Research Methods Final
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of his clients and at the same time measures how many times they have gambled in the past month. He predicts that clients who score higher on his measure will also report gambling more times in the past month. This procedure is meant to provide evidence for which of the following? face validity content validity criterion validity discriminant validity
criterion validity
The number of main effects that need to be examined is _____ the number of independent variables. more important than equal to unrelated to independent of
equal to
Dr. Valencia is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer social interactions than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which aren't. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Mayo scale. Question 1 reads "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Valencia is concerned about the validity of the measure of narcissism recommended by her colleague. She sends a copy of the measure to the faculty members in her psychology department to look at and they all tell her it looks like it will measure narcissism. She now has evidence of which of the following: content validity face validity discriminant validity concurrent validity
face validity
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in the Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and another group of people in AA. He finds that people in GA groups have higher scores on his new measure than people in the AA group. This procedure is known as: test-retest paradigm known-groups paradigm prediction paradigm group evaluation paradigm
known-groups paradigm
Dr. Oishi is an educational psychologist interested in students' attitudes towards math and the effect of those attitudes on performance on standardized tests. He chooses his local school district to study. There are 15 middle schools, and he randomly chooses five. Then, of the 1,500 students in each of the five schools, he randomly recruits 250 students. This is an example of which of the following sampling techniques: snowball sample systematic sample multistage sample cluster sample
multistage sample
Another word for data is an _____ theory, observation, prediction, outcome
observation
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in the Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and another group in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). He finds that people in the GA group have higher scores on his new measure than in the AA group. Why did Dr. Sheffield do this? to obtain evidence for face validity to obtain evidence for content validity to obtain evidence for convergent validity to obtain evidence for criterion validity
to obtain evidence for criterion validity
Which of the following is NOT a reason a researcher might choose to conduct a double-blind placebo control group study? to examine possible placebo effects to control for observer bias to prevent attrition to control for demand characteristics
to prevent attrition
Dr. Valencia is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer social interactions than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which aren't. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Mayo scale. Question 1 reads "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Valencia is concerned whether her measure will really measure narcissism or if it will measure some other related concept. She is concerned about the scale's ______. operational definition validity reliability convenience
validity
Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a categorical way to operationalize caffeine consumption? the number of glasses of soda consumed in a day the number of milligrams of caffeine consumed during the day the frequency of buying coffee drinks whether the participant had coffee in the past 24 hours
whether the participant had coffee in the past 24 hours
Salma conducts a study and finds that her data do not completely support her theory. Which of the following statements should she avoid saying? "my data is inconsistent with my theory" "my data disproves my theory" "my theory needs amending" "I may need to collect more data"
"my data disproves my theory"
In Dr. Elder's study, how many possible main effects exist? 1 2 3 4
2
To determine if there is a main effect for type of activity, Dr. Elder must examine how many marginal means? 2 3 4 5
2
Which of the following is not possible? A measure is neither reliable nor valid A measure is both valid and reliable A measure is reliable but not valid A measure is valid but not reliable
A measure is valid but not reliable
In Dr. Lonsbary's study, which of the following does not exist? a control variable a treatment group a placebo group a manipulation check
A placebo group
An independent-groups design is also known as a _____. between subjects design matched groups design within groups design mixed design
Between-subjects design
Dr. Alfonse, a developmental psychologist, conducts a study to determine whether children prefer books whether children prefer books with drawn illustrations or photographs. A group of 45 first-graders are shown two copies of a book at the same time. Although the story is the same, one book is illustrated with drawings and the other with photos. Students are then asked to indicate which book they prefer. This is an example of which of the following designs? longitudinal design repeated-measures design concurrent-measures design posttest-only design
Concurrent-measures design
Order effects can be controlled by using which of the following techniques? random assignment design confounds increasing demand characteristics counterbalancing
Counterbalancing
Your friend Dominic is complaining about having to take the GRE, a test similar to the ACT and SAT that is required to go to graduate school. Your friend Shakendra tells him he shouldn't complain, as statistics show that GRE scores are related to graduate school GPA. Shakendra is speaking of the ____ of the test? discriminant validity content validity convergent validity criterion validity
Criterion validity
Which of the following aspects of Dr. Schulenberg's study allows him to prevent observer bias? keeping his students unaware of which type of essay they are writing having his teaching assistent assign students randomly to the two groups grading the examps himself instead of his assistant ensuring the person grading the exams is unaware of each student's writing group
