Module 2 practice quiz

Dr. Stillingsworth is interested in people's reactions to a controversial jury verdict. Dr. Stillingsworth calls people at their home between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon. In this example Dr. Stillingsworth has MOST likely selected

a biased sample

Dr. Malm predicts that if teachers ignore students who act up in class, fewer students will act up in class. Dr. Malm's prediction is an example of

a hypothesis

One advantage of naturalistic observation is that it

allows behavior to be studied in realistic settings.

A sample is representative if

its composition is similar to the composition of the population.

When, or if, a research project uses a sample that is NOT representative of the population from which it was drawn, the project would show the effect of

sampling bias

To determine whether students would like more courses scheduled in the late afternoon and evening hours, the Student Services department sends questionnaires to 50 students selected at random from the 5,000 who are registered at the campus. In this instance, the 5,000 students who are registered at the campus would be

a population

To discover whether residents of a city are in favor of building a new sports stadium, the team's owner randomly selected and interviewed 500 of the city's 500,000 residents. In this instance, the 500 people that the owner interviewed would be

a representative sample.

Dr. Marqueta believes that "misery loves company." Based on this belief, Dr. Marqueta predicts that people who have received bad news will seek out other people. Dr. Marqueta's belief is an example of __________, and her prediction is an example of __________.

a theory; a hypothesis

A researcher is measuring the heart rate of subjects as an index of anxiety. In this study, heart rate is

an operational definition of anxiety.

Which of the following techniques is most likely to prove useful in determining why one particular child is afraid to go to school?

case study

Which research method involves an in-depth investigation of an individual subject?

case study

An operational definition

describes the actions and procedures used to measure or control a variable.

To generalize results to a population, we must first

draw a representative sample from the population of interest.

The fact that many times researchers unintentionally influence the outcome of their studies implies the existence of

experimenter bias

Experimenter bias occurs when

experimenters' beliefs in their own hypotheses affect either the subjects' behavior or their observations of the subjects.

A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables is a(n)

hypothesis

By definition, a sample

is a subset of the population who actually participate in a research study.

Going to a playground for an hour each day for two weeks and recording girl-boy exchanges would be an example of

naturalistic observation

Which research method involves a researcher engaging in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects?

naturalistic observation

One of your friends is writing a research paper and wants to obtain information about the depth of personal information people typically reveal during a first date. Directly observing a large number of people during a first date will be difficult, so your friend asks for your advice on the best way to collect this type of data. The best suggestion would be for your friend to use

survey

In which of the scientific research methods are distortions in self-report MOST likely to be of concern to the researcher?

survey method

The research method in which a researcher uses questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants' behavior is the

survey method

A scientific theory has to be

testable

One of the main concerns with the case study method of research is that

the experiences reported may not be representative of other cases.

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage or limitation associated with descriptive research methods is

the inability to control events and isolate cause and effect linkages.

Estavan received a questionnaire in the mail asking about his general buying habits. He was asked to identify the specific products that he typically buys, and the amount of each product that he typically uses. If Estavan completes the questionnaire and returns it, he will have taken part in research that incorporates

the survey method

In the survey method the researcher

uses questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants' behavior.