PSY 213 Final

By convention, it has been determined that alpha levels should be set no larger than

.05

The data for a correlation are displayed in a graph and show a set of points tightly clustered around a line sloping to the right. Which of the following is the best estimate for the correlation?

0.9

A case study typically involves the detailed study of

A single individual

If a researcher finds that room color influences mood of the adults in a sample, then the researcher would like to conclude that rom color affects mood of

Adults in general

Experiments allow researchers to

Answer cause-and-effect questions about the relationship between two variables

When researchers apply behavioral observation techniques to historical records in order to measure behaviors that occurred in the past, the measurement process is called

Archival research

Where in a survey should demographic questions be located?

At the end

When on treatment condition has a lasting effect on individuals that influences their scores in future treatments, the study is confounded by

Carry-over effects

The multiple-personality study reported in Thigpen and Cleckley's Three Faces of Eve is an example of

Case study research

In order to establish and unambiguous relationship between two variables, it is necessary to eliminate the possible influence of

Confounding variables

A researcher has pairs of college student participants play a card game in the laboratory. However, the game is rigged to endure that one participant experiences a long long streak so that he researcher can observe how the losing students behave when they are frustrated. For this study, what kind of behavioral observation is being used?

Contrived observaion

What outcome is likely to occur for a hypothesis test evaluating a treatment that has a very large and robust effect?

Correctly rejecting the null hypothesis

A researcher uses a survey to obtain measurement of students' eating behavior at a local college. The researcher hopes to prepare a report describing where the students eat, what times they eat, and what kinds of food they eat. The researcher is using the

Descriptive research strategy

Statistical techniques that summarize, organize, and simplify data are classified as

Descriptive statistics

To construct a frequency distribution graph displaying a set of scores that were measured on an internal or a ratio scale, you should use

Either a histogram or a polygon

Any factor that limits the ability to generalize the results of the study is a threat to

External validity

If a researcher measures self-esteem with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, will another researcher get the same results measuring self-esteem with the Harter Self-Esteem Measure? This is a question of

External validity

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

External validity

A study examining the relationship between humor and memory compares performance scores for one group presented with humorous sentences and a second group presented with non humorous sentences. The participants in both groups consist of a mixture of males and females. In this study, gender (male/female) is a(n) _______ variable.

Extraneous

A(n) ________ variable is a variable in a study that is not being studied directly

Extraneous

The goal of a descriptive research strategy is to describe the relationships that exist between variables.

False

When a research report demonstrates a significant treatment effect at the 0.5 level, you can be more confident that the effect is real than if the researcher had reported a significant effect with an alpha level of only 0.1

False

A Type II error means that a researcher has

Falsely concluded that a treatment has no effect

Last year the college basketball team averaged 72 points per game with a standard deviation of 6. In the first game this season, they scored 85 points. Compared to last year, this score is

Far above average

A researcher moves an experiment out of the laboratory and into the real world. This type of research is called

Field study

In the observational study of adolescents at the mall, you count the number of social interaction behaviors that occur within a one-hour observation period. This is an example of the _______ method of quantifying behavior.

Frequency

The ________ method for quantifying observations involves counting the number of times a behavior occurs

Frequency

What is the advantage of a field study over a laboratory study

Increased external validity

What is the advantage of a laboratory study over a field study

Increased internal validity

In an observational study of children in a day care setting, you select one participant at a time for observation. This is an example of using

Individual sampling

One problem with mail surveys is non-response bias. This means

Individuals who return surveys may not be representative of the general population

Statistical methods that use sample data to answer general questions about a population are called

Inferential statistics

A researcher evaluates the effectiveness of an art class by having an art expert judge the quality of the student's paintings at the beginning of the class, in the middle of the class, and at the end of the class.If the art expert's standards for judgement change during the class, then the internal validity of the study is threatened by

Instrumentation

A research study finds that a group of participants who received relaxation training had lower exam anxiety scores than a group who did not receive training. However, the researcher suspects that the difference between groups may be caused by the fact that the participants in one group are generally smarter than those in the other. This study has a problem with

Internal validity

Any factor that allows for an alternative explanation for the results of a study is a threat to

Internal validity

If participants in one treatment condition have characteristics that are different from the characteristics of participants in another treatment condition, then __________ may be threatened.

Internal validity

In studies with a group of individuals being tested in a series of treatment conditions, factors such as history, instrumentation, and maturation threaten

Internal validity

Results from a research study suggest that a stop-smoking program is very successful. However, the participants who volunteered for the study were all highly motivated to quit smoking and the researcher is concerned that the same results may not be obtained for smokers who are not as motivated. This study has a problem with

Internal validity

Holding a variable constant is a technique for removing one threat to _________ but it can limit the _________ of an experiment

Internal validity and external validity

Researches often use simulation experiments in an attempt to obtain the ______ of an experiment and still keep much of the ______ of research conducted in the real world.

Internal validity, external validity

In an observational study of classroom disruption, you record whether or not each child commits a disruptive act during each 60-second period of a 30- minute classroom observation. for this study, which method is being used to quantify the observations?

Interval

Which of the following identifies a potential problem with Internet surveys?

It can be difficult to control or even know the composition of the sample

The main advantage of contrived observation (compared with other types of observational research) is

It is more efficient because you do not have to wait for specific behaviors to occur.