Ensuring the person grading the exams is unaware of the student's writing group
Random selection enhances ____ and random assignment enhances ____. internal validity; internal validity external validity; external validity internal validity; external validity external validity; internal validity
External validity; internal validity
Which of the following allows Dr. Lonsbary to conclude that she met the temporal precedence rule for causality? noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalle by happy and neutral having people listen to music or silence before they wrote list of memorized words down making sure all participants were asked to remember same list of words putting 60 participants in equal groups
Having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list of words they remembered
For his research methods class, Hiro is studying the effect of pet ownership on stress levels. Although a lot of research has been done on dog and cat owners, not much is known about other pets, so Hiro decides to study hamster owners. Which of the following would demonstrate a purposive sampling technique? He is interested in hamster owners and not pet owners in general He recruits his hamster owners by e-mailing members of the National Hamster Owners Association and asking for participants His participants are all the people who have purchased hamsters at his local pet store in the past year He asks a hamster owner to give him the names of other hamster owners
He recruits his hamster owners by e-mailing members of the National Hamster Owners Association and asking for participants
A local committee that reviews research that is conducted on animals is known as: An IACUC An AIRB An AWA An IRB
IACUC
Generally, what is the main priority for experimental studies? construct validity external validity internal validity statistical validity
Internal validity
Which of the following CANNOT be said of the interaction in a study? it can be determined by investigating marginal means it can exist even if the main effects are not significant it is almost always more important than a study's main effects there are multiple types of interactions (eg. cross over interaction)
It can be determined by investigating marginal means
In developing a measure of "need for cognition" (the degree to which people like thinking and problem solving), Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: "I frequently solve and enjoy solving crossword puzzles and sudoku puzzles." What is the problem here? it is a forced choice question it is a double-barraled question it has a double negative it is a leading question
It is a double-barreled question
Which is true of probability sampling? it is the best way to obtain a representative sample it is the same as random assignment it results in larger samples than nonprobability sampling it should be used when external validity is not the goal of the study
It is the best way to obtain a representative sample
Which of the following allows Dr. Lonsbary to conclude that she met the covariance rule for causality? noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled by the happy and neutral people having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list of words they remembered making sure that all participants were asked to remember the same list of words putting 60 participants into equal parts
Noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled by the happy and neutral people
A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the year. In fact, these stuents were no different from any other class. At the end of the year, the bloomers showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways. This is an example of which of the following? observer bias observer effects a masked study design self-report operalization
Observer effects
Testing threats involve ____ whereas instrumentation threats involve _____ researchers; participants participants; measurements independent variables; dependent variables within-groups; between groups
Participants; measurements
Which of the following is NOT a research claim? Texting interferes with driver's ability to pay attention A majority of drivers have reported texting while driving Teting while driving is associated with poor impulse control Teens spend too much time texting and driving
Teens spend too much time texting and driving
Dr. Rhodes notices an interaction in his factorial study. In describing this, which statement might he use to explain the link between Independent Variable A and Independent Variable B in predicting the dependent variable? variable A cancels out variable B the effect of v. A depends on v. B v. A mainly affects v. B the effect of v. A is mediated by v. B
The effect of Variable A depends on Variable B
Which of the following could not be a said of the focus of activity variable in Dr. Elder's study? there appears to be a main effect for the focus of activity variable without the proper statistical test, it cannot be said whether the main effect for the focus of the activity is statistically significant the focus of activity finding is not as important as the type of activity finding
The focus of activity finding is not as important as the type of activity finding
A common finding in the study of aggression is the exposure to TV is associated with increased aggressive behavior in children. You are curious as to whether peer pressure is really to blame (peer pressure influences you to watch TV and peer pressure encourages you to be aggressive). You are questioning which of the following rules of causation: The rule of covariance The rule of temporal precedence The internal validity rule Role of peer pressure
The internal validity rule
Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes - Psychology and Law and Intro to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. In the above scenario, Dr. Kramer plans to give his survey only to his Psych and Law students since he sees them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and he can spare class time. Which of the following is true? this will lead to a biased sample b/c the type of students who take Psych and Law may be different from Neuro students This will lead to a biased sample because of self selection This will lead to a biased sample because the Psychology and Law sudents have a lot of time to complete survey The will lead to a sample that is representative of both classes
