main effect and two interactions

If students who are enrolled in a psychology course are given the option to participate in research (or an alternative) for course credit, what are the obligations of the course instructor?

To explain and discuss the responsibilities of research participation

A qualitative researcher reads a recently published study describing the effects of post traumatic stress disorder on returning soldiers. The researcher wonders if the same results would occur among victims of date rape on college campuses. The researcher is interested in the issue of

Transferability

In a factorial ANOVA, compared to a design with only one independent variable, a major modification of using ANOVA to analyze variability is that the sources of

Treatment variability increase

A variability is an event or behavior that can assume __________ value(s).

Two or more

Correlational studies are helpful when

Variables can be measured but not manipulated

You propose a research project in which you randomize mentally ill kindergarten children to either receive a behavior intervention, medication, or no treatment. Given the nature fo your targeted sample, you must consider the issue of

Vulnerable population

In which of the following situations would it be advisable to conduct multiple simple research studies rather than a more complex factorial design?

When the literature suggests there are multiple factors that influence a dependent variable

When writing a qualitative research report, it is formed predominantly with

Words

After conducting a study, analyzing it, and interpreting the results in the context of past research and theory, Dr. Jones wants to ensure his results are communicated clearly and consistently to his professional field. According to the research process, his next step is to

Write a standard report according to APA format

To evaluate the effectiveness on an intervention aimed at reducing binge drinking among college students, researchers randomize participants to either receive the intervention or to be put on a wait list. Participants are assessed as baseline and follow-up using a binge drinking survey. The independent variable is

Exposure to the intervention or the wait list

In a large, nationwide survey of college student drinkers, participants included 15,000 students from 200 universities and colleges. Participants' gender, race, ethnicity, and age were representative of those in the Census Bureau. This study possess __________ generalization.

Good population

When you conduct a test-retest procedure, you would hope to see __________ similarity among items, and thus __________ reliability.

Greater; higher

Your student interprets research findings at the p= .085 level as significant. By accepting a higher probability, your student is at

Greatest risk of committing Type I error

A researcher wants to study the eating behaviors of college students in the campus cafeteria during the first week of class. She chooses to sit in a corner of the cafeteria and record specific behaviors, such as how many time students refill their drinks. She is conducting which type of research?

Naturalistic observation

Both Researchers A and B propose to study elderly nursing home residents in a rural community. Researcher A chooses to observe residents from a distance. Researcher B chooses to submerse himself among the nursing home residents. Researcher A is demonstrating __________ and Researcher B is demonstrating

Naturalistic observation; participant observation

Research suggests that as physical activity and exercise level increases, one's self-report of depressive symptoms decreases. This is an example of a(n)

Negative correlation

A 3 x 2 x 2 factorial design has __________ condition(s).

None of the above (when the answers are 1, 3, 7, or 16 — the actual answer would be 12).

Research ideas that present themselves in an unpredictable manner are

Nonsystematic

Variations in room temperature or noise level, aversive odors in the lab space, and poor lighting are examples of __________ variables.

Nuisance

In an experiment in which males, both young and old, responded to two potential political candidates' platforms in a similar manners compared to females, the graphical results of the data would appear

Parallel

Dr. Mills is the primary researcher in a study investigating drinking behavior among young adults at bars near a college campus. Dr. Mills goes to the bar and pretends to be a regular patron as she observes others. This is an example of

Participant observation

Which of the following methods would you use to evaluate and understand the impact of a Head Start program in a community of underprivileged preschool children by collecting both qualitative and quantitative data?

Participatory action research

To determine how expectations about the effects of alcohol may influence behavior, researchers exposed Group A to an alcoholic drink and Group B to a non-alcoholic drink manipulated to appear as if it contained alcohol. Behaviors among group participants were observed. The administration of alcohol versus a stimulated alcoholic beverage is an example of a(n) __________ variable.

Physiological

The probability that the results of a study will be statistically significant is

Power

A directional hypothesis

Predict which of the means will be larger

Past research, classroom lectures, and theories are examples of __________ for research ideas.

Systematic sources

What statistic is typically used to test the difference between two means?

T-test

One criticism of the research conducted on racial issues in the 1960s is the lack of

Temporal generalization

A clinical psychologist gains permission from his clients for a student-in-training to sit in on the therapy sessions, observe the therapist's and the clients' behaviors, and take minimal notes. However, the therapist realizes that the clients' behaviors often differ from previous sessions. This is an example of

The Hawthorne Effect

A power analysis is often used to determine

The number of participants needed for a study

Which of the following is an advantage of within-subjects design over between-subjects designs?

They require fewer participants

Making naturalistic observations at different periods is an example of

Time sampling

In a 3 x 4 factorial design, __________ main effect(s) can be examined,

Two

How many additional groups would be required to conduct a 3 x 2 x 3 factorial design compared to a 3 x 2 x 2 design?

6

Dr. Smith designs a study to examine the effectiveness of giving college students who visit the student health center a pamphlet on the importance of healthy sleep habits. Dr. Smith obtains the participants' email addresses, and two weeks later, emails a survey assessing their sleep quality. Dr. Smith's study design could be improved with the addition of

A control

A researcher proposes to study Residents of City A and Residents of City B at Time 1 and Time 2 using the same measure at each time point. Which of the following best describes this research design

A repeated-measures mixed model ANOVA

If the results of a factorial design with more than two levels of the independent variable are significant but not explained by an interaction, the researcher should

Conduct post hoc comparisons to determine where the significance lies.

To protect against a researchers subjective bias, qualitative data are judged by their

Confirmability

Blood sugar levels rise and fall in response to various factors including when one last ate. Dr. Jones wants to measure participants' glucose levels over the course of a two-week treatment protocol. She arranges for participants' blood to be drawn every morning, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m., before the participants consume breakfast. She is exerting which type of control?

Constancy

Dr. Jones reviews the literature to assess the usefulness of an inventory measuring anxiety symptoms in elderly nursing home residents. He determines that there is very low interrater reliability among expert nurses who administer this inventory. This is a threat to the inventory's __________ validity.

Content

If a researcher conducts a study in which she directly manipulates a variable of interest to determine its effects on another variable, she is exerting __________ in the research design.

Control

A college student enrolls in an introduction to Psychology course. The syllabus states that all students must participate in research conducted by psychology faculty or complete a comparable, alternative assignment. The policy creates __________ for researchers.

Convenience sampling

In a factorial design, a completely within-groups design refers to

Correlated groups

Frank Boas set the stage for qualitative research when he

Described the Inuit people of the 1880s

A new psychopharmacological drug to treat depression will significantly reduce depressive symptoms among patients compared to patients who receive a placebo drug. This is an example of a(n) __________ hypothesis.

Directional

An experimenter hires you as a research project coordinator. Your role is to randomize the participants to groups, create a code list identifying which participants receive which treatment, and conceal materials so that the research assistants, experimenter, and participants are unaware of which treatment is administered to which group. You are coordinating a __________ study.

Double-blind

When simple random assignment is used

Each participant has an equal probability of being placed in any experimental condition

In a within-subjects design

Each participant serves in all experimental conditions

The proportion of the variability in a dependent variable that is due to the independent variable is

Effect size

Written, objective scoring instructions established prior to conducting the study helps to control for

Experimenter expectancies

Typically, behavioral researchers set the alpha-level such that they will make a Type I error __________ percent of the time.

5

Calculate the number of treatment combinations in a 3 x 2 factorial design

6

Multiple studies have documented that as one's amount of time spent in a sedentary state increases, the likelihood of obesity increases. This is an example of a(n)

Positive correlation