Psych 215 Study Guide - Final

You have read an article by Andrea Johnson and Brenda Smith, published in 2017 in volume 74 of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. How would you cite this article in your paper?

(Johnson & Smith, 2017)

Researchers can conduct basic research or applied research. Which of the following statements about these types of research is NOT true? *GOT THIS QUESTION WRONG* a) Applied research has direct relevance to solving real-world problems. b) Applied research is more valuable than basic research. c) Outcomes from applied research can often also help to answer basic research questions. d) Conclusions from basic research can be useful in a wide range of applied situations.

*GOT THIS QUESTION WRONG* Outcomes from applied research can often also help to answer basic research questions.

Researchers have studied the effects of predictability on stress. In one study, participants experienced a painful stimulus. Half of the participants were able to predict when the pain would occur because they were given a signal beforehand. The other participants were not given a signal, so their pain was unpredictable. Researchers measured and compared participants' stress levels. In this study, the dependent variable is: *GOT THIS WRONG* a) the presence or absence of the signal before the painful stimulus. b) the participants' stress levels. c) the number of participants in each condition. d) the predictability of the painful stimulus.

*GOT THIS WRONG* the presence or absence of the signal before the painful stimulus.

What is the minimum number of levels of the independent variable that you can have in an experiment?

2

Consider the following elements of an APA-style research report. Which appears earliest in the report?

Abstract

APA style allows psychologists and behavioral researchers from different specialization to communicate with each other using a consistent format. According to your textbook, why is this important? a) In academic settings, instructors can grade student work more fairly and consistently if it has a regular format. b) Journal editors and peer reviewers can more effectively review and critique research studies when they are presented using a consistent format. c) Researchers can more easily replicate prior studies if they know precisely what was done, increasing the external validity of our knowledge. d) All of these options

All of these options

Although it is probably impossible to eliminate experimenter bias completely, we can reduce experimenter bias by: a) creating research protocols, detailed scripts to follow with each participant. b) using a double-blind research procedure. c) all of these options d) mechanizing and automating procedures when possible.

All of these options

As more research is conducted online, some researchers have become concerned about: a) all of these options b) the difficulty of conducting effective debriefing. c) issues with protecting privacy and confidentiality. d) challenges with assuring adequate informed consent.

All of these options

One of the best ways to minimize participant bias is to reduce demand characteristics as much as possible. Researchers can do this by: a) all of these options b) conducting field research rather than laboratory research. c) doing a manipulation check. d) using deception.

All of these options

Researchers can manipulate independent variables by: a) all of these options b) altering the information or instructors they give to different participants. c) altering the types of situations or environments their participants experience. d) altering the types of tasks they ask participants to perform.

All of these options

Researchers have argued that field research is very valuable, because: a) it can be used to check the results of studies conducted in the laboratory. b) the results are often highly applicable, and the discoveries made can make an immediate difference in the lives of the participants. c) all of these options d) conditions in the field often cannot be duplicated in the laboratory.

All of these options

Unscientific thinking often relies on the uncritical acceptance of anecdotal evidence. Which of the following is one of the dangers of anecdotal evidence? a) It is selective, ignoring examples or instances that don't fit. b) People's direct experiences may not be representative of all people's experiences, or even the most common experiences. c) It can be powerfully influenced by effort justification, the tendency to believe things that we are invested in. d) All of these options

All of these options

What information is typically found in the introduction of an APA research report? a) A thorough description of the problem or question being studied. b) A thorough review of the existing and relevant research, describing what is currently known and unknown about the topic. c) One or more hypotheses to be tested in the study. d) All of these options

All of these options

Which of the following events influenced the development of the APA's Code of Ethics? a) The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the United States in the 1960s. b) The Belmont Report, released in the 1970s in response to research like the Tuskegee Syphilis study. c) The Nuremburg trials and the resulting code of ethics after World War II. d) All of these options

All of these options

Which of the following would violate the APA Code of Ethics with regards to data collection and reporting? a) Choosing to include only selected data, while omitting other data. b) Manufacturing data rather than actually collecting it from participants. c) Altering data that has been collected. d) All of these options

All of these options

When we want to describe the typical score in a sample, we use a measure of central tendency. Which of the following statements about measures of central tendency is true? a) All of these statements are true. b) In order to determine the mean, we calculate the average score. c) The modal score is the score that occurs most often among a sample. d) The median is often useful to calculate when there are extreme scores or outliers.

