Research Methods Midterm

Which of the following represents a strong negative correlation?

-0.9

Which of the following is the best description of the scientific method?

A circular process that leads to a tentative answer

Which of the following is an example of plagiarism?

ALL OF THE FOLLOWING ARE EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM

Which of the following is a brief summary of a psychology article?

Abstract

Which of the following is a distinction between science and pseudoscience?

All of the other options are differences between science and pseudoscience.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using an operational definition?

All of the other options are disadvantages

How would research studies that are intended to answer practical problems be classified?

Applied research

A researcher is intrigued by an explanation of children's problem-solving strategies found in a journal article and develops a research study to determine whether the article's ideas are correct. How would this study be classified?

Basic research

The scientific process is ________, involving both inductive and deductive reasoning.

Circular

What term is used for a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly but is useful for describing and explaining behavior?

Construct

Cues given to participants about how they are expected to behave define which of the following terms?

Demand characteristics

The guidelines for nonhuman subjects in research are similar to the guidelines for human participants but also include extra provisions concerning what additional topic(s)?

Housing Medical care Daily maintenance ALL OF THE ABOVE

Which of the following is a responsibility for the IRB but is not mentioned in the responsibilities for the IACUC?

Insuring informed consent

Which of the following is typical of quantitative research?

It involves measuring variables for each individual It usually involves numerical scores. It uses statistical analysis to summarize and interpret results. ALL OF THE ABOVE

One of the major points discussed in this class is that research ideas do not develop in isolation or simply pop up out of the blue. First we need to get up to speed with conversations regarding our research topic of interest. This procedure is often referred to as a(n)

Listening Tour

Which of the following accurately describes the relationship between validity and reliability?

Measurement cannot be valid unless it is reliable

What level of measurement would be used if participants were asked to choose their favorite picture from a set of seven?

Nominal

Using A PET scan to measure brain activity while participants solve mathematical problems is an example of what modality of measurement?

Physiological

A researcher would like to select a sample of 50 people so that five different age groups are equally represented in the sample. Assuming that the researcher does not know the entire list of people in the population, which sampling technique should be used?

Quota sampling

If each person in a large group has an equal chance of being included in an experiment, then what kind of sampling is being used?

Random sampling

What it is meant by saying that "statement is objective"?

Scientific answers are obtained without influence by the researcher's biases or beliefs

A researcher would like to describe and compare the attitudes of four different ethnic groups of students at a local state college. What kind of sampling would be the best to obtain participant for the study?

Stratified random sampling

Why is the range effect known as a ceiling effect a problem for researchers?

The scores are already so high that there is no chance of measuring improvement.

How many articles form a good foundation for developing a new research idea?

There are no set rules for how many articles form a good foundation.

Which of the following describes participants taking on the negativistic subject role?

They try to act so that their data are in contrast to the hypothesis

True or False: If the individuals are human, they are called participants. Nonhumans are called subjects.

True

For which of the following questions would the scientific method be an appropriate method for seeking an answer?

What conditions promote student learning in an elementary classroom?

Which of the following questions can be addressed with the descriptive strategy?

What is the average number of text messages that a typical adolescent sends a month?

Qualitative research is...

based on making observations that are summarized and interpreted in a narrative report.

The possible range for a correlation coefficient is ________.

between -1 and +1

Peer reviewers ________.

help ensure quality control in reporting scientific findings

Deduction, or deductive reasoning...

uses a general statement as the basis for reaching a conclusion about specific examples.

Which of the following is a general plan for implementing a research strategy?

A researchdesign

Dr. near conducts an experiment on memory for individuals who are above the age of 65. Although there are millions of people above the age of 65, she selects a group of 25 to participate in the experiment. What name is given to the group of 25?

A sample

Counting the number of times a third-grade student leaves his or her seat without permission during a 30-minute observation period is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Behavioral

What principle of the Belmont report corresponds to the guidelines of "No Harm."?

Beneficence

A teacher obtains a sample of children from a fifth-grade classroom by randomly selecting the third, fifth, and eight rows and taking all the students in those rows. What kind of sampling is being used?

