PSYC 102: Exam 1

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

increased external validity

Tasneem is interested in understanding the physical abilities of older adults. She results a sample of 60-80 year olds from a local gym and tests their abilities. Which might be a fair criticism of her scientific reasoning?

Because Tasneem drew her sample from a gym it is likely that her results will not accurately reflect the larger population of older adults

In order for researchers to be able to say that Variable A causes Variable B, they must eliminate the possible influence of ________.

Cofounding Variables

One of the ethical guidelines researchers abide by is ensuring __________, or agreeing that an individual's data should not be made public without consent from the individual.

Confidentiality

Dr. Sharma wants to study the extent to which stress is related to suicidal ideation in people who suffer from depression. She gathers information about the level of stress, depressive symptoms, and suicidal thoughts a set of participants experience the day after they attend the funeral of a loved one. Because this study is assessing people under conditions that are not typical of everyday life, it is lacking in __________ validity.

Ecological

The most accurate research method of determining whether caffeine supplements improve memory performance is:

Experimental Study

___________ is important to obtain before staring a research study to ensure people know they are involved in the study, what will happen in the study, and understand they can choose to stop participating at any time.

Informed consent

Why is it beneficial for scientists to use systematic observation in order to acquire knowledge?

Observations provide the basic data that allow scientists to track, tally, or otherwise organize information about the natural world.

Blake is selected for a study on music preference and happiness. He thinks the experimenter's hypothesis is that people who listen to classical music are happier. As a result, Blake reports listening to classical music more often than he really does, as well as inflated scores on self-reported happiness. This is an example of:

Participant demand

For your senior project, you want to learn more about the effect of brain damage on an individual's ability to learn a new language. You don't really have the time or resources to observe or interview and talk to people with brain damage. Ethically, you can't manipulate the independent variable. You need something that is quick and easy so you can turn your project in on time. Based on what you know about different research methods and designs, which approach to research would you use?

Surveys