All of these statements are true.

Why can't you use a t-test to analyze the data from single-factor, multilevel experiments?

Because they generate more than two sets of data to be analyzed.

The first principle in the APA Code of Ethics is the principle of _____, which requires that psychologists weigh the benefits and costs of their research and try to achieve the greatest good with the least harm done to others.

Beneficence and Nonmaleficence

Which of the following statements about the use of deception in psychological research is true?

Deception is considered acceptable if the researcher and IRB determine that the study could not reasonably be done in any other way.

Jesse is reading a section of a research report. This section begins with a non-technical summary of the main results of the study, which has no statistical terminology or jargon. It then provides a broader interpretation of these results, including their implications, and connects them with past research findings to put them in context. After considering possible alternative explanations or interpretations of the results, this section provides a critique of the methods used and a consideration of possible "next steps" for the research program. Based on this information, it's most likely that Jesse is reading the _____ section.

Discussion

Which of the following is NOT a design issue that is often encountered in applied research?

External validity can be poor, since we often cannot generalize results to the real world.

Research suggests that participants' performance tends to improve when they know that they are being observed. There are several different theories about why this happens, but researchers refer to this as the _____ effect.

Hawthorne

I am designing an experiment with one independent variable. I will manipulate the independent variable between groups, by randomly assigning each participant to one condition. My experiment will have two conditions, with one control group and one experimental group. What is the best way to describe my experiment's design?

Independent groups single-factor design

Imagine reading the following question on a survey: "Since the health of our planet is the most important resource we can give future generations, do you support or oppose the Green New Deal?" What is the biggest problem with this question?

It is a leading question.

Which of the following statements about meta-analysis is NOT true? a) Meta-analysis is considered to be a type of experimental research. b) A meta-analysis can demonstrate the overall strength and consistency of an effect across many studies. c) The primary goal of meta-analysis is to systematically synthesize and combine outcomes across studies to better understand the phenomenon. d) n a meta-analysis, the researcher statistically analyzes the effect sizes from studies that have already been completed.

Meta-analysis is considered to be a type of experimental research.

In a famous study on memory, Elizabeth Loftus and John Palmer (1974) asked students to estimate the speed of two cars as they crashed. Loftus and Palmer divided the students into five groups and described the incident differently in each condition: The cars were described as "smashing," "colliding," "bumping," "hitting," or "contacting" each other. Each participant was randomly assigned to one group. What kind of experimental design did Loftus and Palmer use in this study?

Multilevel, independent groups design

After the massive 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco, a research team studied its effects on the nightmares of three groups of college students: two groups from the Bay Area who had directly experienced the earthquake and a control group from Arizona who had not. What type of design does this study use?

Nonequivalent control group design

We can measure the outcome of the 2015 Kentucky Derby: American Pharoah was 1st. Firing Line was 2nd. Dortmund was 3rd. What scale of measurement are we using here?

Ordinal

Chris is conducting a regression analysis to make predictions about student performance on the final exam. He has developed an equation that uses students' quiz scores to predict their final exam scores. In this scenario, what is Chris using as the predictor variable?

