Research Methods Chapter 4, Research Methods Exam 1

As part of an assignment for his Introduction to Psychology class, Gilbert has to read a journal article, summarize it, and compare it with what is reported in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone and Neale (1984). Assuming that the article is written in accordance with APA style guidelines, what is the correct order of sections Gilbert should expect to find in this article?

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References

What is the typical journal article in order of appearance?

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results. and Discussion

Which of the following is a reason to trust the advice of authorities?

Authorities systematically and objectively compare different conditions.

It has been reported that half of Americans show road rage. For this claim to have strong external validity, which of the following would have been the best sample for the researcher to have used?

A cross-section of American drivers representing men and women; people from the city, suburbs, and farms; and people of all ages

Covariance

A measure of linear association between two variables. Positive values indicate a positive relationship; negative values indicate a negative relationship As A changes, B changes

Research suggests that the time a student spends studying for an exam is positively related to the grade that student receives on the exam. However, last week, you took an exam without studying and got an A on the exam. What should you conclude about the relationship between study time and exam scores?

Although your experience with one exam is an exception, the research findings explain a certain proportion of the many possible cases.

In most experiments, tradeoffs are made between validities because it is not possible to achieve all four at once. What is the most common tradeoff?

Increased internal validity results in decreased external validity.

What does it mean to say that research is probabilistic?

Conclusions are meant to explain a certain proportion of possible cases.

Reporting current trends in biology research to the public is an example of what type of research?

Consuming research

True or False? It is not useful to read the abstract.

False

Professor Silva is a clinical psychologist who teaches a course in abnormal psychology at the university. He maintains a clinical practice and several of his current students are his clients

Fidelity and Responsibility Five General Ethical Principles — This principle is concerned with establishing relationships of trust and accepting responsibility for professional behavior. Having multiple relationships with the students (therapist and teacher) could result in impairment of the psychologist's objectivity.

Which of the following questions addresses construct validity?

How well has the researcher measured or manipulated the variables in the study?

Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class each day, she passes around a chart showing the dates of the class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if present. She photocopies the sheet after each class so that she can find if any students initial for days in the past that they were absent. The students are not aware that they were participating in the study until the end of the quarter. What standard of Ethical Standard 8 does this violate?

Informed Consent to Research FEEDBACK: Informed Consent (Standard 8.02) — Professor Hammond never explained the study to the participants before it started and they had no opportunity to decide whether to participate.

A recent headline read, "School Lunches Make Kids Fat." The article cited a study comparing children at two schools. The school with the lower obesity rate only had a few children who ate lunch provided by the school. The other school had a greater percentage of obese children and most of these children ate school lunches. No mention was made that many of the children who eat school lunches are low-income children who receive free lunches. Poverty is a major factor in obesity. Which validity is threatened by the potential confound, poverty?

Internal validity

Which of the following is NOT a reason why basing one's conclusions on research is superior to basing one's conclusions on intuition?

Intuition always leads you to a conclusion that is incorrect.

Dr. Friedman suspects that women who work outside the home might be frustrated with the balance of responsibilities in their household. She devises a survey to give to married women employed outside the home that includes the question "Does your spouse bother to help you around the house?" What is the problem with Dr. Friedman's approach?

It is an example of asking hypothesis-confirming questions.

Which of the following pieces of information should be provided to potential research participants as part of the informed consent process?

information about the risks and benefits of participating in the research study The Principle of Respect for Persons — Informed consent requires that participants agree to participate after being told about the study and its risks and benefits.

Professor Lee is curious if there is any pattern to who earns extra credit in her course. She examines this question by graphing a scatterplot of her students' exam grades and the number of extra credit points earned. She finds that the students with the lowest exam grades tend to have the most extra credit points. What type of association is this?

Negative

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game two hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. Which of the Belmont Report Principles is violated by the choice of participants?

Principle of Justice The Principle of Justice — Using low-income Hispanic children means this one group bears an undue burden of risk. All children stand to benefit from the results, not just this group.

Creating and testing a hypothesis on sexuality in teenagers is an example of what type of research?

