Methods of Psych
scatterplot.
A helpful tool for visualizing test-retest reliability and interrater reliability is a
with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data.
A scatterplot is a graph
the findings of replicated studies are consistent with the theory.
A scientist is most likely to accept a theory when
observer effects
A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year. In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class. At the end of the year, the "bloomers" showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways. This is an example of which of the following?
divergent
Another word for discriminant validity is ________ validity.
studying people who are easy to find
Convenience sampling relies on which of the following?
semantic differential format.
If a question has response options that are anchored with adjectives, this is known as a(n)
questions
In the theory-data cycle, theories first lead to
organized skepticism
Scientists often say that more data are needed to draw conclusions about the accuracy of new theories and are reluctant to accept new claims without empirical support. What scientific norm does this illustrate?
A measure is valid but not reliable.
Which of the following is NOT possible?
decreases internal validity
The absence of random assignment in any study
observer bias
Which of the following is a unique threat to construct validity found only in behavioral observation?
criterion validity
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?
IRBs must have a psychologist as a member.
All of the following are true of institutional review boards (IRBs) in the United States EXCEPT that
prediction
Another word for hypothesis is a(n)
acquiescence
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 most likely due to
to examine her study's external validity
Dr. Guidry finds that the relationship between the number of friends one has and life satisfaction is stronger for men than for women. Why might Dr. Guidry have looked for this difference?
zero association
Dr. Hoda measures job satisfaction and number of years of education. In examining her scatterplot, she sees the cloud of points has no slope. This indicates which type of relationship?
It is not falsifiable.
Dr. Knepp studies Extrasensory Perception (ESP) which is the ability to perceive things through telepathy or clairvoyance. She theorizes that ESP exists but only in people who believe it exists and who are not skeptical of ESP. She surveys a large number of adults about their beliefs in ESP and, as expected, only adults who believe in ESP report having those abilities. What is true about Dr. Knepp's theory?
make sure the peer reviewers are anonymous
Dr. Stewart is an editor of a psychology journal. She wants to ensure that reviewers give honest reviews of the papers they are asked to read. Which of the following could she do to increase the likelihood of honest feedback?
face
Fatima is trying to measure gender role stereotypes using a gender role survey. She believes that her participants will be able to tell that she is measuring gender role stereotypes because the survey looks like it is measuring stereotypes. Fatima believes that her scale has what type of validity?
fence sitting
Forced-choice question formats are especially good at dealing with which of the following issues?
last paragraph of the introduction
Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. Where should she go if she wants to look for a list of the study's hypotheses or research questions?
the time spent solving a math problem
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?
wait to begin observations
How might a researcher deal with reactivity?
edited books
If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?
risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained
In considering whether research is ethical, which of the following are balanced against each other?
because it indicates that the researcher's two research assistants/raters are making similar measurements
In looking at a scatterplot of interrater reliability, why would a researcher want to see all the dots close to the line of agreement?
a study examining the intensity of pain during natural childbirth
In which of the following studies is self-report the best data collection option?
they include at least one comparison group.
One of the reasons that research studies are superior to personal experience is that
the content of the words
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following is the independent variable in Dr. Kang's study?
5; 10
The American Psychological Association's ethical guidelines have ________ principles and ________ standards.
reactivity
Unobtrusive observation is done to counteract which of the following?
the margin of error
What is a confidence interval constructed around?
random assignment
What is the best way to balance characteristics about participants that can lead to alternative explanations for findings?
debrief the participants afterward
What must a researcher do when using deception in an experiment?
a summary of recent research on the primary topic of interest
What should the introduction of a research report include?
internal; external
When researchers conduct an experiment comparing two different treatment conditions, they are likely to be more concerned with ________ validity than ________ validity.
Participants in the study were given/infected with the disease.
Which of the following ethical violations did NOT occur in the Tuskegee Study?
College students with part-time jobs have high self-esteem.
Which of the following hypotheses would be best tested with a survey?
Google Scholar is not limited to just psychology and related fields.
Which of the following is a limitation of Google Scholar compared to PsycINFO?
They feel pressure to publish findings.
Which of the following is a primary reason that psychologists might fabricate or falsify their data?
It is important to understand whether the information you read is accurate.
Which of the following is a reason why it is important to be a knowledgeable consumer of research?
It informs participants about the presence and purpose of deception in a study.
Which of the following is a suitable reason for using debriefing in a study?
an educational psychologist who looks for a way to increase math skills in eight-year-olds
Which of the following is an example of applied research?
Full title, bold, in all caps, in header, centered
Which of the following is the correct format for a running head?
review journal articles
Which of the following sources is most likely to contain only information that has been rigorously peer-reviewed?
The use of animals in research is justified by the knowledge that is gained from the research.
Which statement would an animal researcher most likely agree with?
They are both peer-reviewed.
Why are empirical and journal review articles considered prestigious publications?
abstract
Which of the following is the first section of an empirical journal article?
Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.
Which of the following is true of operational definitions?
Researchers may alter the wording of a question to determine if it does have an effect on the results.
Which of the following is true of question wording?
the construct validity of the study
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr. Kang sends his study to a journal to be published. One of the peer reviewers questions the way Dr. Kang manipulated emotion, arguing that being exposed to emotional words does not make one emotional. The reviewer is questioning which of the following?
the internal validity of the study
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr. Kang's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following?
whether he can conduct the study just as well without deception
RESEARCH STUDY 4.1: 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 is deciding whether he needs to give participants a reason for waking them up several times during the night. He knows that he cannot tell them the real reason, but he is unsure whether he should deceive them (give them a false reason why he is waking them up) or provide them with no cover story at all. Which of the following issues should be considered most heavily when deciding whether to use deception?
He needs to obtain informed consent because there is a likelihood of risk in his study.
RESEARCH STUDY 4.1: 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. Which of the following is true regarding obtaining informed consent in Dr. Kushner's study?
internal reliability
RESEARCH STUDY 5.1: Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Donal scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Before using the measure in her study, Dr. Rodriquez analyzes the data she gets from her students. She looks at the relationship between each of the individual questions. She sees that participants who agree with Question 1 also agree with Question 3 and disagree with Question 2. This is a test of which of the following?
validity
RESEARCH STUDY 5.2: Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. If Dr. Sheffield's measure does not actually measure pathological gambling, his measure is said to lack which of the following?
known-groups paradigm.
RESEARCH STUDY 5.2: Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and another group of people in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). He finds that people in the GA group have higher scores on his new measure than people in the AA group. This procedure is known as a
applied research.
Research that is done specifically to solve a practical problem, like increasing memory ability or decreasing symptoms of depression, is known as
"My data disprove my theory."
Salma conducts a study and finds that her data do not completely support her theory. Which of the following statements should she avoid saying?
His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.
You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus. The speaker, Dr. Darian, is an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?
research is probabilistic.
You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that
Researchers must consider the opinions of others, including institutional review board (IRB) members and peers.
Your professor says that researchers do not make ethical decisions alone. What does this mean?
Empiricism
________ is the approach of collecting data and using it to develop, support, and/or challenge a theory.
