Psychology chapter 2 multiple choice

what is random assignment?

All subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any of the groups or conditions.

What is an operational definition?

It describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable.

Which of the following is a major problem with naturalistic observation?

It is difficult to observe behaviour without having an influence on that behaviour.

Which of the following is FALSE regarding the experimental method?

It is virtually impossible to conduct a true experiment with human beings.

What conclusion can you draw from the results of this study?

Larger groups take longer to come to a decision.

Which goal of science is most closely associated with answering the question of "how" something works?

Measurement and description

Which of the following patterns is typical of theory construction?

a gradual iterative process that is always subject to revision

What is a scientific journal?

a periodical that publishes technical and scholarly articles

what is the main advantage associated with the experiment method?

its precise control

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

operational definition of anxiety

A psychologists monitors changes in the subject's heart rate as the subject watches a violent movie. What is this data-collection technique called?

physiological recording

Dr. Critell is studying aggression in children and plans to define aggression as the number of times one child pushes or strikes another child. What is Dr. Critelli doing when he defines aggression in this way?

providing an operational definition

What is the term for a standardized measure used to obtain a sample of a person's behaviour?

psychological test

In experiments, what do we call the placement of subjects in experimental groups such that each subject has an equal probability of ending up in any experimental group.

random assignment

Stephanie is observing a group of adolescents at the mall and documenting their rate of swearing. The group keeps looking over at Stephanie and pointing at her, and they get louder and more obnoxious the longer she observes them. Which of the following terms describes Stephanie's effect on the group?

reactivity

According to your text, what is the final step in a scientific investigation?

reporting the findings

Which of the following is a general term for collecting empirical data?

research method

Which of the following terms refers to differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies?

research methods

What is the purpose of the control group?

to isolate the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.

Which research method gives researchers the ability to infer a cause-and-effect relationship?

empirical

There appears to be a correlation between efficiency and satisfaction, such that the less time required to make a decision, the greater the satisfaction of the group members. Which of the following correlation coefficients would reflect this relationship?

-0.79

How many dependent variables are used in this study

2

A group of students are administered a series of written questions designed to assess their attitudes, opinions, and behaviour related to studying. What is this method called?

A questionnaire

Dr. Shingwauk designed an experiment in which participants listened to a persuasive speech delivered either by a very tall person or a person of average height. In addition, the speeches were delivered by people wearing either business clothes or casual clothes. Dr. Shingwauk asked listeners to fill out a survey about impressions of the speaker's credibility. In this study, what is Dr. Shingwauk looking to determine?

Do height and clothing style interact to influence judgements of credibility?

Amanda tells you about her date with Brett the night before. They went to the local amusement park, where they rode roller-coasters, attempted a climbing wall, and went into the House of Horrors. At first, Amanda wasn't that interested in Brett, but by the end of the night she found herself very attracted to him. What insights could you provide, given the results of the Featured Study on the effects of arousal on attraction?

Fear-inducing events can lead us to interpret our arousal as attraction, instead of fear, if we are around potential mates.

What is a distinct advantage of naturalistic observation?

It allows behaviour to be studied in realistic settings.

Why is publication of research findings extremely important to the scientific method?

It allows for critique and self-correction.

What is an experimental group?

It consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment with regard to the independent variable.

In a study of the effect of fatigue on task performance, participants were asked to complete a series of puzzles. One day, all participants completed puzzles after 24 hours without sleep. On another day, the same participants completed puzzles after sleeping for at least eight hours. What can be said about the research methods used in this study?

Participants served as their own control group, in order to examine the effect of the independent variable under different conditions for the same individuals.

Diaz conducts a decision-making experiment to determine if people reason more logically when they have more time to decide. All the participants who are under 40 are allowed 15 minutes to reach a decision about a problem; all the participants who are over 40 are allowed 20 minutes to reach a decision about the same problem. What is the problem with this experimental design?

The age of the participants is confounded with the independent variable.

What does it mean when there is an interaction between two variables?

The effects of one independent variable depend on the effects of another.

A researcher wants to see if a protein-enriched diet will enhance the maze-running performance or rats. One group of rats is fed the high-protein diet for the duration of the study; the other group continues to receive ordinary rat chow. what types of groups are represented in this study?

