Research Methods I Final Exam

A study finds a correlation coefficient of r =.52. This number gives you information about which of the following?

strength and direction of the relationship

To be a history threat, the external event must occur

systematically, affecting most members of the group.

Dr. Cullen wants to conduct a study that will allow him to make claims that apply to all college students. Which of the following validities is he prioritizing?

the external validity of the study

Experiments use random assignment to avoid which of the following?

selection effects

For her research methods class, Serena plans to interview several teachers about their attitude toward teaching children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This is an example of what type of measurement?

self-report measurement

A sample is always ________ a population.

smaller than

Why is it unethical to provide an incentive that is too large to refuse (for example, offering undergraduate students free tuition for a semester for participating in a study)?

It unduly influences people into participating.

Which of the following is a causal claim?

Texting interferes with a driver's ability to pay attention.

What is interrater reliability?

Two observers rating the same participants at the same time

Which of the following graph formats is the best way to examine an association claim between a categorical variable and a quantitative variable?

a bar graph

A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have

a comparison group that did not receive the drug.

Which of the following studies would probably require written informed consent?

a confidential study examining income level and voting behavior

You submit a study for approval by the institutional review board (IRB), and they tell you that written informed consent is required. Which of the following can be excluded from your informed consent document?

a description of the study's hypotheses

Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the researchers recorded how many errors participants committed. This is an example of which of the following?

a measured variable

Which of the following is NOT an example of coercion?

a researcher offering three points of extra credit to college students to participate in a study

Dr. Morimoto is curious as to whether exposing people to violent video games causes them to be more aggressive. He assigns half his participants to play a video game for 5 minutes and the other half to play for 7 minutes. He finds that there is no relationship between playing the game longer and being more aggressive. What might be to blame for this null effect?

a weak manipulation

What is a type 2 error

false negative

A helpful tool for visualizing test-retest reliability and interrater reliability is a

scatterplot

Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. What is Dr. Kramer's likely population of interest?

all students he is currently teaching

Which of the following is an example of applied research?

an educational psychologist who looks for a way to increase math skills in eight-year-olds

posttest-only design

an experiment using an independent-groups design in which participants are tested on the dependent variable only once

Ethical decision making is

based on a balance of priorities

If researchers measure every tenth member of a population, they have

collected a sample

What is the term for a researcher's definition of the variable in question at a theoretical level?

conceptual definition

If researchers measure every member of a population, they have

conducted a census

If a person is asking whether the variables in an association claim are measured appropriately, what is being interrogated?

construct validity

What is the most common sampling technique in behavioral research?

convenience sampling

A study suggesting a link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism led to reduced vaccination rates and increased rates of measles. This example demonstrates the serious implications of

data falsification/fabrication.

Random selection enhances ________ validity, and random assignment enhances ________ validity.

external; internal

If a measurement looks like it is a plausible operationalization of a conceptual variable, then it has

face validity.

Dr. Cullen is a peer reviewer for a manuscript submitted to a journal. He is likely to provide comments on which of the following?

how well the research was conducted

Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association?

positive association

Another word for hypothesis is a(n)

prediction

Imagine that you are reading a journal article and you see the following sentence: "The study used a 2 × 2 × 4 design." Where are you likely to have encountered this sentence?

the Method section

What is external validity?

wether results can be generalized to the real world

In which of the following cases might a small effect still be important?

when it is aggregated over many situations

Which of the following can be said of the interaction in a study?

It can exist even if the main effects are not significant

Benjamin is a social psychologist who studies marriage. He believes that marital satisfaction has two components: the ability to trust one's partner and a belief that one can be a good spouse. He conducts a study to test his ideas. Assuming that his data match his theory, which of the following statements should he make?

"The data provide support for my theory."

A variable that the researcher controls is a ________ variable.

manipulated

The addition of a comparison group can address which of the following threats to internal validity?

maturation

Which of the following is an example of physiological measurement?

measurements of hormones in the bloodstream

Which of the following ethical considerations is relevant to research with animals?

minimizing harm

You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that

research is probabilistic

In considering whether research is ethical, which of the following are balanced against each other?

risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained

Convenience sampling relies on which of the following?

studying people who are easy to find

The aim of the Tuskegee Study was to examine which disease?

syphilis

A threat to internal validity occurs only if a potential design confound varies with the independent variable

systematically.

Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a quantitative way to operationalize problem-solving ability?

the time spent solving a math problem

When evaluating the external validity of an association claim, which of the following is the most important issue to consider?

the way the sample was selected from the population

Why might a researcher debrief his participants even if his study didn't include any deceptive elements?

to ensure that his participants had an educational research experience

What is a double barreled question? Give an example

Asking two questions in one. (Do you enjoy wearing sunscreen and swimming?)

"There are far more dogs than cats in this city. That's all you see in the parks--dogs, dogs, dogs!" This person appears to base their beliefs on the...

Availability bias

Which of the following is true about outliers?

They have the biggest effect when dealing with small sample sizes

What is reactivity?

A change in behavior when the participant is aware that someone is watching

What is the difference between a ratio scale of measurement and an interval scale of measurement?

