Formative Review 1.1

Which of the following is a strength of of naturalistic observation?

It minimizes artificially, which can be a problem in laboratory studies

Which of the following psychologists would have been likely to say, "I do not care about the unconscious or hidden motives—I want to study behavior directly"?

John Watson

Dr. Larson was interested in whether classical music helps students perform better on a test. Dr. Larson randomly assigned half of the study's participants to a group that listened to classical music while taking a test. The other half of the participants did not listen to music while taking a test. The research design Dr. Larson used is

an experiment

According to one theory of psychology, many people have mental illnesses because their maladaptive behaviors have proven rewarding for them in the past and thus have been continued. This belief is consistent with which of the following models?

behavioral

Clinical researchers are interested in gaining insight into the causes of abnormal behavior. One way that they do this is to delve deeply into the histories of patients with a common diagnosis, interviewing family, friends, teachers, therapists, physicians, babysitters, and others who can provide rich details about the patients' lives. Then, researchers try to see if there are any common themes in the information gathered. What research method does this strategy represent?

case study

Dr. Patel is conducting a study to test a hair-growth shampoo she is developing. She instructs fifty participants to use the hair-growth shampoo once daily for a month and another fifty to use a regular shampoo once a day for a month. Dr. Patel measures the participants' hair length at the beginning and the end of the thirty days. Which of the following is the dependent variable?

change in length hair

Which of the following term for a variable that researchers do not control and that can affect the results of a study?

confounding variable

According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of

conscious experience

Which of the following is not an intended purpose of Psychology?

demonstrate behavior

Dorothea Dix was known for

documenting the poor conditions of mental asylums, which eventually led to their reform

During a random sample of people from a town for an interview study of social attitudes ensure that

each person in the town has the same probability of being chosen for the study

Which of the following psychological approaches suggests that jealousy might serve an adaptive function in protecting a sexual relationship from threats?

evolutionary

A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. Which type of research does the scenario describe?

experimental

The claim that a whole is different from the sum of its parts is central to which of the following schools of thought?

gestalt psychology

the most important reason to use operational definitions in psychological research is it

helps everyone involved with the research understand and collect data in the same manner

In the 1800s, the activist Dorothea Dix led a movement in support of

improving the treatment of patients with mental disorders who were housed in asylums

Survey research has shown that people with high levels of empathy (that is, an ability to imagine and feel what others are experiencing) tend to indicate lower ratings of enjoyment of violent humor than people with lower levels of empathy. Based on these results, one can conclude that

level of empathy correlates negatively with enjoyment of violent behavior

A disadvantage of longitudinal studies is that

participants who drop out during the course of the study may be different in important ways from ones who do not drop out

Which of the following approaches to psychology focuses on adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human experiences?

positive

Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?

precise operational definitions

Of the following topics, which would a cognitive psychologist be most likely to study?

problem solving strategies in chess

Which of the following perspectives suggests that depression is due to the unconscious conflicts and hostile feelings that originate in early childhood?

psychoanalytic

the notion that human behavior is greatly influenced by unconscious thoughts and desires is most consistent with which of the following psychological approaches?

psychodynamic

Which of the following methods best limits the influence of unknown variables in an experiment?

random assignment

Which of the following procedures is intended to control for preexisting differences between the groups of participants in an experiment?

random assignment

In a recent report, a developmental psychologist who studied peer pressure in middle schools obtained data from a large, representative sample of adolescents across the United States. This research most likely involved a

survey

It is important for researchers to use precise operational definitions when

they may be able to replicate the experiment

Marjorie's little brother tends to bother her when he is bored. Marjorie wants to figure out which toy will keep her brother occupied the longest so he will not bother her. She conducts a study where each day at 6P.M. for a week she gives her brother a different toy and on one of the days she gives him no toys to play with. She measures the amount of time he spends playing with each toy before he comes to bother her. Which of the following is the independent variable in this example?

type of toy

A research group involved with advertising is conducting a study to investigate whether shoppers are more likely to engage in impulse buying at the checkout than at any other place in the store. For the results of the study to be generalized, the researchers should

use a representative sample