Quiz scores

Of all the following correlation coefficients, which one indicates the strongest relationship between two variables? a) Relationship between height and weight: r = 0.70 b) Relationship between frequency of arguments and relationship satisfaction: r = -0.79 c) Relationship between number of selfies on phone and narcissism: r = 0.16 d) Relationship between hours of television watched and exam performance: r = -0.37

Relationship between frequency of arguments and relationship satisfaction: r = -0.79

In his famous conformity experiments, Solomon Asch (1951) asked participants to take a "vision test." Each participant sat around a table with seven other "students," who were actually confederates. Participants experienced 18 trials, in which they were shown a line and were asked to match it to another line of the same length. In some of those trials, the other "students" all gave the same wrong answer. Asch measured how often the participant conformed and went along with the obviously wrong answer given by their groupmates. Each participant was tested 18 times; some of these were the control condition (groupmates gave the correct answer) and some of these were the experimental condition (groupmates gave the wrong answer). Asch then compared student performances in the control and experimental conditions. What kind of experimental design did Asch use?

Repeated measures single-factor design

Which of the following sampling techniques would NOT be considered probability sampling?

Snowball sampling

Which of the following is an example of a negative correlation between two variables? a) Adults who exercise more tend to have higher levels of life satisfaction. b) Students who procrastinate more tend to earn lower scores on assignments. c) There is no relationship between how fast you drive and how much you give to charity. d) People who are less anxious also tend to experience less depression.

Students who procrastinate more tend to earn lower scores on assignments.

Which of the following pieces of information does NOT appear on the title page of a correctly formatted APA report?

The date the report was written or published

Take a look at the following reference: Seidman, G., Langlais, M., & Havens, A. Romantic relationship-oriented Facebook activities and the satisfaction of belonging needs. Psychology of Popular Media, 8(1), 52-62. doi:10.1037/ppm0000165 What important information is missing?

The year of publication

Sometimes, researchers incorrectly reject the null hypothesis and draw the wrong conclusions from their data. Incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actually true is called a _____ error.

Type I

Which of the following statements about the References section of an APA-style report is NOT true? a) Unlike most of the sections of an APA-style report, the References section begins on its own page. b) You should include every source that you read while writing a report, even if you don't cite them in your paper. c) It contains an alphabetized (by author) list of sources from your report. d) It is double-spaced and uses a hanging indent to make it easier to find each author.

You should include every source that you read while writing a report, even if you don't cite them in your paper.

An extraneous variable is: a) a variable that researchers measure to see how it changes in different conditions. b) a variable that researchers try to control so that it doesn't interfere with the outcome. c) none of these options d) a variable that researchers manipulate to observe its effects.

a variable that researchers try to control so that it doesn't interfere with the outcome.

A(n) _____ is a summary of a research article. It must be brief, typically 150-250 words, and it must accurately represent the entire study. It is also the only part of an article that is read by many readers, and it is often used to determine if the entire article is worth reading in detail.

abstract

In psychological science, the concept of determinism claims that:

all events (even thoughts and behaviors) have causes and can be predicted.

A study using an interrupted time series design can never have the same level of internal validity as a true experiment. But, we can strengthen it by: a) including a control group that does not experience the treatment or event. b) introducing the treatment or program in different locations at different points in time (switching replications). c) measuring several dependent variables to better assess the real effects of a treatment or event. d) all of these options

all of these options

Applied research studies: a) are often conducted in clinics, agencies, jails, businesses, or other field settings. b) help to expand our understanding of basic psychological processes. c) all of these options d) focus on specific, identifiable real-world problems.

all of these options

In order to reduce bias and enhance validity, researchers need to employ systematic sampling techniques when making observations. A technique that observers can use to systematically select what they record is: a) event sampling b) time sampling c) situation sampling d) all of these options

all of these options

Observer bias is always a potential issue in observational studies. But, researchers can design observational studies in ways that reduce this bias by: a) having multiple observers and seeing if their records match. b) using behavior checklists. c) using careful, systematic sampling methods. d) all of these options

all of these options

You can use a t-test to compare two sets of data, but only if: a) the data from both groups have approximately a normal distribution. b) the data from both groups are similar in their variance. c) all of these options d) the data are continuous (interval or ratio measurements).

all of these options

When researchers conduct research by analyzing data that has already been collected for some other purpose, rather than collecting new data themselves, it is referred to as _____ research.