A ratio scale of measurement has a zero value that actually means "nothing" or "the absence of something," but an interval scale does not.

What is a confounding variable?

A variable that you did not account for that may influence the IV/DV

Why do studies that use probability samples have excellent external validity?

All members of the population are equally likely to be represented in the sample

What kind of study can produce a casual claim?

An experiment

concurrent-measures design

An experiment using a within-groups design in which participants are exposed to all the levels of an independent variable at roughly the same time, and a single attitudinal or behavioral preference is the dependent variable.

pretest-posttest design

An experiment using an independent-groups design in which participants are tested on the key dependent variable twice: once before and once after exposure to the independent variable.

If a researcher conducts a study and releases personal information what ethical APA guideline does this violate?

Confidentiality

What are goals of the IRB?

Confirm that steps are taken to ensure rights, safety, and welfare of participants in research studies

Explain deception

Deception occurs when information is withheld from participants or when participants are intentionally misinformed about an aspect of research

repeated measures design

Each participant does the control condition AND the experimental condition.

A professor may agree to an interview with a journalist who expresses an interest in writing a popular article describing findings from the professor's recently published empirical journal article. What is the professor most likely hoping to achieve by working with this journalist?

He wants to make the findings available to a wider audience that might be able to benefit from the findings.

Elliott is double majoring in English and psychology. He plans on being a high school English teacher and is majoring in psychology only because he finds the classes interesting. Which of the following is an important reason for him to be a good consumer of research?

He will probably want to read research related to enhancing his teaching

Dr. Kline, an environmental psychologist, conducts a study to examine whether visiting zoos causes people to have more positive attitudes toward environmental conservation. He asks a group of 45 people attending the zoo on a Saturday morning about their attitudes. He finds that 69% of the people report having a positive attitude after their visit. Which of the following is true?

His study does not qualify as an experiment

What is an example of a likert scale?

How difficult is this class?; Easy 1 2 3 4 5 Hard

Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Below are her findings: • Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57, 95% CI [-.77, -.37] • Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI [-.27, .45] • Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60] In evaluating Dr. Guidry's study, you question the construct validity of the study. Which of the following questions would you be asking?

How reliable is the measure of daily stress?

When you are interrogating the external validity of a sample, which is the most important question to ask?

How was the sample collected?

What is construct validity?

How well the variables are measured or manipulated

Define "organized skepticism"

Ideas, results, and claims are critically examined through structured procedures

What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?

Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.

How is interval scale different than ratio scale?

Interval: No true zero; Ratio: true zero

What is risk/benefit ratio and how does this apply to ethics?

Is the research worth it? Do benefits outweigh the risk? Will the study produce valid and interpretable results?

Martin has found a correlation of r =.18 between the two variables of using prescription stimulants (e.g., Adderall) and frontal lobe activity. This correlation is more likely to be statistically significant if

Martin used a larger number of subjects

What are observer effects?

People's behavior changes as result of them being observed

What is a leading question and give an example

Question that prompts a desired answer; Do you agree with voters ID laws that will prevent eligible voters from casting their vote?

Which of the following statements is true of random assignment and random sampling?

Random assignment is necessary for internal validity, whereas random sampling is necessary for external validity

In addition to being ethical violations, why are data falsification and fabrication problematic?

They impede scientific progress.

Which of the following is true of the distinction between scientific journals and popular magazines?

Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not.

What does the author of the textbook mean when she writes, "We don't live in a main effect world"?

She means that interactions are common in everyday life.

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?

The effect of Variable A depends on Variable B.

What section of a research article contains information about participants?

The method section

What was the primary ethical concern in the Milgram study?

The potential risks to participants outweighed the value of knowledge we can gain.

Which of the following is true of ceiling and floor effects?

They can be caused by poorly designed dependent variables.

Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer plans to give his survey only to his Psychology and Law students because he sees them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and he can spare the class time (unlike in his Introduction to Neuroscience class, which only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Which of the following is true?

This will lead to a biased sample because the type of students who take Psychology and Law may be different from the type of students who take Introduction to Neuroscience.

Which of the following is a problem presented by the availability heuristic?

We do not examine all of the evidence, only what we can quickly think of.

What is observer bias?

When observers see what they want to see

What is internal validity?

the extent to which variable A causes variable B to change rather than a confounding variable

What is a type 1 error

false positive

For his research methods class, Felipe plans to watch how students treat other children in their classrooms who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He will evaluate how positively or negatively the children are treated by their classmates. This is an example of what type of measurement?

observational measurement

Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. Which of the following is a variable in this study?

the gender of the participant

Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. What information might she get out of reading the references section of her article?

the name of an article that researched a similar topic

Who is responsible for deciding which validity is prioritized in a study?

the researcher

Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. How many measured variables are included in this study?

two

While reading about a research study, which of the following would tell you that an association claim is being made?

two measured variables

Which of the following is an example of being a consumer of research?

using a new teaching strategy to increase academic performance in a classroom

Which of the following things can be done to reduce measurement error?

using more reliable measurements

Regression is especially problematic in which of the following situations?

when one group has an extremely high score at pretest