Research Design Final Exam Study Guide

For rating scales, __________ response options generally allow about as much precision as respondents are capable of holding in mind.

5 to 7

What is a Protocol (in psychological research).

A detailed description of the research that is reviewed by an independent committee.

Name a phenomenon/construct that psychologists might study and provide TWO operational definitions for that phenomenon/construct.

A phenomenon that psychologist might study is is "do opposites attract?" This phenomenon is challenged by another that says "birds of a feather flock together".

How do Theory & hypothesis differ?

A theory is very broad. A hypothesis is more specific. A hypothesis can help prove or disprove a theory.

Give at least one way to measure stress for each of the following types of measurement. a. Physiological measurement b. Self-report measurement c. Behavioral measurement

A. You see if their body has any effect on their stress. B. You give them a survey to fill out on themselves. C. You observe their behavior to see if they seem stressed.

In the Tuskegee experiment, there were issues with... The Right to Autonomy Research Ethics Informed Consent All of the Above

All of the above

The three fundamental features of science include: systematic empiricism concerned with empirical questions creates public knowledge

All of the above

Which of the following is NOT a cognitive process involved in responding to a survey item.

Analyzing the context

Psychotherapy can be considered an example of...

Applied Research

A(n) ________ study is one that focuses on the practical problem, like effective therapies to treat PTSD. A(n) ______ study is one that focuses on a question of interest that may not have practical implications, like the type of music people like most.

Applied; Basic

An example of pseudoscience is...

Astrology

Which is not a level of risk according to federal regulations?

At-Risk Research

What is the most common way to present statistical information about differences between groups

Bar graphs

Briefly explain why this question is not a good survey question: "How often do you go on walks to lead a healthier lifestyle?"

Because some people go on walks for reasons that are not to lead a healthier lifestyle. Some people go on walks because they enjoy them, or to walk their dogs. But if they think the question is only asking if you go on a walk to be healthy, they may say they don't, leading you to believe they never take walks. When in reality, they do, just not for a healthier lifestyle.

A researcher brought children into a room and watched them play with other children to better understand social interactions of children. What is the following measure?

Behavioral measure

What is one advantage of between-subject research? What is one disadvantage of between subject research?

Between-subject research can help with carryover effect, however you don't get as many results.

Which of the following is a reason why correlation does not equal causation? You do not know whether X causes Y or Y causes X. You do not know if a third factor or variable might be causing both X and Y. Both of the above

Both of the above

Which is not a code uses in Psychological Research

Code of Hammurabi

When observations require a judgment on the part of the observers, this process is often described as _______. A set of target behaviors is defined clearly. The observers then categorize participants individually in terms of which behavior they have engaged in and the number of times they engaged in each behavior. The target behaviors must be defined in such a way that different observers _______ them in the same way.

Coding / code

The different levels in a experiment are called

Conditions

The following questions (9-12) are based on this scenario: Dr. Marion decided to do an experiment of self-esteem. In this study, she submitted for the Institutional Review Board approval, created an informed consent and then recruited student Brad to come into the lab and participate in a group with other students. She asked her TA Kaitlyn to sit in on the group pretending to be one of the participants. Kaitlyn's task was to plant subtle but consistent statements that were either positive (group one), negative (group two), or neutral (group three) about the comments made by the other members of the group representing levels of deprecation. Then she asked participants in all groups to fill out the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

Confederate

Which of these concepts describe a tendency to focus on the evidence that seems to prove our already held beliefs while discounting evidence that would disprove our own beliefs.

Confirmation bias

Discuss the importance of control in setting up a psychological experiment, and give an example.

Control doesn't change. If you change everything in an experiment, then you won't know what is affecting your results. If you give drug A to females, and drug B to males, you wouldn't know if the drug was changing results or if gender was changing results.

Which of these is NOT a type of probability sampling?

Convenience sampling

Reliability is almost always tested using which statistical method

Correlation

What is counterbalancing, and why is it used in research?

Counterbalancing is testing slightly different procedures on different participants. This is used in research to help determine what procedure works best.

The clinical practice of psychology does NOT include

Creating and evaluating advertisements

Which of the following study designs is described in Chapter 6 section 28 as non-experimental measure of how to study change over time by comparing two or more pre-existing groups of people (e.g., children at different stages of development) at one point in time like a snapshot of a given dependent variable (memory)?

Cross-sectional

Accurate definition AND example of correlational research?

DEFINITION: A type of non-experimental research in which two variables are related statistically in which there is little to no effort to control for extraneous variables; EXAMPLE: A study of the relationship between participant self-ratings of self-esteem and anxiety.