Cluster sampling

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a good hypothesis?

Concise

Which of the following sampling techniques is most likely to result in a biased sample?

Convenience Sampling

A researcher recruits a sample of 25 preschool children for a research study by posting an announcement in a local daycare center describing the study and offering a $10 payment for participation. What kind of sampling is the researcher using?

Convenience sampling

In a ________ study, both the researchers and the participants are unaware of the group assignments.

Double-blind

The degree to which your research results generalize beyond the specific characteristics of your study refers to

External Validity

Results from a research study suggest that a stop-smoking program is very successful. However, the participants who volunteer for the study were all highly motivated to quit smoking and the researchers concerned that the same results may not be obtained for smokers who are not as motivated. What kind of validity is being questioned?

External validity

True or False: Planning and conducting research is an efficient and relatively straight forward process. This is what makes research a preferred method for discovering the answers to complex questions.

False

True or False: Quantitative research is based on making observations that are summarized and interpreted in narrative reports.

False

True or False: the scientific method is a linear process that moves directly from a beginning to an end. This is what makes the scientific method a reliable tool to find the answers to the research question(s) of interest.

False

Identifying research topics can be a difficult process. However, research topics can actually be discovered all around us. Which of the following is not a strategy discussed in our class to help identify a topic area of research?

Illnesses and medical needs

What kind of reason uses a few specific observations to produce a general hypothesis?

Inductive Reasoning

If a researcher explains what will happen in a research study using language that potential participants probably cannot understand, then what ethical guideline is being violated?

Informed Consent

What aspect of a study is threatened if the participants are tested in one treatment condition at one time and then tested in a second treatment condition at a different time?

Internal validity

What is typically included in the introduction section of a research article?

It describes the overall purpose and rationale of the research

What is typically included in the method section of a research article?

It provides the details of the methodology used in the study.

What kind of research was the focus for most of the early attempts to establish ethical research guidelines?

Medical research with humans

Which method of knowing is used when you find the address and phone number of a restaurant by googling the name of the restaurant?

Method of authority

A restaurant chef tried replacing rice with pasta in one of her recipes to see what would happen. Which method of acquiring knowledge is she using?

Method of empiricism

A research study attempts to describe the relationship between self-esteem and birth order position by measuring self-esteem for each individual in a group of first-born boys, and then comparing the results with self-esteem scores for a group of later-born boys. Which research strategy is being used?

Nonexperimental

For situations in which the researcher cannot know the complete list of potential participants, what kind of sampling is necessary?

Nonprobability sampling

An elementary school teacher separates students into high, medium, and low reading skill groups. What scale of measurement is being used?

Ordinal

Research results indicate that the more time individuals spend time watching educational television programs as preschool children the higher their high school grades will be. What Kind of relationship exists between educational TV and high school grades?

Positive

After measuring a set of individuals, a researcher finds that Bob's score is three times greater than Jane's score. What scale of measurement is being used?

Ratio

Last year Tim and his friend Jack were both too short to ride the roller coaster. Jack went to the park this year and was tall enough to ride. Tim knows that he is taller than Jack, so he knows that he will be able to ride the roller coaster as well. Which method of knowing is Tim using?

Rational Method

Using an anonymous questionnaire to determine how many times students send or receive text messages during class is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Self-report

What name is given to the group of individuals from which researchers actually select participants for research studies?

The accessible population

A journal article reports that a new teaching strategy is very effective for first-grade students. A teacher wonders if the same strategy would be effective for a class of third-grade students. What is the teacher questioning?

The external validity of the report

Why is an artifact like experimenter bias a threat t o the validity of measurement?

The measurements may be distorted by the artifact.

Which method of knowing is being used by a student who believes that his performance on tests is influenced by wearing a lucky hat?

The method of tenacity

How can sensitization threaten external validity of a study?

The results may be limited to individuals who have experienced a pretest.

What additional information is obtained by measuring on an interval scale compared to an ordinal scale?

The size of the differences

Which of the following would be a danger of relying upon a primary source?