archival

When students uncritically accept information and ideas from their teachers and textbooks as "the truth," without examining the evidence for themselves, they are relying on _____ as a way of knowing.

authority

Chris is studying the effects of noise on stress levels. He has created three conditions that his participants will experience: no noise, predictable noise, and unpredictable noise. He randomly assigns each participant to one of these conditions and compares their stress levels. This experiment uses a _____ design.

between subjects

Researchers can produce equivalent groups in an experiment by using: a) both random assignment and matching b) random assignment c) matching d) counterbalancing

both random assignment and matching

When constructing a survey, many researchers use _____ questions. These questions ask participants to select a response from an existing set of choices (or answer yes or no); they are easy to analyze and produce quantitative data. a) none of these options b) open-ended c) closed d) leading

closed

The _____ is more commonly called r2. It tells us what proportion of the variance of one variable can be accounted for by the variance of another variable, or how much variability is shared between two variables. This gives us useful information about how accurately we can make predictions about one variable if we know the other.

coefficient of determination

Dr. Jones is studying shyness in children. She measures shyness by recording how often children choose to play in solitary activities rather than in social activities. Her colleagues have critiqued her method, arguing that this is not a good operational definition of shyness. Her colleagues seem to be concerned about the _____ validity of her study.

construct

Cognitive dissonance, anxiety, and bystander apathy are all examples of _____, abstract concepts that cannot be directly observed but can be inferred from certain behaviors and assumed to follow from certain circumstances.

constructs

A pair of researchers wanted to learn more about how well preschool children are able to exert self-control. They brought children, one at a time, into a room with one of their favorite snacks. The room was a highly-structured laboratory on a college campus with sophisticated recording equipment. The researchers told the children that they would get an extra snack if they could wait to eat until the researchers returned. Then, they left the child alone in the room with the snacks, recording their behaviors with hidden cameras. This study could be best described as a(n) _____.

controlled observation

The typical way to control order effects is to use more than one sequence of trials, a strategy known as _____.

counterbalancing

Sam is developing a metric to try to measure how generous an individual is. In order to evaluate whether it is actually measuring generosity, Sam is checking to see if there is any correlation between a person's score on the metric and the amount of money they donate to charities or give to others in need. In other words, Sam is evaluating the _____ of the metric.

criterion validity

When developing hypotheses, researchers start with a theory and use _____ reasoning to make a prediction about what is expected to occur.

deductive

One purpose of debriefing is to help to reduce any stress or other negative feelings that might have been experienced during the session. This is called _____.

desensitizing

When people use their direct experiences as evidence to draw a conclusion, they are relying on _____ as a way of knowing.

empiricism

Participants' behavior can be affected when they believe that they are being evaluated. Because they want to be judged positively, participants may become concerned about how the researchers perceive them, and they may start to behave the way they think an "ideal" person would rather than behaving naturally. Rosenberg calls this form of participant bias _____.

evaluation apprehension.

In a(n) _____ design, the researcher does not manipulate the independent variable. Instead, the researcher uses groups of participants that already differ on a "subject" variable. For example, researchers might compare the performance of individuals with autism to the performance of a control group of individuals who do not have autism. Many researchers argue that this is not a "true" experiment, because the researcher does not actually manipulate the independent variable.

ex-post facto

Research psychologists want to discover the factors that influence a behavior or cause it to occur. This is the goal of:

explanantion

A lot of experiments are conducted in laboratories with participants who tend to be undergraduate students from industrialized, rich, democratic, Western countries. These studies have questionable _____ validity, because we may not be able to generalize their results to other people in other cultures in the real world.

external

Karl Popper argued that science works by developing theories and then testing them by attempting to see if they are wrong. This process only works if we develop theories that are:

falfifiable

A _____ is a "lower-stakes" test that evaluates how well a program is working along the way so that adjustments and modifications can be made if necessary. A _____ is a "higher-stakes" test that evaluates whether a program has met its goals and whether it should be allowed to continue.

formative evaluation; summative evaluation

Surveys can be conducted in several different ways. However, when survey respondents do not feel anonymous, they are more likely to show a social desirability bias by:

giving the answer that they think is most acceptable or positively viewed by others.