Producing research

Using previous studies to create a new study that analyzes all of those previous findings is an example of what type of research?

Producing research

Which of the following is NOT a reason why basing one's conclusions on research is superior to basing one's conclusions on personal experience?

Research definitively proves theories.

Which of the following is considered one of the best, most comprehensive ways to find psychological research articles?

PsycINFO

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game two hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. Data analysis shows no effect of game type, but Professor Kwan knows that several children didn't follow the procedure so he makes up data for them and then shows a significant effect. Which part of APA Ethical Standard 8 did the data violate?

Reporting of Research Results FEEDBACK: Reporting Research Results (Standard 8.10) — Professor Kwan engaged in data fabrication by creating data for some of the subjects.

Marvin reads a journalistic report of a research study and asks, "How strong was the effect?" Which validity is Marvin asking about?

Statistical Validity

Jenny reads the headline, "Tea Party Supporters Have Slipped To 20 Percent." She asks, "What is the margin of error of the estimate?" What validity is she interrogating?

Statistical validity

For an association claim, you interrogate the following validities:

Statistical, construct, and external

Heather reads an article entitled, "Waist Circumference Associated with Life Expectancy." She wants to use the correlation reported in the article to predict her own life expectancy based on her waist circumference. What kind of correlation would allow her to make the most accurate prediction?

Strong positive correlation

Because the strings are not viewable, there is no way to prove what?

That the theory is incorrect

Which of the following is NOT one of the categories of ethical violations that occurred in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?

The investigators fabricated data. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study Illustrates Three Major Ethics Violations — The investigators of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study violated several ethical standards in their treatment of their research participants; however there is no evidence that they fabricated data.

Professor Nakum designs a memory experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. Which of the following is the dependent variable in this study?

The number of words correctly recalled

Which of these is NOT a characteristic of an edited book?

The peer-review process for edited books is more rigorous than for that of a journal.

A school district decides to compare a new math textbook with the textbook that has been used for the past few years. Each of the fourth graders in one school is randomly assigned to be in one of two classes, one in which a teacher continues using the old book and another in which a new teacher uses the new book. The school administrators compare the average scores of the two classes on a mathematics standardized test at the end of the year to determine which book is better. Which of the following is a potential confound in this study?C

The teachers have different amounts of teaching experience.

What is the order of the Theory-Data Cycle?

Theory, Research Question, Research Design, Hypothesis, Data

Professor Nakum designs a memory experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. How were the words for each list selected?

To operationalize different levels of the independent variable "familiarity"

True or False? It can be effective to only focus on the parts of an article that accentuate the argument being made

True

True or False? It is not necessary to read a research article from start to finish.

True

Phuong is conducting an experiment on proofreading. All participants are asked to read a passage with several typos and correct the errors. However, one group proofreads by reading silently, a second group proofreads by reading aloud, and a third group proofreads by reading the passage silently backward. The researcher calculates the average number of errors found in each group and finds that both the reading silently and reading aloud groups found more errors than the reading silently backward group. What are the variables in this study?

Type of proofreading and number of errors found

Professor Nakum designs a memory experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. Which of the following is the independent variable in this study?

Type of word list

Dr. Kim is researching treatments for childhood cancer. There is some risk that patients who undergo Dr. Kim's new therapy may be harmed by the procedure. However, based upon preliminary lab testing, the patients might benefit substantially from his treatment. If you were on the IRB evaluating Dr. Kim's research proposal to test his new treatment, what would make you more likely to approve the proposal?

You decide that the potential benefits of the study outweigh the potential risks. Institutional Review Boards (Standard 8.01) — It is the job of IRBs to make sure that research is done in an ethical way, which includes ensuring that the potential benefits of a study outweigh the potential risks.

What are the three criteria that are required for a causal claim?

Zero correlation, temporal precedence, and external validity

Causal Claim

a claim arguing that a specific change in one variable is responsible for influencing the value of another variable

Frequency Claim

a claim that describes a particular rate or degree of a single variable

Research using animals must be approved by _______________.

an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) FEEDBACK: Animal Research (Standard 8.09) — Research involving animals must be approved by an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).

