Conducting Psychology Research

Mathilda is being asked by a researcher to think about things that happened to her yesterday. "Start with getting up in the morning," she is told, "and try to recount what happened step by step until I ask you to stop." Mathilda is taking part in a study that utilizes the __________ method.

Day reconstruction

Dr. Tylka is conducting research about the risk of developing eating disorders in adolescent boys. She concludes that her findings apply not only to the sample of high school boys she studied, but to other males in other settings and contexts. In this regard, Dr. Tylka is stating that her findings have high __________ validity.

External

The degree to which a study ensures that potential findings apply to settings and samples other than the ones being studied refers to:

External validity

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

Increased external validity

The degree to which a study allows unambiguous causal inferences has ________.

Internal validity

When researchers take special care to include and control for every possible variable, the study is likely to have high ___________, even though the results may not generalize to a more realistic situation.

Internal validity

Which of the following is the best statement regarding the relationship between different forms of validity in psychology research?

It is difficult to achieve high levels of both internal and external validity in the same research study.

The development of _________ has provided a new level of advantage for gathering information from research participants at specific times, often randomly selected, throughout a given day.

Smartphones

Imagine that researchers were interested in learning about public support for gay marriage. If the researchers analyzed Facebook posts regarding the acceptance or rejection of homosexuality (via opinions in status updates, article posts, or groups they officially like), they would be:

Studying online behavior

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?

Survey

When a study uses the __________ method of data collection, participants complete a questionnaire about their thoughts, feelings, and behavior at the end of each day.

Diary

Dru is reading about the different types of research. If he reads, "This type of research has the primary advantage of allowing a scientist to determine cause and effect relationships," what kind of research method is he studying?

A laboratory experiment

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 degree to which a study finding has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life is called ___________.

Ecological validity