Psych Ch 2
Which of the following best resembles a scientific theory?
Based on her observations, Dr. Awh offers an explanation for why crows might be territorial in some areas but not in others.
Alyra has gathered data from a group of young children, as well as from a group of college students. She intends to put all the data together and look for a relationship in the data. What issue might she encounter if she attempts to analyze data from these two distinct groups together?
Results may vary between the groups, potentially generating an artificial correlation.
How might replicability and operational definitions be related?
Studies with clear operational definitions are easier to try to replicate
Which of the following studies appears to do the most to reduce experimenter bias?
a drug trial where one group of participants gets a Vitamin E supplement, and the other gets a visually identical but completely ineffective placebo pill
If I gave out a survey in an undergraduate psychology course at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the results of this survey would most readily generalize to which of the following?
all undergraduate students at UAH
Customer testimonials are one form of ________, and should not be the only source of information one relies on for evaluating claims.
anecdotal evidence
Using existing records to try to answer a research question is known as ________.
archival research
Height and weight are positively correlated. This means that
as height increases, typically weight increases.
Longitudinal research is complicated by high rates of ________.
attrition
Dr. Tremb is interested in studying political beliefs. To do this, she samples a group of 30-year-olds and studies these same individuals annually for 20 years. Despite the potential utility of what she learns from these individuals, her approach is may be limited because:
attrition could seriously weaken her study's strength
To calculate the standard deviation of a data set, the following steps must be taken in this order:
calculate the mean, and the deviation from the mean for each observation, square the deviations, sum the squared deviations, divide the sum of the squared deviations by the total number of observations, then take the square root of that value
Sigmund Freud developed his theory of human personality by conducting in-depth interviews over an extended period of time with a few clients. This type of research approach is known as a(n): ________.
case study
Dr. Sanchez is interested in how the temperature of a classroom can affect test performance. He teaches two sections of psychology and so he has the two classes take identical midterms. However, in one class, the temperature is 10 degrees colder than a typical classroom would be, and in the other class, it is 10 degrees hotter. He then compares test performance between the two classes. Which is the independent and dependent variables, respectively?
classroom temperature; test performance
The ___________ is calculated by taking the square root of the variance.
coefficient of determination
When interpreting the results of his study comparing long-term cocaine users to healthy controls, Enrique finds that cocaine users have lower scores on many memory tasks. However, he also finds that they have reported more head injuries, poorer long-term diets and higher use of other recreational drugs. These _________ impair his ability to properly assess the relationship between cocaine use and cognitive performance.
confounding variables
Researchers might use ________ if providing participants with the full details of the experiment could skew their responses.
deception
When we take our ideas and hypotheses and test them in the real world, we are employing this type of reasoning.
deductive reasoning
The meaning of the term "average":
depends on the shape of the distribution and the measure of central tendency utilized
A correlation coefficient of +2.10
does not exist
Scientific knowledge is _______.
empirical
An experiment would be most useful if you wanted to:
examine whether there is a causal relationship between two or more variables
Studying WEIRD people has its challenges because:
generalizability may be a serious concern
Replication is an important part of science because it:
gives us confidence that previous findings were not due to chance alone
Between which of the following sets of variables would you typically expect to find a positive correlation?
height and weight
Of the options, which is least likely to be a negative correlation?
how angry you are and how many times you have a physical or emotional outburst
The ________ is controlled by the experimenter, while the ________ represents the information collected and statistically analyzed by the experimenter.
independent variable; dependent variable
One major limitation of naturalistic observation is:
individuals have not consented to being studied
If we had a bad experience with one dentist and then inferred that all dentists are that way, we would be using this type of reasoning.
inductive reason
When we use empirical data to generate ideas and hypotheses, we are employing this type of reasoning.
inductive reasoning
When we use sampled data to make educated guesses about the population, we are employing _____.
inferential statistics
Psychobabble is problematic because it:
is scientific-sounding terminology that is improperly used or is downright meaningless.
A theory that is not falsifiable is problematic from a scientific standpoint because:
it cannot be proven incorrect
A key issue associated with the hindsight bias is:
it is difficult to see how your knowledge and understanding has changed through experience
If random assignment failed to occur:
it may not be fair to compare our groups/conditions of interest
We use laboratories to study many psychological phenomenon for the reason that:
labs allow us to create specially controlled conditions to study topics of interest
______ involves following a group of research participants for an extended period of time.
longitudinal research
The experimenter expectancy effect stresses the importance of:
making experimenters blind to conditions, where possible
______ involves observing behavior in individuals in their natural environments.
naturalistic observation
Determining cause and effect in science matters for all of these reasons except?
observing relationships between variables is not informative
The median may be a more useful measure of central tendency in conditions where:
outliers are a legitimate concern
Illusory correlations exist because:
people believe them to be true, even though they are not.