The following questions are based on this scenario: Dr. Marion decided to do an experiment of self-esteem. In this study, she submitted for the Institutional Review Board approval, created an informed consent and then recruited student Brad to come into the lab and participate in a group with other students. She asked her TA Kaitlyn to sit in on the group pretending to be one of the participants. Kaitlyn's task was to plant subtle but consistent statements that were either positive (group one), negative (group two), or neutral (group three) about the comments made by the other members of the group representing levels of deprecation. Then she asked participants in all groups to fill out the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

Demand Characteristic Responding

What are two of the main reasons that correlation does not imply causation.

Directionality Problem and Third-Variable Problem

Which of the following is not falsifiable?

Does Bigfoot exist?

... questions are questions that can be answered through systematic observation

Empirical

Compare and contrast empiricism and Rationalism. In your response include a description, example, and identify the group of people who typically engage in each approach.

Empiricism is using statisitics and evidence to draw a conclusion. Example: 9/10 people with epilepsy have seizures. Rationalism is using logic to draw a conclustion. Example: The sun rose today so it should rise again tomorrow.

The following questions (9-12) are based on this scenario: Dr. Marion decided to do an experiment of self-esteem. In this study, she submitted for the Institutional Review Board approval, created an informed consent and then recruited student Brad to come into the lab and participate in a group with other students. She asked her TA Kaitlyn to sit in on the group pretending to be one of the participants. Kaitlyn's task was to plant subtle but consistent statements that were either positive (group one), negative (group two), or neutral (group three) about the comments made by the other members of the group representing levels of deprecation. Then she asked participants in all groups to fill out the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

Expedited Review

Which of the following is a categorical variable?

Eye Color

A researcher must always spell out the details of what is being studied in their informed consent.

False

Descriptive statistics allow researchers to determine whether their findings are statistically significant, that is whether they are unlikely to be due to chance alone and therefore are likely to represent a real effect in the population.

False

Face Validity is a strong kind of evidence that a measurement method is measuring what it is supposed to measure.

False

In a between-subject experiment, each participant is tested under all conditions.

False

In a within-subject experiment each participant is tested under only one condition.

False

In order to follow ethical guidelines when conducting research with human subjects, a researcher must always get approval of the internal review board.

False

In order to have strong reliability one must have strong validity; in other words, you can not have good reliability without good validity.

False

True or False: One of the strengths of qualitative research is that it provides a specific and focused hypothesis by which the research is guided throughout.

False

True or False: The plus or minus in front of a correlation coefficient tells you how strong the relationship is (e.g., a positive value means it's a strong relationship).

False

Which of the following is not a commonly used psychometric measure.

Free association measure

This approach was developed within the field of sociology in the 1960s and has gradually gained popularity in psychology. Researchers start with the data and develop a theory or an interpretation that is based on those data. They do this in stages. First, they identify ideas that are repeated throughout the data. Then they organize these ideas into a smaller number of broader themes. Finally, they write a theoretical narrative--an interpretation--of the data in terms of the themes that they have identified. Which research method is being described above?

Grounded theory

An example of a physiological measure would be

Heart Rate

Which of the following would not be considered a psychological construct? Extroversion Mood Neurotism Heart Rate

Heart Rate

Discuss briefly the importance of manipulation in setting up a psychological experiment then give an example.

If you don't manipulate anything in an experiment, then you wouldn't have a base to go off of. For example, when experimenting on a new drug, you need a placebo so that way you know how people react to the possibility of said side effects.

An experiment properly conducted is strong in which of the four big validates discussed in class.

Internal Validity, External Validity, Statistical Validity, and Construct Validity.

SAT scores

Interval Level

The following questions are based on this scenario: Dr. Marion decided to do an experiment of self-esteem. In this study, she submitted for the Institutional Review Board approval, created an informed consent and then recruited student Brad to come into the lab and participate in a group with other students. She asked her TA Kaitlyn to sit in on the group pretending to be one of the participants. Kaitlyn's task was to plant subtle but consistent statements that were either positive (group one), negative (group two), or neutral (group three) about the comments made by the other members of the group representing levels of deprecation. Then she asked participants in all groups to fill out the Rosenberg self-esteem scale.

Levels of Depreciation

A researcher is using qualitative research methods to generate a hypothesis and quantitative methods for hypothesis testing. This is an example of...

Mixed-methods research

Which of the following ways is not a way the text recommends reducing risk in conducting research with human participants?

Only include participants if they have no risk of being offended or frustrated.

Which of the following is a way to determine whether two variables are related after controlling for the effects of a third variable?

Partial correlation

Stanley Milgram's famous obedience study used deception in what way.

Participants were told someone in an adjoining room were receiving electrical shocks, though there were no shocks.

What is the Range of Pearson's r? Also called Pearson's Correlational Coefficient.

Pearson's R has a range of -1 to 1. -1 is a negative correlation, and 1 is a positive correlation.

Use the following experiment to answer questions 6 and 7. Participants are put into either a happy or a sad mood by having them look at a short video of either an uplifting or depressing nature. They are then asked to rate pictures of people on their attractiveness.