The high-protein group is an experimental group; the rat chow group is a control group.

If we view an experiment as an attempt to establish a cause-effect relationship, how can we define the relationship between the variables in an experiment?

The independent variable is the cause, and the dependent variable is the effect.

Which of the following is a measure of central tendency from this study?

The satisfaction rating for large groups is 4.6.

Braeden received a poor performance evaluation in his job last year. Since then Braeden has started working through his lunch hour, taken on four special projects, and enrolled in night classes to upgrade his computer skills. Why will it be hard for Braeden to figure out the cause if he receives a better evaluation at his next performance?

The three actions he took are confounded with each other.

Dr. Prutherow believes that people who are under stress will develop more colds than people who are not under stress. When he randomly selected 10 participants and exposed them to high levels of stress, he found that 9 of the participants developed colds. Based on these results, he concluded that stress causes an increase in colds. What is a fundamental flaw in Dr. Prutherow's study?

There was no control group for comparison.

A researcher has children watch 30 minutes of violent television, and then counts the number of times they hit each other afterward in a one-hour play period as a measure of aggression. The researcher concludes that television violence causes aggression. Why might this conclusion be invalid?

There was no control group.

What do researchers do when conducting descriptive or correlational research?

They systematically describe patterns of behaviour and discover relationships among variables.

Ling answered a series of written questions that asked about her attitudes and opinions on a number of current issues. What is this method of data collection called?

a questionnaire

What is a theory?

a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations

What is a hypothesis?

a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables

You're planning a night out with a special someone, and you'd really like your date to find you particularly attractive and arousing. Which of the following activities would be particularly useful for enhancing the amount of sexual thoughts that your date experiences, according to the results of the Featured Study on the effects of arousal on attraction?

a trip to an amusement park, followed by a horror movie

What is an independent variable in an experiment?

a variable deliberately manipulated by the experimenter

What is a dependent variable?

a variable that changes value because of the systematic manipulation in an experiment

What is an extraneous variable?

a variable, other than the independent variable, that may influence the dependent variable

Dr. Hessels is examining how different people respond to frightening events. She will have participants walk through a haunted house at a local amusement park, and each participant will be outfitted with a heart monitor. She will use the changes in heart rate as a measure of stress. What are two ways that such changes in heart rate can be described?

an operational definition and a physiological recording

which goals of science are reflected in the use of reinforcement principles to modify a child's unruly behaviour?

application and control

Jackson is working with a company to help them develop more effective training programs for their employees. He has spent a great deal of time reviewing all the documentation the company has about previous training opportunities they have provided for their employees.

archival research

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective test that contains ambiguous stimuli that are to be interpreted by the participant. In the Featured Study, participants crossed a bridge and then completed the TAT. How did the researchers use participants' responses to the TAT in this study?

as a dependent variable

How are hypotheses typically expressed?

as predictions

Dr. Kincaid was interested in the topic of musical genius. In the initial part of the investigation, Dr. Kincaid carefully observed and compiled detailed files on three individuals who were musical geniuses. What sort of research is Dr. Kincaid conducting?

case study

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

NASA wanted to know if extended periods of weightlessness would have an impact on long- term circulatory function. The agency located seven former astronauts who had spent more than one month in space under conditions of weightlessness, and tested all aspects of their cardiovascular function. What sort of research did NASA conduct in this situation?

case study research

in which of the following would there be a high risk of effects of subjectivity and selective attention?

compiling a case study

What do we call two variables that are linked, and their individual effects cannot be separated out?

confounded

A group of researchers conducts a study to determine if a child's performance is affected by the presence of other children. First, the children are taken to a room with no other children and timed while they complete a puzzle. Later, the same children are taken to a room with four other children and timed while they complete a similar puzzle. In this study, what do you call the length of time it takes to complete the puzzle?

dependent variable

An industrial designer wants to determine if the new design for a piece of office equipment will result in fewer errors. The designer sets up a machine with the old design in one room, and a machine with the new design in a second room. He counts how many errors are made using each of the two machines. In this study, what do you call the number of errors made?

dependent variable

Of the following pairs, which pair contains two data collection techniques that are most likely to involve direct contact between the researcher and the research participant?

