PSY 211 Final Exam

Which of the following is an association claim?

"Owning a dog is related to higher life satisfaction."

Ellie is looking for a summary of research on the effects of childhood abuse on adult functioning. Which of the following scientific sources would NOT be an ideal source?

A chapter in an edited book

Which of the following is NOT an example of applied research?

A clinical psychologist who examines the effectiveness of art therapy in decreasing symptoms of ADHD

stratified random sampling

A multistage technique in which the researcher selects particular demographic categories on purpose and then randomly selects individuals within each of the categories.

Which of the following is the first section of an empirical journal article?

Abstract

Which of the following has the sections of an empirical journal article in the correct order?

Abstract, Method, Results, Discussion, References

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

Administering an anxiety questionnaire

Which of the following is an example of basic research?

An experimental psychologist who examines people's ability to perceive a "sweet" taste

Research that is done specifically to solve a practical problem, like increasing memory ability or decreasing symptoms of depression, is known as

Applied research

Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person and they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. Sasha would likely draw a different conclusion if she did which of the following?

Asked her enemies if she was a nice person

Research that is done specifically to add to our general understanding of psychology, like distinguishing the components of extraversion or predicting the time it takes a person to determine whether an object is a face or another object, is known as

Basic research

Your friend Gaby loves reading articles about psychology studies in her monthly women's magazine. Which of the following would you tell her?

Be careful about reading those articles because they may not present accurate findings.

The two biases of intuition discussed in the text are

Being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind

Journals and magazines are similar in all the following ways EXCEPT:

Both tend to publish peer-reviewed articles

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

Articles that could be considered journalism:

Do not require specialized education to read

Which of the following is a limitation of Google Scholar compared to PsycINFO?

Google Scholar is not limited to just psychology and related fields.

Dr. Smitherman insists that all his research assistants know how to be producers of research. All of the following relate to this requirement EXCEPT:

He wants to make sure they have previously been participants in research studies

Elliott is double majoring in English and psychology. He plans on being a high school English teacher and is only majoring in psychology because he finds the classes interesting. All of the following are important reasons for him to be a good consumer of research EXCEPT:

He will likely need to be a producer of researcher as well

You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus, Dr. Darian, an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?

His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.

systematic sampling

If I wanted to systematically sample this class, I would roll two dice

Producer of Research

Important for coursework in psychology, for graduate school, and for working in a research lab

What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?

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

Biases of intuition

Intuition is biased by faulty thinking. Intuition is biased by motivation. The intuitive thinker vs the scientific thinker

An independent variable is one that:

Is manipulated

Which of the following is a benefit to using a wiki to conduct psychological research?

It can be corrected quickly.

When reading an empirical journal article "with purpose," why should you read the abstract first?

It provides an overview of the article

Compared with doing a generic Internet search, why is PsycINFO a superior way to find scientific sources?

It searches only sources in psychology and related fields

Empiricism (empirical method)

Knowledge or conclusions based on evidence from the senses (or from instruments that can help the senses)

Psychological scientists may choose to publish their work in all of the following EXCEPT:

Popular magazines

James is asked about what is the best way to study for an exam. He responds that the best way to study is by making flash cards. He easily thinks of all the times he used flash cards and he made As. However, he fails to take into consideration all the times he made As and did not use flash cards and the times he used flash cards and did not do well. His faulty thinking is an example of

Present/present bias

In the theory-data cycle, theories first lead to

Questions

Angela reads about a study in which cell phone use is associated with migraine headaches. She says, "Well, that study is not valid because I use a cell phone more than anyone I know and I never get migraines." Based on her comment, Angela may be forgetting which of the following?

Science is probabilistic.

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

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.

Which of the following allow us to make better predictions using association claims?

Strong positive correlations AND strong negative correlations

Javier wants his lab partner to tell him if he thinks the article he found for their project is appropriate. Rather than have him read the article, which two parts of the paper could Javier have his lab partner read to get a summary of the article?

The abstract and the first paragraph of the discussion

parsimony

The degree to which a theory provides the simplest explanation of some phenomenon.

