Psych Unit 1 - Notes Questions

A researcher wants to find out if talking on a hands-free mobile phone affects one's driving ability. Participants were asked to take a driving test in a driving simulator that monitored their mistakes. In one condition, the participants were asked simply to take the driving test. In the second condition, the participants were asked to dial up a friend and to have a conversation while taking the driving terst. Half the group did the first condition and half the group did the second condition. Then both groups took a one hour break before taking the test again - but in the other condition. What is the best description of the design of this study?

A counterbalanced repeated measures design

A study is carried out at your school to see how the winter weather affects the moods of students. On a dreary day in winter, students in each grade are given a test of their mood. In the spring, the test is given again. In both cases the names of the students are not collected - they are simply asked to indicate their gender on the top of the test. Which of the following best describes this study?

A cross-sectional survey.

A researcher wants to see the effect of stress on the health of teachers in an IB school. Blood pressure and t-cell cell count is measured when they are hired. They are also interviewed about their level of stress and fill in a checklist survey regarding their health. Every year thereafter, the researchers carry out these blood tests to measure the long-term effects of stress and carry out interviews to discuss work stress and their health over the past school year. What type of study is this?

A longitudinal, prospective case study.

What is the relationship between a sample and a population?

A sample is the participants that are taken from a group to which you want to generalize the results of the study.

Which of the following is an example of a stratified sample?

A sample which is 30% male and 70% female which is the composition of your high school's population.

Which of the following is not essential for a study to be a "true" experiment?

All ethical considerations must be met.

What is the name given to the plan for carrying out an interview?

An interview schedule.

In order to carry out your internal assessment on problem-solving, you use the pre-IB English class. What type of sample is this?

An opportunity (convenience) sample

What is the name given to data that is based on personal experience?

Anecdotal data

Independent measures designs have the problem of participant variability. What does this mean?

Differences in the traits and past experiences of the participants in each condition may affect the results of the study.

What is the key difference between a quasi-experiment and a "true experiment?"

In a quasi experiment, participants have a trait that determines which condition they are in; in a true experiment, they are randomly allocated.

If extraneous (confounding) variables are not well controlled, this may affect

Internal validity

The school is doing a study on student attitudes toward exercise. Students are given a survey which gives them a statement and then asks them to rank how strongly they agree with it. For example, the students read a statement like: I exercise in order to fit in with friends. Then they are asked to choose how strongly they agree with this statement: Strongly agree; agree; no opinion; disagree; strongly disagree. What type of survey is this?

Likert Scale survey

If an experimental situation is too artificial, psychologists say that it lacks

Mundane realism

Which of the following is not true of a repeated measures design?

Participants are less likely to show demand characteristics than in an independent samples design.

Which of the following strategies increases the generalizabilty of a single case study?

Providing rich data about the context of the study

When participants change their behaviour because they know that they are being observed, this is called

Reactivity

You read in the newspaper that a study of the amount of time people spend on Facebook and one's level of depression showed a strong correlation, but that issues of bidirectional ambiguity could not be resolved. What does this mean?

Reseachers don't know if using facebook causes depression or whether people who are depressed use Facebook more.

If a researcher does a study at your school and asks for volunteers, but only psychology students sign up to take part, what is the problem of this study?

Sampling Bias

A researcher wants to study men who have been victims of domestic violence. The researcher knows four men from a local emergency shelter. What would most likely be the most efficient way for him to find more participants?

Snowball Sampling

A researcher carries out a study where the participants were asked to give electric shocks to a student in a study of learning. After the experiment, the researcher asks the participant why he thinks that he was willing to shock the student. He says that he "knew all along that this was fake." This is an example of...

Social desirability effect

Which of the following is not an order effect?

Social desirability effect: participants give responses that are "socially acceptable."

Which of the following is not a limitation of using students as a sample in a psychological study?

Students are young and lack life's experience.

Which of the following is not an example of triangulation?

Taking results of a study back to the participants and asking for their feedback.

Which of the following is the best explanation of the difference between a quasi-experiment and a natural experiment?

The IV in both is not manipulated - but in a quasi experiment the IV is a trait of the individual and in a natural experiment it is an environmental factor.

What is meant by the sentence "There was an inverse correlation between the amount of time the students studied and their scores on the exam?"

The more that students studied, the worse they did on the exam.

Which of the following is a null hypothesis for a study of the role of aerobic exercise on one's mood?

There will be no significant difference in the scores of on a test for depressive symptoms among 16-year-old female participants who run on a treadmill for 30 minutes and those that do not exercise.

Which of the following is not an advantage of field experiments?

They are easily replicated.

Which of the following is not true of a case study?

They are highly controlled in order to avoid researcher bias.

Which of the following is not a problem with retrospective studies?

They are highly time consuming.

What is the problem with using WEIRD samples?

They are not culturally and socioeconomically representative of the global population.

Which of the following is not a limitation of a focus group?

They are not highly naturalistic.

Why would a researcher use a matched pairs design?

To control for participant variability within a sample.

What is the key difference between an unstructured and a structured interview?

Unstructured interviews are based on themes and does not have a strict list of questions that must be followed in a specific order.

According to Carol Dweck's theory, students who have a fixed mindset ...

are less likely to take risks because they fear failure

Prejudice is an example of a(n)...

attitude

Which type of psychologist would most likely study the effects of poverty on brain development?

developmental psychologist

A researcher does an experiment to see how people respond to an elderly person who is asking for help on public transportation. In some cases she is dressed very fashionably; in a second condition, she is dressed in a tattered old dress. Which type of experiment is this?

field experiment

Which type of psychologist would most likely study the extent to which we can trust eyewitness testimony of children in domestic abuse trials?

forensic psychologist

Which type of psychologist would most likely study strategies for getting people to stop drinking high-caffeine drinks?

health psychologist

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a good theory?

reductionist - it is focused on a single approach

Which of the following is important if researchers hope to determine the reliability of their findings?

the procedure must be highly standardized.