Sometimes, researchers will administer a(n) ________ to participants in the control group to control for the effects that participant expectation might have on the experiment.
placebo
Case studies are helpful for all of the following except:
providing clear and relevant information about a population.
Enrique is interested in studying the effects of long-term cocaine use on various cognitive abilities, such as memory and attention. Because it is considered unethical to give subjects cocaine, instead he must compare current cocaine users to those who have never used cocaine. This study design is known as:
quasi-experimental
________ means that everyone in the population has the same likelihood of being asked to participate in the study.
random sampling
Cameron has published a study in which he demonstrated that mice treated with a particular drug are better at complex tasks than control rats. Steven, another researcher, is interested in this finding and performs the same study, carefully following Cameron's exact methods, but finds that mice treated with the same drug are worse at complex tasks. These conflicting results best illustrate the importance of which of the following?
replication of results
Dr. Ng is running a randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of olive oil supplements on skin health and cognitive functioning. While the researchers are fully aware of whether each participant is getting an active treatment or placebo, the participants are not. This type of design most closely resembles which of the following?
single-blind
Which of the following is NOT a measure of central tendency?
standard deviation
A correlation of 0.72 represents a ______
strong, positive correlation
A(n) ________ is a list of questions developed by a researcher that can be administered in paper form.
survey
Scientific hypotheses are ________ and falsifiable.
testable
The benefit of naturalistic observation studies is _______.
the honesty of the data that is collected in a realistic setting
The major limitation of case studies is _____.
the inability to generalize the findings from this approach to the larger population
Phineas Gage was a railroad worker who sustained a terrible blast injury to his orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), the part of the frontal lobe just behind the eyes. Studying Gage in a case study manner was tremendously useful but also somewhat limiting. Which of the following statements is true regarding Gage and his relation to case studies?
the information learned from Gage inspired new theories and hypotheses about brain function
Anica would like to examine how different sales strategies affect sales of her baked goods. She employs Strategy A on one day, and Strategy B the next day for the same amount of time. Based on what is presented here, which of the following variables could be the most threatening as a confound variable to her study?
the sales strategy she used when the goods were sold
The standard deviation is:
the square root of the variance
Evaluate the following statement: when two variables are correlated strongly, knowing the value of one variable allows you to predict the value of the other.
the statement is true; a correlation allows for prediction
Dr. Lee is interested in studying the utility of a medication designed to treat major depression. She samples 120 individuals and examines their moods before and after administration of the medication. She finds that after the medication, patients tend to have improved mood. Dr. Lee's conclusion appears to be problematic for all of the following reasons except:
the use of a control group is only necessary when you are studying less than 100 participants
Suppose a correlation has been found between the number of ice cream sales and the number of homicides in major U.S. cities. From this, we can reasonably conclude:
this could be a third variable problem, where both are caused by increased temperature
A scatterplot that portrays a strong negative correlation would look as follows:
tightly organized data points starting in the top-left corner, keeping that spread as they advance to the bottom-right corner
ANOVA and t-tests are used to do which of the following?
to examine whether differences between conditions are statistically significant
Ethically speaking, a subject's participation in a research project should always be ________.
voluntary
When we say that Freud's theory of personality is not falsifiable, we mean that:
we cannot prove that the id, ego and superego do not exist
The most important reason to publish in peer-reviewed journals is that:
well-informed scientific peers evaluate the quality of the research
A major criticism of Freud's early theories involves the fact that his theories ________.
were not testable
Deception may be a "necessary evil" in research because
when participants know the aim of the research study it can contaminate the data.
The biggest problem with not using a random sample is that
your sample may not resemble the population you are intending to study
From this set of numbers [1,1,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,5,6], determine the median
3
From this set of numbers [1,4,6,3,2,5,3,4,1,3,4,2,3], determine the mode.
3
What is the range of this set of numbers [1,1,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,5,6]
5
Which of the following designs is between-subjects?
A group of participants takes an Alzheimer's medication, and a different group takes a placebo, with a dependent measure of memory performance
Joe lives in a beach town, and he notices that there are more shark sightings when ice cream sales increase. He proposes to the city council that ice cream sales be banned in order to control the shark population. Which of the following best describes Joe's error?
A poor assessment of correlation vs causation
A concern of within-subjects design is that:
Even if counterbalancing is used, the experimenter should be certain that any manipulation has worn off before starting the second condition