direct observation and interviews

Which type of study did Dr. Amalie's research team conduct?

experiment

Which approach is defined by manipulating a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observing the changes in a second variable?

experimental approach

What is one disadvantage of the experimental method?

experiments often can't be done for practical or ethical reasons

What do you call a variable, other than the independent variable, that appears to have influenced the dependent variable in a study?

extraneous variable

there are multiple goals in science, and researchers move between goals at various points in their research. Which goals can researchers move between if they have a theory?

from description to understanding

what is the independent variable in this study?

group size

Dr. Licciardi predicts that if people are observed while they perform a complex task, they will make more errors. Which of the following terms is Dr. Licciardi prediction is an example of?

hypothesis

Dr. Malm predicts that if teachers ignore students who act up in class, fewer students will act up in class. What is the scientific term for Dr. Malm's prediction?

hypothesis

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. Which of the following terms characterizes Dr. Marqueta's predictions?

hypothesis

In an experiment, what do you call the variable that is controlled or manipulated by the researcher?

independent variable

In the Featured Study, individuals who had just recently crossed a bridge were met by either a male or a female confederate of the researcher. What do you call the type of confederate in this study?

independent variable

In the Featured Study, some individuals crossed a high, fear-arousing bridge, while others crossed a low, non-frightening bridge. In this study, what do we call the type of bridge?

independent variable

Researchers who were studying memory had participants learn a list of words after consuming a soft drink with caffeine or a decaffeinated version of the same soft drink. The researchers then counted the number of words that were recalled from the list. In this study, what would you call the type of beverage (caffeinated or decaffeinated)?

independent variable

Researchers who were studying plant growth raised plants in two separate rooms. One room had taped conversations playing 24 hours a day; the other room was silent. The researchers found that the plants grew better in the room that had the conversations playing. In this study, what would you call the type of room (silent versus conversation)?

independent variable

Dr. Dieringer wants to study attachment patterns in single parent families. She plans to define the strength of attachment as the time it takes for the parent to respond when the infant starts to cry. Why is this definition important?

it allows others to understand exactly what Dr. Dieringer means by attachment.

Which of the following must be true of a scientific theory?

it is testable

What does a researcher do when conducting an experiment?

manipulation of a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observation of whether there are changes in a second variable as a result

A group of researchers wanted to investigate allegations of sexual harassment on a company's assembly line. To make their observations, the researchers took jobs working on the assembly line and pretended to be new employees. What type of research is being conducted in this example?

naturalistic observation

A local hospital wanted to assess the way its patients were being treated. The hospital hired several researchers to act as patients and record the way hospital personnel handled the admitting and preliminary evaluation procedures. What sort of research is being conducted in this example?

naturalistic observation

Jolyn believed that there were gender differences in driving habits. To test this hypothesis, she stood near a quiet intersection. Jolyn recorded the gender of each driver who approached a stop sign, and also whether the individual came to a complete stop before proceeding into the intersection. What sort of research is Jolyn conducting?

naturalistic observation

What do we call recording all instances of an event for a particular time period (such as how many times an older brother strikes his younger brother during a given week) without the subjects' awareness?

naturalistic observation

You are sitting on a park bench in a major metropolitan area from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and you note the number of people who walk by, whether or not they litter, and their sex. What type of research method are you are engaging in?

naturalistic observation

which of the following is a descriptive research method

naturalistic observation

Which of the following research methods is represented in this example? A researcher goes to a playground for an hour each day for two weeks and records the number of times that a girl and a boy are playing together.

naturalistic observation method

Dr. Amalie is a social psychologist who is interested in the effects of group size on efficiency and on the satisfaction of individual group members. In a study conducted by Dr. Amalie's research team, three different group sizes were used. Large groups had 20 people, medium groups had 10 people, and small groups had 4 people. There were 10 sessions run with each type of group and each group contained different individuals, so the total number of groups was 30 and the total number of participants was 340. All participants were students at the school where Dr. Amalie works. The groups were told that they needed to come to agreement about which movie to select for an upcoming student movie night. The time that it took each group to come to a decision was recorded. Afterward, each subject was asked to rate his or her satisfaction with the group's decision (on a scale from 1-10, where 10 is totally satisfied). The results were as follows: Mean time required to come to an agreement (all differences are statistically significant): Large groups: 20.7 minutes Medium groups: 16.4 minutes Small groups: 10.3 minutes Mean satisfaction rating for individuals (all differences are statistically significant): In large groups: 4.6 Copyright © 2013 Nelson Education Ltd. In medium groups: 7.5 In small groups: 8.8 In this study, what is the operational definition of efficiency?