In a study with a group of individuals being tested in a series of treatment conditions that extends over a relatively long time, it is possible that there will be systematic changes in the participants' physiology or psychology that occur during the time of the study. If these changes influence the participants' scores, causing scores at the end of the study to be different from scores at the beginning, the effect is called

Maturation

Sensitization can threaten internal validity because the results obtained in a study

May be limited to individuals who have experienced a pretest

Experimenter bias can be threaten both internal and external validity because the results obtained in a study

May be specific to the experimenter who has the expectations

If a distribution of numerical scores contains one or two extremely high values, compared to the rest of the scores, which measure if central tendency would produce the most representative value?

Median

It is possible for a distribution of scores to have more than one

Mode

Bird watching is most similar to what type of research

Naturalistic observation

Jane Goodall's research, examining the behavior of chimps in Africa, is an example of

Naturalistic observation

A researcher is interested in the sleeping habits of students at the local state college. The average number of hours spent sleeping each night for the entire set of student enrolled at the college is an example of a

Parameter

A researcher lives for two months with a group of Asian nomads to observe their behaviors. For this study, what kind of behavioral observation is being used?

Participant Observation

Rosenham's research investigating the experiences of mental patients and patient-staff interactions in psychiatric hospitals is an example of

Participant Observation

A researcher who wanted to observe behaviors in a private social club would probably need to use

Participant observation

Which observational research design has the greatest risk that the observer will influence the behaviors being observed?

Participant observation

Which of the following methods for administering a survey requires the greatest amount of time from the researcher?

Phone

A researcher is interested in the sleeping habits of students at the local state college. The entire set of students enrolled at the local college is an example of

Population

When a group of individuals is tested in a series of treatment conditions over time, which of the following factors can cause progressive improvement in performance from treatment and thus provide an alternative explanation for the results?

Practice

Which research strategy attempts to address questions about cause-and-effect relationships bu fails to produce and unambiguous answer because the study contains a flaw?

Quasi-experimental

What type of question produces a numerical score for each participant

Rating scale

The results of a study may be influenced by the fact that a participant knows he or she is being studied

Reactivity

The tendency for individuals who have extreme scores (high or low) on one measurement and have less extreme scores on a sec on measurement is called

Regression towards the mean

The multiple choice-questions on this exam are examples of ______ items

Restricted

A researcher who is interested in studying how humidity affects the eating behavior of rats obtains 25 rats to participate in a research study. The group of 25 rats is called a

Sample

If a sample is selected from a population, the sample mean is essentially guaranteed to be different from the population mean. In general, the naturally occurring difference between a sample statistic and the corresponding population parameter is called

Sampling error

A researcher interested in language development obtains a sample of 25 three-year-old girls and a sample of 25 three-year-old boys. Each child is given a vocabulary test and the researcher computes the mean score for each sample. The difference between the two sample means is an example of a

Statistic

What is an advantage to administering a survey over the internet?

Survey can be individualized based on responses

Without some correction, measures of inner-rater reliability

Tend to overestimate the true level of agreement between the raters

In a hypothesis test, standard error measures

The amount of difference between the sample and the population that is reasonable to expect just by chance

What is measured and described by the standard deviation

The average distance from the mean

The most commonly used descriptive statistics for a set of numerical scores are

The mean and standard deviation

A researcher reports a significant correlation using an alpha level of .01. In this situation

The probability that the researcher is making a Type I error is p < .01

A drawback to an open-ended question is that

The responses obtained may be difficult to code and analyze

Any factor that raises doubts about the research results or the interpretation of the results is a

Threat to validity

In an observational study of children in a daycare center, you alternate 1 minute of observation with 1 minute of recording behavior. This is an example of _______ sampling

Time

What is the disadvantage of administering a survey by phone?

Time consuming and interviewer bias

The goal of the descriptive research strategy is

To describe a variable (or variables) as they exist naturally

The purpose of a hypothesis test is to

To determine whether the patterns observed in sample data justify a conclusion that there are corresponding patterns in the population

In an experiment, participants are randomly assigned to treatment conditions

To help protect the internal validity of the study

What is the general purpose for using simulations and field studies

To increase external validity

A limitation of descriptive studies is that they cannot assess the casual relationship between variables

True

A researcher records the average age for a group of 25 preschool children selected to participate in a research study. The average age is an example of a statistic

True

It is possible that patterns observed in a sample data do not accurately represent patterns in the population

True

The case study can be useful for studying unusual clinical cases such as rare psychiatric disorders

True

The goal of a hypothesis test is to demonstrate that the patterns observed in the sample data represent real patterns in the population and are not simply due to chance or sampling error

True

The goal of descriptive statistics is to simplify, summarize, and organize data.

True

The median is the most commonly used measure of central tendency

True

What outcome is likely to occur for a hypothesis test evaluating a treatment that has a very small effect?

Type II error

If a study finds that there is a strong relationship between two variables, this means that

You cannot draw a conclusion about the casual relationship between the variables

If the data in a scatter plot form a nearly perfect circle, the Pearson correlation would be approximately

Zero

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

high; low

Essay question on an exam are examples of _______ items

open-ended

On a questionnaire Dr. Allen asks participants to answer the following question: "what do you think about the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes?"

open-ended