Final Exam Prep Research Methods

Dr. Gahan decides to create a questionnaire asking about people's attitudes toward immigration (a socially sensitive topic). He should be most concerned about which of the following?

fence sitting

Which of the following is true regarding interrogating frequency claims?

The chief concern is to evaluate the sampling technique

Which of the following is true when asking people questions about themselves?

The confidence people have in their memories is not strongly related to the accuracy of their memory

What was the primary ethical concern in the Milgram study?

The potential risks to participants outweighed the value of knowledge we can gain

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

The specification of operational definitions is one of the creative aspects of the research process.

For a third variable to be plausible as the explanation in an established association, which of the following must also be true?

The third variable must be related to both of the measured variables in the original association

Which of the following is a reason why multiple regression designs are inferior to experimental designs?

They can only control for third variables that are measured

Which of the following is true about outliers?

They have the biggest effect when dealing with small sample sizes

What do purposive, convenience, quota, and snowball sampling have in common?

They result in samples where some people are systematically left out.

How do reverse-worded items address the issue of shortcuts in surveys?

They slow down readers, making them answer more carefully.

Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer plans to give his survey only to his Psychology and Law students because he sees them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and he can spare the class time (unlike in his Introduction to Neuroscience class, which only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Which of the following is true?

This will lead to a biased sample because the type of students who take Psychology and Law may be different from the type of students who take Introduction to Neuroscience.

Which of the following involves using evidence from the senses or from instruments that assist the senses as the basis for conclusions?

empiricism

Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Rodriquez is concerned about the validity of the measure of narcissism recommended by her colleague. She sends a copy of the measure to the faculty members in her psychology department to look at, and they all tell her it looks like it will measure narcissism. She now has evidence of which of the following?

face validity

Deci and Ryan (1985, 2001) have proposed that three fundamental needs are required for human growth and fulfillment: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Susan predicts that students who have these needs met in their psychology class feel happier and more satisfied with the class. She collects data and finds that students who feel more related and competent do feel happier, but that feeling more autonomous does not seem to matter. Susan thinks that maybe autonomy is necessary only when people are in situations in which they are not being evaluated. Deci and Ryan's general statement of how the three needs are related to growth and fulfillment is an example of which of the following?

a theory

Which of the following is the correct ordering of the sections of an empirical journal article?

abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, references

Dr. Gore is conducting a survey examining people's opinions toward funding for collegiate athletics on his campus. He notices that several participants agree with all 12 questions. This is most likely due to

acquiescence

Which of the following is an example of applied research?

an educational psychologist who looks for a way to increase math skills in eight-year-olds

In considering whether research is ethical, which of the following are balanced against each other?

risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained

Statistical significance depends on which of the following?

sample size and effect size

Which of the following studies is an example of a longitudinal design?

Dr. Benson's study in which she measured people's spatial manipulation ability in August and measured their ability again in May after they had taken two semesters of art classes

Which of the following is an association claim?

"Owning a dog is related to higher life satisfaction."

Which popular media headline might suggest that a multiple regression has been used?

"Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacation is controlled for."

When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which two questions should you ask yourself as you read?

"What is the argument?" and "What is the evidence to support the argument?"

If an experiment cannot be done for practical or ethical reasons related to manipulating the variable of interest, which of the following events should happen?

A longitudinal correlational design could be done instead

Dr. Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Imagine that Dr. Kushner is a clinical psychologist who volunteers his time at a local prison counseling several inmates. Because of his connections there, he is considering using prisoners as his participants. Why is this choice potentially problematic?

According to the Belmont Report, prisoners are entitled to special protection

Why do studies that use probability samples have excellent external validity?

