PSYS 053 Exam One

________ validity tends to be higher in experiments than in other types of studies.

Internal

What makes certain constructs harder to operationalize?

Some constructs are difficult to observe.

Which of the following is a causal claim?

Texting interferes with a driver's ability to pay attention.

Which of the following is most likely to be part of a debriefing?

fully informing participants about all aspects of the study

What is a confidence interval constructed around?

the margin of error

What is one reason that causal claims cannot be made from correlational studies?

the temporal order of the variables is unknown

A scatterplot is a graph

with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data.

Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim?

"is at higher risk of"

Your professor says that researchers do not make ethical decisions alone. What does this mean?

Researchers must consider the opinions of others, including institutional review board (IRB) members and peers.

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others. Correct Answer: b. Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.

Which of the following is a reasonable causal claim?

Texting while driving reduces impulse control.

Which of the following indicates that an article's causal claims are based on research?

The article describes how manipulated variables were operationalized

What was the primary ethical concern in the Milgram study?

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

Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B.Which of the following makes Dr. Kang's study an experiment?

The study included a manipulated variable and a measured variable.

Which of the following studies would probably require written informed consent?

a confidential study examining income level and voting behavior

You submit a study for approval by the institutional review board (IRB), and they tell you that written informed consent is required. Which of the following can be excluded from your informed consent document?

a description of the study's hypotheses

Which of the following statements is an operational definition of "fear of snakes" that could be assessed as a structured question?

asking, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how afraid of snakes are you?"

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. LaSalle making?

association claim

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?"Why should Anton NOT interrogate the internal validity of the study?

because the study's claim is an association claim

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

When obtaining informed consent from a participant, what must the researcher do?

explicitly inform participants of any potential risks involved in participating in the study

Which of the following could be an independent variable in a causal claim?

one that is manipulated

Which of the following is a dependent variable?

one that is measured

Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association?

positive association

Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B.Dr. Kang sends his study to a journal to be published. One of the peer reviewers questions the way Dr. Kang manipulated emotion, arguing that being exposed to emotional words does not make one emotional. The reviewer is questioning which of the following?

the construct validity of the study

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

Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B.Which of the following is the dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study?

the number of words remembered

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

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?"Manish's concern is addressing which of the following?

the study's statistical validity

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 constant in this study?

the type of game

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.How many measured variables are included in this study?

two

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 authors were interested in participants' board game performance. Which of the following would be a reasonable operational definition of performance?

whether participants won against a partner