In research, a confound is

an alternative explanation for an outcome that comes about because more than one thing changed at the same time.

External Validity

an attribute of an experiment in which variables have been defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way

Which of the following is NOT an example of information researchers must be careful to protect to ensure research participants' confidentiality?

answers to a completely anonymous questionnaire Informed Consent (Standard 8.02) — Any records that might allow an individual's data to be identified must be protected.

Association Claim

argues that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable

In a study of a new drug for asthma, a researcher finds that the group receiving the drug is doing much better than the control group, whose members are receiving a placebo. Which principle of the Belmont Report requires the researcher to also give the control group the opportunity to receive the new drug?

beneficence The Principle of Beneficence — To conform to the principle of beneficence, researchers must ensure participants' well-being and may not withhold treatments that are known to be beneficial to study participants.

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game two hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. Some of the children assigned to play the violent video games begin acting out at school and get suspended. Which part of the Belmont Report and APA Ethical Standard 8 was violated when the researcher didn't consider this possible harm to participants in planning the study?

beneficence and nonmaleficence FEEDBACK: The Principle of Beneficence — The principle of beneficence requires that the researcher consider risks and benefits before beginning a study. This study could pose a risk to the children based on previous studies.

Even when people are aware that individuals generally think in a biased way, they tend to think that they are unlikely to fall prey to those biases. This kind of bias is called which of the following?

bias blind spot

Following a study using deception, how does the researcher attempt to restore an honest relationship with the participant?

by debriefing each participant in a structured conversation Debriefing (Standard 8.08) — The researcher must describe the nature of the deception, explain why it was necessary, and explain the importance of the research.

in a developmental psychology class, Trina learned about Baumarind's (1971, 1991) work on parenting styles. She recognized that her parents used an authoritarian style of parenting, as did all her relatives. Because that was the style of parenting she planned to use, she researched the advantages to that style while ignoring any studies that support the use of another parenting style. What is the term for what Trina was doing?

cherry-picking the evidence

Which of the following is the term used in psychology to describe a person who is an actor playing a specific role as part of an experiment?

confederate

Dr. Sanders conducted a study that investigated the happiness of people listening to different kinds of music. He predicted that people would report being happier when they were listening to rock music than when they were listening to country music. Dr. Sanders threw out the data from several participants who reported being very happy while listening to country music because he thought that they weren't being honest. Dr. Sanders has committed what kind of ethical violation?

data falsification Data Fabrication (Standard 8.10) and Data Falsi?9?cation — Data falsification occurs when researchers influence the study's results by selectively deleting observations or by influencing their research subjects to act in the hypothesized way.

A researcher suggests to potential study participants that if they do not participate they will suffer negative consequences. This undue influence is called ____________.

debriefing The Principle of Respect for Persons — As part of treating a participant as an autonomous agent, a researcher may not use pressure to elicit participation

When an experimenter actively lies to a participant, this is considered which of the following?

deception through commission Deception (Standard 8.07) — Both the APA principles and federal guidelines allow the use of deception under certain circumstances. Deception by commission is the purposeful misleading of participants.

As part of an assignment for his Introduction to Psychology class, Gilbert has to read a journal article, summarize it, and compare it to what is reported in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone and Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to read about the study's contributions and significance, he should look at which section of the article?

discussion

Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class each day, she passes around a chart showing the dates of the class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if present. She photocopies the sheet after each class so that she can find if any students initial for days in the past that they were absent. She waits for interesting results before writing a proposal for the IRB. Which standard of Ethical Standard 8 of the APA does waiting to propose the study violate?

institutional approval Institutional Approval (Standard 8.01) — Institutional approval must be obtained prior to conducting research.

Deception in a psychology experiments ______________.

is sometimes ethical if there is no other way to study a certain phenomenon, researchers minimize the potential for the participants to be distressed by the deception, and researchers fully debrief the participant after the study According to tThe APA principles and federal guidelines require researchers to avoid using deceptive research designs except as a last resort and to debrief participants after the study.