All members of the population are equally likely to be represented in the sample

Dr. Farah is an educational psychologist who is interested in studying the potential causal relationship between doing homework and academic achievement. In January, Dr. Farah has her students report their fall GPA (a measure of academic achievement) and estimate how many hours they spent doing homework during a typical week in the fall semester. In May, Dr. Farah measures the same variables again (the estimated number of hours spent doing homework during a typical week in the spring semester and their spring GPA). She finds the following correlations: Based on her pattern of correlations, which of the following can Dr. Farah safely conclude?

Because Correlation 3 is significant but Correlation 4 is not, Dr. Farah has evidence that increased homework comes before academic achievement.

Two biases of intuition discussed in the text are

Being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind

Dr. Farah is an educational psychologist who is interested in studying the potential causal relationship between doing homework and academic achievement. In January, Dr. Farah has her students report their fall GPA (a measure of academic achievement) and estimate how many hours they spent doing homework during a typical week in the fall semester. In May, Dr. Farah measures the same variables again (the estimated number of hours spent doing homework during a typical week in the spring semester and their spring GPA). She finds the following correlations: Imagine that Dr. Farah noted a cyclical, reinforcing relationship between homework and academic achievement. For this to be case, which of the following correlations would need to be significant?

Correlations 3 and 4

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings: Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, -.37] Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60] In evaluating Dr. Guidry's study, you question the construct validity of the study. Which of the following questions would you be asking?

How reliable is the measure of daily stress?

When you are interrogating the external validity of a sample, which is the most important question to ask?

How was the sample collected?

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.

In his measure of "need for cognition" (the degree to which people like thinking and problem-solving), Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: "I have never not enjoyed thinking." What is the problem with this question?

It has a double negative

In developing a measure of "need for cognition" (the degree to which people like thinking and problem-solving), Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: "I frequently solve and enjoy solving crossword puzzles and Sudoku puzzles." What is the problem with this question?

It is a double-barreled question

Why is plagiarism a violation of ethics?

It is akin to lying

What is the relationship between moderators and external validity?

Moderators suggest that associations may not generalize to all subgroups of people

Which of the following ethical violations did NOT occur in the Tuskegee Study?

Participants in the study were given/infected with the disease

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings: Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, -.37] Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60] Which of the following conclusions can Dr. Guidry draw about the number of friends one has and life satisfaction based on her statistical analyses?

People with more friends tend to report greater life satisfaction

Which of the following is the most direct way to control for question order effects?

Prepare different versions of the survey, varying the order of the questions

Which of the following graph formats is the best way to examine an association claim between a categorical variable and a quantitative variable? Correct!

a bar graph

translational research is best thought of as _________ basic research and applied research

a bridge between

A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have

a comparison group that did not receive the drug

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following?

a confirmation bias

Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the researchers recorded how many errors participants committed. This is an example of which of the following?

a measured variable

Naomi is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for her research methods project. To do this, she has elementary school students rate how popular each member of their class is. She then uses this information to rank the students on popularity (e.g., John is the most popular, Vanessa is the second-most popular). Which of the following best describes this variable?

an ordinal scale of measurement

Research that is done specifically to add to our general understanding of psychology, like distinguishing the components of extraversion or predicting the time it takes a person to determine whether an object is a face or another object, is known as

basic research

Which of the following allow us to make strong predictions using association claims?

both strong positive associations and strong negative associations

Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making?

causal claim

If researchers measure every member of a population, they have

conducted a census

To evaluate how well a study supports a frequency claim, you need to focus most on evaluating which of the following validities?

construct validity and external validity

If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?

edited books

Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. Dr. Sheffield has now decided that he wants to test his measure on some university students (who some estimates say have a 6% prevalence rate of compulsive gambling). He has a group of 100 university students complete his measure. He also has them complete two other measures (one that measures addictive behavior in general and one that measures general attitudes toward gambling). He finds that his new measure is positively associated with each of these other measures. This procedure has provided evidence for the ________ of Dr. Sheffield's measure.