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

Looking for which of the following in a trade book will give you a hint as to its scientific rigor?

The number of references

Which of the following is NOT a reason to be skeptical of an authority?

They have conducted scientific research on the topic.

Research studies are superior to personal experience because

They include at least one comparison group

All of the following are reasons psychological scientists publish their research EXCEPT:

To get money from the journals where their work appears

external validity

To whom, what, or where can the association be generalized?

Consumer of research

What do you gain by being a critical consumer of information? For psychology courses, when reading printed or online news stories based on research, for your future career `

falsifiable

a feature of a scientific theory, in which it is possible to collect data that will prove the theory wrong

Oversampling

a variation of stratified random sampling in which a researcher overrepresents one or more groups

snowball sampling

a variation on purposive sampling, a biased sampling technique in which participants are asked to recommend acquaintances for the study

Cronbach's alpha

an average of all the possible item-total correlations

manipulated variables

are controlled

Measured variables

are observed and recorded

Association claims

argue that one level of a variable is likely to be associated with a particular level of another variable

confirmatory hypothesis testing

asking biased questions to get expected answers

simple random sampling

assign a number to each member of the population and then use a table of random numbers to select your sample

bivariate correlation

association that involves exactly two variables

Association claims involve

at least two measure variables

bias blind spot

biased about being biased

cluster sampling

clusters of participants within a population of interest are randomly selected, and then all individuals in each selected cluster are used

Applied research

conducted in order to solve practical problems; the findings will be directly applied to finding a solution to a real-world problem

Confounds

confused. Outcomes and possible explanations

Frequency claims

describe a particular rate or degree of a single variable

Independent groups design

different groups of participants are placed into different levels of the independent variable

within-groups design

each participant is presented with all levels of the IV

Population

entire set of people or things

ratio

equal intervals and a meaningful zero

interval

equal intervals between units but no meaningful zero

probability sampling

every member of the population of interest has an equal chance of being selected for the sample

Type II error

false negative

Type I error

false positive

Basic research

goal is to enhance the general body of knowledge about a particular topic; can often be a foundation for later applied studies

Which of the following is true of the relationship between hypotheses and theories?

hypotheses used to determine if a theory is accurate.

research design

in the context of design, researchers formulate hypotheses

Random sampling

increases external validity

A dependent variable is one that:

is measured

Empiricism

is the approach of collecting data and using it to develop, support, and/or challenge a theory.

Purposive sampling

is used when you want to study certain kinds of people, so you only recruit those types of participants

face validity

it looks like what you want to measure

research questions

lead to appropriate research design

Theory

leads researchers to pose particular questions

Ordinal

meaningful values but unequal intervals between units

internal validity

no alternative causal explanations for the outcome

causal claim

one of the variables is responsible for changing the other

reactivity

participant behavior actually changes to match the observers expectations

observer effects

participants behavior changes to match observer expectations

construct validity

quality of the measures and manipulations

Probabilistic

research findings are not expected to explain all cases all of the time

convenience sampling

sampling only those who are easy to access; this is a common technique in behavioral research

self-selection

sampling only those who invite themselves

quota sampling

similar to stratified random sampling; the researcher identifies subsets of the population and then sets a target number (i.e., quota) for each category in the sample. Then the researcher uses nonrandom sampling until the quotas are filled

Sample

smaller set of people or things that is taken from the population

statistical validity

statistical conclusions are appropriate and reasonable

strong correlations

strong effect sizes

translational research

the bridge between basic and applied research in which findings from basic research are then used to develop applications

Internal reliability

the extent to which multiple measures, or items, are all answered the same by the same set of people

content validity

the measure contains all the parts that your theory says it should contain

multistage sampling

two random samples are collected: Stage 1: a random sample of clusters is selected from your population of interest, Stage 2: from those selected clusters, a random sample of people is chosen

Posttest-only design

type of independent-groups experiment in which participants are randomly assigned to IV groups and are tested on the DV just once

random assignment

used only in experimental designs to assign participants to groups at random

observer bias

when observers see what they expect to see

moderator

when the relationship between two variables changes depending on the level of another variable