Perceptions of attractiveness

Why are placebos used in research?

Placebos are used as fake medicine to see how peoples body's react to the possibility of them taking a new medicine. This can help to see if people are faking feeling better or worse. Or they may genuinely feel better or worse.

A psychological study finds the following correlational effect: The more students feel under pressure to complete their homework successfully and on time, the more they procrastinate. This is a...

Positive Relationship

"Converging Definitions" means that ...

Psychologists use multiple operational definitions of the same construct; either within a study or across studies.

In a study on happiness, 100 people rate their level of happiness on a 1-to-10 scale. What kind of variable is this?

Quantitative

Which of the following leads to a medium amount of internal validity (relating to cause)?

Quasi-experimental research

Which of the following defines qualitative research?

Researchers begin with a less focused research question, collect large amounts of relatively "unfiltered" data from a relatively small number of individuals, and describe their data using nonstatistical techniques.

What is the most common way to graphically present correlations between quantitative variables?

Scatterplots

What are the two S's of survey research?

Self-report and Sampling

The Rosenberg Self-esteem Measure fits into which kind of psychometric measure type discussed in the book?

Self-report measures

Stanley Milgram's obedience study as it was originally conducted in the early 1960s in which he was interested in the extent to which participants obeyed the researcher when he told them to shock the confederate was an example of...

Single-variable research

What is Criterion Validity

The extent to which peoples scores on a measure are correlated with other variables one would expect them to be correlated with.

What is participant observation?

The researcher becomes an active participant in a situation in the group or situation they are studying.

Which of the following is a reason researchers would choose to use a correlational over an experimental design

They are not interested in cause between two variables AND/OR They cannot manipulate the independent variable because it is impossible, impractical, or unethical.

In survey research, it is common practice to pre-notify respondents, send them reminders, and offer incentives for participants.

To reduce non-response bias

Since there is often not enough evidence to fully evaluate a belief or claim, scientists need to cultivate a tolerance for uncertainty and accept that there are many things they don't know (yet).

True

The defining feature of correlational research is that neither variable is manipulated, not how the variables are measured.

True

True or False: An observational study is a type of non-experimental research.

True

True or False: Complex correlational research involves measuring several variables—either binary or continuous—and then assessing the statistical relationships among them.

True

True or False: Stratified random sampling can be used to select a sample in which the proportion of respondents in each of various subgroups matches the proportion in the population.

True

Define Type I error.

Type I error is a false positive. It looks real but is fake.

Define Type 2 error.

Type II error is a false negative. It looks fake but is real.

What is triangulation?

Using both quantitative and qualitative methods simultaneously to study the same general questions and to compare the results.

Which term describes the extent to which scores from a measure represent the variable they are intended to measure.

Validity

Which of the following is an applied research question?

What color recycling bin leads people to recycle more?

What is one advantage of within-subject research? What is one disadvantage of within-subject research?

Within-subject research can help you get more results, however you may experience carryover effect, or you can't accomplish this in a field experiment.

Which of the following is NOT a reason you would utilize non-experimental research? The research question relates to a single variable rather than a statistical relationship between two variables. Your question is about a causal relationship and you have both random assignment of participants into groups that have been manipulated. The research question is broad and explanatory or is more about experience (e.g., what it is like to be a working mother diagnosed with depression.). An experiment in which you are interested in cause but the independent variable cannot be manipulated even though you have random assignment.

Your question is about a causal relationship and you have both random assignment of participants into groups that have been manipulated.

What is an operational definition

a definition of a variable in terms of precisely how it is to be measured.

Sex, Occupation, and nationality are...

categorical variables

Testing participants in a different order is referred to as ________ and and presents a solution to _______ effects

counterbalancing/ carryover

Participants are asked their attitude towards gun control; the experimenter strongly supports gun control which may lead to a variation in results. This is known as

experimenter expectancy effect

Cronbach's alpha and split-level correlations are the most common ways to determine...

internal consistency

Empiricism means

learning based on observation

What is a way that researchers respect participants right to privacy?

maintain confidentiality

Use the following experiment to answer questions 6 and 7. Participants are put into either a happy or a sad mood by having them look at a short video of either an uplifting or depressing nature. They are then asked to rate pictures of people on their attractiveness.

mood

A researcher is assigning participants to categories based on occupation: 1 - Blue Collar Work, 2 - White Collar work, 3 - Educational Work, 4 - other.

nominal level

The answers on the Rosenberg Scale or given on a Likert Scale. Example: Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.

ordinal level

A confederate is someone who...

pretends to be a participant in the experiment but is really working with the researcher.

Height, SAT scores, and age are...

quantitative variables

Weight measured in kilograms

ratio level

Reliability refers to...

the consistency of a measure

What is a key difference between interval and ratio data

whether there is a true zero point