PSY Research Methods Ch 4-6

Why are double-barreled questions problematic?

They may have poor construct validity

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

scatterplot.

Which of the following is NOT a suitable reason for using debriefing in a study?

It prevents researchers from being sued.

Which of the following is NOT possible?

A measure is valid but not reliable.

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

In which of the following ways are content and face validity similar?

Both involve subjective judgments.

If a question has response options such as strongly agree, agree neither agree nor disagree, etc. this is known as a

Likert scale

Ethical decision making should be:

a thoughtful balance

Dr. Gahan decides to create a questionnaire asking about peoples' attitudes toward immigration (a socially sensitive topic). He should be most concerned about which of the following?

fence setting

which of the following is a disadvantage of using open ended questions?

answers must be coded

A researcher wants to know what people really do, not what they think they do. Which method would you advise him to use?

behavioral observations

which of the following increases accurate responding?

reverse-worded questions

Asking many similar questions when trying to measure a concept is done to:

cancel out measurement error.

Another word for discriminant validity is __________ validity.

divergent

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

face validity.

Forced-choice question formats are especially good at dealing with which of the following issues?

fence sitting

Dr. Gore is conducting a survey examining people's opinions toward funding for collegiate athletics on his campus. He notices that several participants agree with all 12 questions. This is an example of all of the following except:

fence sitting (other options: response set, acquiescence, yea-saying)

In developing a measure of need for cognition, Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with this statement: I frequently solve and enjoy solving crossword puzzles and Sudoku puzzles. What is the problem with this question?

it is a double-barreled question

which is true of behavioral observation?

it may tell a different story than data collected by self-report questions.

Masked, or blind, study designs are designed to deal with:

observer bias

Which of the following events did NOT occur in the Tuskegee Study?

participants were infected with the disease

Which of the following ethical violations proposed by the Belmont Report was NOT committed in the Tuskegee Study?

participants were not given monetary payments for their time.

Why might question order affect how people respond to a survey or poll?

people may try to appear consistent.

which is the most direct way to control for question order effects?

prepare different versions of the survey, varying the order of questions

which is true of question wording?

researchers may alter the wording of a question to determine if it does have an effect on the results.

In interrogating the construct validity of a measure, which question should a researcher ask?

Is there enough evidence that this measure is valid?

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

The specification of operational definitions is one of the creative aspects of the research process.

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

Whether the participant drank a soda in the 24 hours prior to the study

A question that leads people to answer in a particular way is known as a

leading question

which of the following is another term for response sets?

nondifferentiation

Faking good is also known as

socially desirable responding

the construct validity of observations can be threatened by all of the following except:

socially desirable responding

Which of the following has been used as a defense of animal research by animal researchers?

Animal research has resulted in many benefits to both animals and humans.

From an ethical standpoint, in what way is researching prisoners with tuberculosis similar to researching children with ADHD?

Both groups of participants have less autonomy than other types of participants.

Why are convergent and discriminant validity often evaluated together?

Both involve collecting information from a lot of psychological measures of theoretical interest.

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

Conceptual definition

Which of the following is a difference between a debriefing session following a study with deception compared to a debriefing session following a study without deception?

A deception study debriefing must attempt to restore a sense of honesty and trustworthiness.

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.

Establishing construct validity is most important for which of the following?

An abstract concept

Naomi is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for her research methods project. To do this, she has elementary school students rate how popular each member of their class is. She then uses this information to rank the students on popularity (e.g., John is the most popular, Vanessa is the second most popular). Which of the following best describes this variable?

An ordinal scale of measurement

What is the difference between data that is collected anonymously and data that is collected confidentially?

Confidential research collects participants' names but separates them from the data; anonymous research does not collect participants' names.

According to its conceptual definition, a variable should be related to a particular behavior. If a researcher is able to demonstrate that his measure of the variable is related to the behavior, then he has established which of the following?

Criterion validity

A correlation based statistic called is commonly used to determine internal reliability.

Cronbach's alpha

What does it mean that reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity?

If a measure is valid, it is also reliable.

Which types of reliability can be analyzed with scatterplots?

Interrater reliability and test-retest reliability

In developing a measure of need for cognition, Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with this statement: I have never not enjoyed thinking. What is the problem with this question?

It has a double negative

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.

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

Dr. Kushner 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. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Dr. Kushner plans to use deception in his study and is thinking about a debriefing session. Which of the following is true of the debriefing?

Participants must be told the reasons for the deception.

When conducting animal research, which guideline states that alternatives to animal research should be considered?

Replacement

Your professor says that researchers do not make ethical decisions alone. What does this mean?

Researchers must consider the opinions of others, including institutional review board (IRB) members and peers.

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

Risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained

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

Syphilis

When determining whether a study should be conducted, we have to balance which two issues?

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

The need to balance the potential costs and benefits to participants taking part in a research study is done to address which principle of the Belmont Report?

The principle of beneficence

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

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

To ensure that his participants had a good research experience

Dr. Paul 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 scales with an even number of response options

Ethical decision making done by researchers can change in response to all of the following EXCEPT:

the possibility of additional grant funding.