convergent validity

Dr. Farah is an educational psychologist who is interested in studying the potential causal relationship between doing homework and academic achievement. In January, Dr. Farah has her students report their fall GPA (a measure of academic achievement) and estimate how many hours they spent doing homework during a typical week in the fall semester. In May, Dr. Farah measures the same variables again (the estimated number of hours spent doing homework during a typical week in the spring semester and their spring GPA). She finds the following correlations: Which of the correlations is an autocorrelation?

correlation 2

In a multiple regression design, ________ variable is to dependent variable as ________ variable is to independent variable.

criterion; predictor

When conducting longitudinal research, researchers typically find ________ to be the most interesting.

cross- lag correlations

Dr. White reads about a new theory that states that depression is caused by increased levels of estrogen in the womb. To test this theory, she conducted a study comparing the level of estrogen in amniotic fluid in individuals who were later diagnosed with depression with the level of those who did not develop depression. Dr. White found no differences between the groups in estrogen levels in the amniotic fluid. In this study, estrogen levels in participants were the

data

Dr. Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Upon receiving institutional review board (IRB) approval, Dr. Kushner trusts that his graduate student will conduct the study. However, his graduate student does not conduct the study and instead provides Dr. Kushner with invented results that support his hypotheses. This is known as which of the following?

data fabrication

Which of the following determines the construct validity of a survey question?

how well it is worded

In understanding "controlling for" a third variable, which of the following is a similar concept? Correct!

identifying subgroups

What does it mean that "reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity"?

if a measure is valid, it is also reliable

What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?

inferences drawn from behavioral research are not as expected to explain all cases

Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Before using the measure in her study, Dr. Rodriquez analyzes the data she gets from her students. She looks at the relationship between each of the individual questions. She sees that participants who agree with Question 1 also agree with Question 3 and disagree with Question 2. This is a test of which of the following?

internal reliability

Dr. Leising conducts observational studies of adolescents interacting with peers during problem-solving tasks. She records each 30-minute interaction and then has the students in her laboratory code prosocial behaviors in the adolescents as they view each video. Because she has several students coding the videos, she calculates how reliable their scores are with each other by having them all code the same videos periodically. Which type of reliability is Dr. Leising calculating?

interrater reliability

Which of the following is the reason that scientific journals use peer review?

it ensures that the studies published are of the highest quality

Which of the following is a suitable reason for using debriefing in a study?

it informs participants about the presence and purpose of deception in a study

Dr. Stewart is an editor of a psychology journal. She wants to ensure that reviewers give honest reviews of the papers they are asked to read. Which of the following could she do to increase the likelihood of honest feedback?

make sure the peer reviewers are anonymous

If a researcher is asking why the relationship between two variables exists, they are curious about which of the following?

mediation

Matthew is reading an empirical journal article and wants to know whether the authors used the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) or the NEO-PI to measure extraversion. In which section would he find this information?

method

Dr. Tanaka is an educational psychologist interested in students' attitudes toward science and the effect of those attitudes on performance on standardized tests. He chooses his local school district to study. There are 15 high schools, and he randomly chooses five. Then, of the 2,500 students in each of those five schools, he randomly recruits 250 students. This is an example of which of the following sampling techniques?

multistage sample

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings. Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, -.37] Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60] Dr. Guidry has decided to examine one of her relationships with a scatterplot to double-check for a curvilinear relationship. Which relationship will be most important for her to examine?

number of friends one has and experience of daily stress

Masked or blind study designs are designed to deal with

observer bias

A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year. In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class. At the end of the year, the "bloomers" showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways. This is an example of which of the following?

observer effects

According to the Belmont Report, which of the following groups of people is entitled to special protection?

people with developmental disabilities

another word for hypothesis is a(n)

prediction

Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He writes the following questions for his survey: Which of the questions above is an example of a question that uses a Likert scale?

question B

Dr. Choi is studying the extent to which Asian American mothers enforce gender roles at home. She wants to ensure that her sample includes 50 first generation, 50 second generation, and 50 third generation immigrants. If Dr. Choi obtains her particular sample by putting flyers in the local Asian grocery store, which of the following sampling techniques is she using?