In order to study a sample of participants from only one ethnic group, researchers must first demonstrate that the problem being studied is especially prevalent in that ethnic group. This is an application of which principle from the Belmont Report?

justice The Principle of Justice — The principle of justice requires a fair balance between people who participate in research and the people who benefit from it.

Which principle from the Belmont Report and the APA's Ethical Principles do animal rights activists draw upon to argue against the use of animals in experiments?

justice Attitudes of Animal Rights Groups — The argument is that the principle of justice requires that the research participants be drawn from the population that will benefit from the research; using animals in research for the benefit of humans violates this principle.

Which of the following is a quantitative technique used in some review articles that combines the results of many studies and gives a number that summarizes the magnitude of a relationship?

meta-analysis

As part of an assignment for his Introduction to Psychology class, Gilbert has to read a journal article, summarize it, and compare it to what is reported in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone and Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to repeat the study, which section would he consult to find the details of the study's design?

method

What type of research misconduct involves representing the ideas or words of others as one's own?

plagiarism

Which of the following is NOT a format in which psychological scientists typically publish their research?

popular magazine articles

Basic Research

pure research that aims to confirm an existing theory or to learn more about a concept or phenomenon

Translational research

research that uses knowledge derived from basic research to develop and test solutions to real-world problems

Applied Research

research undertaken to solve a specific problem

Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game two hours each evening for a month. The children's teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. To assure good participation, the participants are offered a chance to win a family trip to a major theme park. Which of the APA's Five General Principles is violated by this incentive?

respect for people's rights and dignity The Principle of Respect for Persons — The incentive is so attractive it is coercive.

Which of the following is NOT one of the "three R's" provided by the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals?

restoration Animal Research (Standard 8.09) — The "three R's" concern finding alternatives to animals in research (replacement), a minimization of animal distress (refinement), and finding a way to use the fewest animals possible (reduction).

A(n) _____ by Cartwright-Hatton and his colleagues (2010) summarizes 10 studies on the effectiveness of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) as a treatment for anxiety disorders of childhood and adolescence.

review journal article

Hilda is studying the effects of a major natural disaster on people living nearby. She finds that many of the victims are depressed and show stress-related symptoms. Why can't Hilda conclude that the natural disaster caused the depression and stress-related symptoms?

she doesn't have a comparison group

Which of the following groups is NOT recognized in the Belmont Report as entitled to special protection?

veterans The Principle of Respect for Persons — Several groups of participants are protected in the Belmont Report because of concerns about the ability of those groups to give truly informed consent. However, veterans are not among those protected groups.

Which of the following is NOT an example of faulty thinking that might occur when relying on intuition?

testing your hunches through systematic, empirical observations

After two students from his school commit suicide, Marcelino thinks that the most likely cause of death in teenagers is suicide. What type of bias is affecting his thinking?

the availability heuristic

The idea that things that easily come to mind tend to guide our thinking is known as which of the following?

the availability heuristic

Internal Validity

the degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are due to the independent variable and not confounds

Statistical Validity

the extent to which statistical conclusions derived from a study are accurate and reasonable

Construct Validity

the extent to which variables measure what they are supposed to measure

Carolyn sometimes taps on the basketball before shooting a free throw. She has noticed the times when she taps and makes the free throw more than she notices the times she makes the free throw without tapping the ball. Carolyn is experiencing which of the following?

the present/present bias

Pavlina believes that people in red cars are much more likely to speed than people in cars of other colors. She is probably the victim of what tendency?

the present/present bias

Which of the following is NOT a required member of an institutional review board (IRB)?

the researcher whose study is under review Institutional Review Boards (Standard 8.01) — The IRB is intended to offer a neutral, multiperspective judgment on each study's ethicality, and scientists are unable to offer neutral assessments of their own work.

Which of the following are two ethical issues raised by Milgram's studies of obedience?

the stress experienced by the teachers and the lasting effects of the study on the teachers The Milgram Obedience Studies Illustrate an Ethical Balance — The two big issues were that the participants showed signs of great stress and they may have suffered aftereffects that weren't addressed.

String Theory

theory of physics that claims that all particles are made up of strings so small that they cannot be viewed by humans even with the assistance of technology