speed of decision making

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. What would be the best research option for your friend to use?

survey

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. Which type of research will Estevan have taken part in if he completes the questionnaire and returns it?

survey method

A researcher found that clients who were randomly assigned to same-sex groups participated more in group therapy sessions than clients who were randomly assigned to co-ed groups. In this experiment, what is the dependent variable?

the amount of participation in the group therapy sessions

A group of researchers wanted to determine whether children would behave more aggressively after watching violent television programming. Half the children in the study watched a violent television show; the other children watched a non-violent television program. Which group is the control group?

the children who watched the non-violent program.

A group of researchers wanted to determine if people will eat more food in a room with red paint and red decorations than in a room that is decorated blue. Half the participants in this study ate in a red room and half ate in a blue room. The researchers then measured how much food was consumed in each of the two rooms. What is the independent variable in this study?

the colour of the decorations in the room

Phong and Mikaela both take part in a research study that is investigating the effects of sleep deprivation on reaction time. Phong is kept awake for 24 hours straight, while mikaela follows her normal sleep routine. Which group is Phong in?

the experimental group

In a study designed to test the effects of a new drug developed to treat Alzheimer's disease, half the patients were given the actual drug while the other half of the patients were given a placebo (sugar pill). In this study, which group is the experimental group?

the group that received the actual drug

In an experiment designed to test memory processes, one group was given special instructions and asked to group the items on a list into categories while trying to memorize them. A second group of participants was given the same list, but did not receive any special instructions. In this study, which group is the experimental group?

the group that received the special instructions

A group of researchers wants to determine if people are more likely to follow directions if the person giving the directions is in a uniform. Half the participants are directed to a parking spot by a uniformed security guard; the other half are directed to a parking spot by an individual wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt. In this study, what is the dependent variable?

the number of participants who park in the spot they are directed to

Jack believes that patrons in his bar will be more likely to leave a tip if the tip jar already has some money in it. To test his belief, he has the tip jar empty about half the time when a customer approaches the bar; the rest of time he ensures there is at least $5.00 in the jar when a customer approaches. In Jack's experiment, which is the control group?

the patrons who see an empty tip jar

Researchers studying the effects of sleep deprivation tested the physical coordination skills of 25-year-old males who had been sleep deprived for 24, 36, or 48 hours. In this study, what is the dependent variable?

the physical coordination skills of the men in the study

A group of researchers investigates the effects of gingko biloba on animal memory. During the first part of the study, the animals learn to run a maze while they are not receiving the supplement; in the second part of the study, the animals learn to run a different maze while they are receiving the supplement. In each case the researchers count how many trials it takes before the animals can run the maze pattern without making any errors. What is the independent variable in this study??

the presence or absence of the supplement in the animal's diet

Dr. Kalmagura plans on introducing a new exam review procedure in his chemistry classes. To check the effectiveness of the new procedure he is going to have half his students try the new technique for one semester, while the remaining students review in the way they have always done in the past. He asks each student to decide whether they would like to use the new technique or the standard technique. What procedure is illustrated in this example?

the use of non-random assignment

what do naturalistic observation, case studies, and surveys all have in common?

they do not manipulate the variables under study.

Nula is conducting a study in which one group is exposed to loud music while completing a writing assignment and the other group has quiet conditions. Further, Nula examines the effect of gender within these groups. Therefore, she is examining the effects of both noise and gender on participants' performance on a writing task. Which of the following reflects the type of variables present in this study?

two independent variables and one dependent variable

forensic profilers use information about known serial killers to make statements about the likely next-steps of a new killer and to anticipate a pattern of behaviour, which goal of scientific enterprise does this reflect?

understanding and prediction

What do we call any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviours that are controlled or observed in a study?

variables