quota sampling

Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr. Ewell is concerned that the children will behave differently because of the presence of research assistants. He is concerned about

reactivity

When conducting animal research, which guideline states that alternatives to animal research should be considered?

replacement

Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer needs to avoid which of the following if he hopes to have an unbiased sample?

sampling only those students who come to class frequently

Dr. Chandler is a personality psychologist who is interested in studying the characteristics of people who report being abducted by UFOs. She finds several people in an online support group for UFO abductees to participate and asks them if they can provide the names and contact information of other people who have also been abducted. Upon contacting these new participants, she asks them to refer her to even more people they may know who have been abducted. This is an example of what kind of sampling?

snowball sampling

A study finds a correlation coefficient of r = .52. This number gives you information about which of the following?

strength and direction of the relationship

Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer could reasonably use his sample to say something about which of the following populations of interest?

students who have taken a class with Dr. Kramer

Convenience sampling relies on which of the following?

studying people who are easy to find

Professor Adeyemi is examining well-being after retirement in a city, and it is important to have excellent external validity. Professor Adeyemi selects two random numbers, 4 and 6, and gets a list of all of the retired people in the city. If Professor Adeyemi obtains the sample by starting with the 4th person on the list and selecting every 6th person, which of the following sampling techniques is most likely being used?

systematic sampling

Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following?

the availability heuristic

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings: Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, -.37] Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60] Matt, Dr. Guidry's research assistant, is discussing the findings of the study with some other students. He claims that the experience of more daily stress causes people to have lower life satisfaction. Which of the following causal criteria did Matt meet?

the covariance of cause and effect

A common finding in the study of aggression is that exposure to television is associated with increased aggressive behavior in children. You know this relationship may not be causal because you are not sure which occurred first: watching television or being aggressive. You are questioning which of the following rules of causation?

the criterion of temporal precedence

Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. Which of the following is a variable in this study?

the gender of the participant

In addition to the three principles derived from the Belmont Report, which of the following two principles were added in the principles put forth by the American Psychological Association?

the principle of integrity and fidelity/responsibility

A correlation coefficient and a scatterplot both provide which of the following pieces of information?

the strength and direction of the relationship between two measurements

Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish is also curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Clarissa's concern is addressing which of the following?

the study's construct validity

A common finding in the study of aggression is that exposure to television is associated with increased aggressive behavior in children. You are curious as to whether peer pressure is really to blame (peer pressure encourages you to watch television and peer pressure encourages you to be aggressive). You are questioning which of the following criteria of causation? Correct!

the third- variable criterion

what is the primary purpose of peer review

to ensure the relevance, accuracy, and integrity of the content

Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and another group in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). He finds that people in the GA group have higher scores on his new measure than people in the AA group. Why did Dr. Sheffield do this?

to obtain evidence for criterion validity

Dr. Farah is an educational psychologist who is interested in studying the potential causal relationship between doing homework and academic achievement. In January, Dr. Farah has her students report their fall GPA (a measure of academic achievement) and estimate how many hours they spent doing homework during a typical week in the fall semester. In May, Dr. Farah measures the same variables again (the estimated number of hours spent doing homework during a typical week in the spring semester and their spring GPA). She finds the following correlations: Of the correlations listed, how many are cross-sectional correlations?

two

While reading about a research study, which of the following would tell you that an association claim is being made?

two measured variables

A study finds a correlation coefficient of r = .52. According to the guidelines for interpreting effect sizes, the magnitude of this effect is

unusually large in psychology

Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Rodriquez is concerned whether the measure will really measure narcissism or if it will measure some other related concept. She is concerned about the scale's

validity

In which of the following cases might a small effect still be important

when it is aggregated over many situations

In which of the following scenarios should you be skeptical of an authority?

when they based their opinions on their intuition