There is no danger because you can rely on primary sources for accurate information

Which of the following is not a good example of a research hypothesis?

There is no relationship between fatigue and reaction time.

Which of the following is a responsibility of the IRB?

They decide whether the process for selecting participants is fair and equitable. They decide whether the privacy and confidentially of participants is protected. They decide whether it is necessary to have a signed informed consent form for each participant. ALL OF THE ABOVE

Which of the following is usually the initial factor for determining whether a specific article is relevant to your research

Title

What is the goal of an operational definition?

To provide a definition on a method for measuring in hypothetical construct

True or False: A primary source is a firsthand report in which the authors describe their own observations. Typically, a primary source is a research report, published in a scientific journal or periodical, in which the authors describe their own research study, including why the research was done, how the study was conducted, what results were found, and how those results were interpreted.

True

True or False: It is common to begin a literature search with only a general idea for a research topic. A researcher must narrow down the general idea to a specific research question.

True

True or False: We use our hypothesis as a universal premise statement and then determine the conclusions or predictions that must logically follow if the hypothesis is true.

True

The method of faith is...

a variant of the method of authority in which people have unquestioning trust in the authority figure and, therefore, accept information from the authority without doubt or challenge.

What questions should you ask when reading an introduction to a research article?

all of the above

While shopping, you observe the behavior of adolescents at the mall and get some ideas about what may be causing the behavior. This is an example of getting research ideas from

casual observation

A study examining the relationship between humor and memory compares memory per- formance scores for one group presented with humorous sentences and a second group presented with nonhumorous sentences. The participants in one group are primarily 8-year-old students and those in the second group are primarily 10-year-old students. In this study, age is potentially a(n) ________ variable.

confounding

Divergent validity is...

demonstrated by showing little or no relationship between the measurements of two different constructs.

Concurrent validity is...

demonstrated when scores obtained from a new measure are directly related to scores obtained from an established measure of the same variable.

Which of the following describes a variable that exists in a study but is not being directly examined?

extraneous

A hypotheis is a _______ statement and a prediction is a _______ statement.

general; specific

Experimental research studies tend to have very _______ internal validity but often have relatively _______ external validity.

high; low

Constructs are...

hypothetical attributes or mechanisms that help explain and predict behavior in a theory.

The first step in the research process is...

identifying a topic area and searching the literature to find a research question

The first step in the research process is...

identifying a topic area and searching the literature to find a research question.

In the method of tenacity...

information is accepted as true because it has always been believed or because superstition supports it.

Applied research is...

intended to answer practical questions or solve practical problems.

A researcher measures mood for a group of participants who have listened to happy music for 20 minutes and for a second group who have listened to sad music for 20 minutes. If different mood scores are obtained for the two groups, the researcher would like to conclude that music influences mood. However, the happy music group was tested in a room painted yellow and the sad music group was in a room painted dark brown and the researcher is concerned that the room color and not the music may influence mood scores. What kind of validity is being questioned?

internal validity

Split-half reliability is...

obtained by splitting the items on a questionnaire or test in half, computing a separate score for each half, and then calculating the degree of consistency between the two scores for a group of participants.

A testable hypothesis is...

one for which all of the variables, events, and individuals can be defined and observed.

Reactivity occurs when...

participants modify their natural behavior in response to the fact that they are participating in a research study or the knowledge that they are being measured.

The individuals who take part in research studies are called _______ if they are human and ________ if they are nonhuman.

participants...subjects

A research study reports that participants who scored high on a new test measuring self esteem Made eye contact during an interview, whereas participants who scored low on the test avoided eye contact. Assuming that is associated with higher self-esteem, what kind of validity is being demonstrated?

predictive

The purpose of your literature review is to...

provide the elements needed for an introduction to your own research study.

A researcher conducts a study in which 50 college students are assigned to different treatments and tested. In the study, the students are called...

research participants

A ceiling effect is...

the clustering of scores at the high end of a measurement scale, allowing little or no possibility of increases in value.

Scientific knowledge is advanced through a process known as ________.

the scientific method