This will lead to a biased sample because the type of students who take Psych and Law may differ from the type who take Intro to Neuroscience
Dr. Deveraux has conducted a study that has resulted in a null effect. Nonetheless, she suspects that there truly is a causal relationship between her independent and dependent variables. Which of the following is UNLIKELY to be to blame? weak manipulation an insensitive measure too many participants a reverse confound
Too many participants
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. Dr. Sheffield decides to test the criterion validity of his measure. Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people that includes suspected problem gamblers and non-gamblers. Which of the following options below does he also need to do to get evidence for criterion validity? give the measure to agroup of people attending GA meetings Two months later, ask same group of people to report how much theyve gambled recently Ask the participants to give their opinion on whether the measure is valid Give a measrue of alcohol addiction to the same group of clients
Two months later, ask same group of people to report how much theyve gambled recently
Dr. LaGuardia is curious as to whether children in daycare center will share more after watching an educational video on sharing. Immediately before and after the video, he has several undergrad research assistants code the sharing behavior of a group of 33 four-year-olds. Which of the following would you NOT recommend to him to decrease the threat of instrumentation? establishing the reliability and validity of his coders at pretest establishing reliability and validity of his coders at posttest using clear coding manuals using only one research assistant to code all videos
Using only one research assistant to code all the videos
Dr. Fletcher is concerned about a fence-sitting response set when he conducts his survey. Which of the following might you recommend to decrease fence sitting? using reverse-worded questions using scales with an even number of response options providing a no option option using a likert-type response scale
Using scales with an even number of response options
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. If Dr. Sheffield's measure does not actually measure pathological gambling, his measure is said to lack which of the following? Validity Reliability Conceptualization operalization
Validity
Which of the following is the difference between anecdotal claims and frequency claims? anecdotal claims involve single variable, but frequency claims involve two variables anecdotal claims are not based off of scientific studies, but frequency claims are anecdotal claims are less interesting than frequency cliams anedotal claims appear in newspapers, but frequency claims appear in journals
anecdotal claims are not based off of scientific studies, but frequency claims are
Doctor Ramon makes the following claim: "watching TV leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time with your spouse." What type of claim is Dr. Ramon making? Anecdotal claim, association claim, causal claim, or frequency claim
causal claim
"Dr. Kline is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kline is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM sleep. Using an EEG to monitor brain waves, he plans to wake participants for one minute each time they enter REM sleep for the entire eight hour session. The following morning, participants must take a sample SAT test" Which of the following is true regarding obtaining informed consent in Dr. Kline's study? he does not need consent because the participants will not be awake for most of the study he does not need consent becasue he is not using deception he does not need consent because the study is anonymous he does not need consent because there is a likelihood of risk in his study
he does not need consent because there is a likelihood of risk in his study
All of the following are advantages of within-groups designs EXCEPT: participants in treatment/control group will be equivalent it is less time-consuming for the participants it gives researchers more power to find differences between conditions tehy require fewer participants
it is less time-consuming for the participants
All of the following are reasons that a journalist may misrepresent a psychology study in a magazine EXCEPT: Journalists are working under strict publication deadlines Journalists may oversimplify the study for their readers Journalists may not personally have the scientific background to understand the study Journalists are unethical
journalists are unethical
Which of the following is an independent variable in Dr. Lonsbary's study (research study 10.1)? number of groups participants were assigned to feeling happy participant's mood type of card drawn
participant's mood
The use of debriefing in a study such as Milgram's obedience study appeals to which principle of the Belmont Report? principle of beneficience principle of integrity principle of respect for persons principle of justice
principle of beneficience
"Dr. Kline is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kline is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM sleep. Using an EEG to monitor brain waves, he plans to wake participants for one minute each time they enter REM sleep for the entire eight hour session. The following morning, participants must take a sample SAT test" Dr. Kline's decision about the type of participants to recruit should be informed by which of the following principles of the Belmont Report? principle of respect for persons principle of integrity principle of justice principle of beneficience
principle of justice
An educational psychologist is testing the discriminant validity of a new measure of numerical learning difficulties. He gives his measure to a group of students along with another measure of verbal learning difficulties, which he predicts should not be strongly related to numerical learning difficulties. Which of the following correlations would the psychologist hope to find in order to establish discriminant validity? r = 1.0 r = -1.0 r= 0.83 r= -0.18
r= -0.18
All of the following are true of ceiling and floor effects EXCEPT: they can be detected by manipulation checks they are only problematic in pretest/posttest designs tehy can be caused by poorly designed dependent variables they can be caused by poorly designed independent variables
they are only problematic in pretest/posttest designs