According to the APA Code of Ethics, researchers do not need to practice informed consent or debriefing:

in naturalistic observations if behavior is studied in public settings, people are not interfered with in any way, and strict anonymity and confidentiality are maintained.

In a recent experiment, a group of expectant mothers was provided with eight sessions of parenting classes, while another group of expectant mothers were put on a waitlist and did not participate in the classes during the study. The two groups were compared to assess how confident these individuals felt in their readiness to become a parent. The participants who received the parenting classes were:

in the experimental group.

You can use a t-test for independent samples if your experiment compares two conditions using a(n) _____ design.

independent groups

As Naomi designs her study, she focuses on making sure that she is manipulating her independent variable effectively, so that she can create two distinctly different conditions for her participants. She has also planned carefully how to measure her dependent variable in a meaningful, unbiased way, and how to effectively control for any possible confounding factors. Naomi is clearly trying to maximize the _____ validity of her study.

internal

In a(n) _____ design, researchers take a series of measurements over an extended period of time to observe the effects of some treatment, event, or experience.

interrupted time series

In developmental psychology, a _____ study uses a within-subjects approach, by studying a single group of participants over an extended period of time. a) longitudinal b) all of these options c) cross-sectional d) cohort

longitudinal

A theory is a set of logically consistent statements about a phenomenon that does all of the following, EXCEPT:

makes predictions or guesses that are not yet substantiated by systematic observations or data.

Sometimes, changes in our participants' behavior may simply be due to the passage of time rather than the effects of an independent variable. This is a threat to internal validity that we call a(n) _____ effect.

maturation

If you wanted to find a detailed description of the exact procedures used to conduct an experiment, observation, or other type of research study, you would read the _____ section of the report.

method

An important part of an IRB review involves determining the degree of potential risk to participants. When participants face situations similar to those in daily life, which do not involve a substantial amount of stress, they are considered to be at _____ risk.

minimal

Dr. Smith uses a fun, computerized gambling task to research risk-taking behavior. This task is not much like real life, so the research has poor _____ realism. But, the task is so fun that participants are fully engaged and try hard to win, so the research has good _____ realism.

mundane; experimental

In a _____ observation, the goal is to study the behavior of people (or sometimes animals) as they act in their everyday environments. With this goal in mind, researchers try to be as "invisible" as possible and collect data unobtrusively; in the optimal situation, observers are completely hidden from those who are being observed.

naturalistic

Before developing a new tutoring program at our college, we should conduct research to find out how many people would actually use it and whether it would actually meet the needs of our students. This type of program evaluation is called a _____.

needs analysis

Dr. Carlsen's research found a significant positive correlation between the amount of exercise a person gets and their overall life satisfaction. Given only this information, we can conclude with absolute certainty that: a) feeling more life satisfaction must cause people to exercise more. b) none of these options; we can't draw firm conclusions about cause and effect based only on correlations. c) there must be some third variable that causes people to exercise more and feel more satisfied with life. d) exercising more must cause people to feel more satisfied with their lives.

none of these options; we can't draw firm conclusions about cause and effect based only on correlations.

In hypothesis testing, we reject the _____ hypothesis when the calculated p-value is lower than our significance level. At this point, we can be confident that our results are statistically significant and unlikely to be due to chance alone.

null

A pair of researchers were interested in cataloging aggressive behavior among young children at a day-care center. Because the researchers expected boys to behave more aggressively, they paid more attention to their behavior, recorded more of their aggressive interactions, and selected their behaviors as more "relevant" to their research. This caused the researchers to miss some forms of aggressive behavior, especially when they were initiated by girls. This is an example of how _____ can influence an observational study.

observer bias

When a research team wants to study aggression, they must define the specific behaviors, operations, and procedures they will use to produce and measure it. In other words, one of the first steps in a research study is to develop _____ definitions.

operational

In order to learn more about how homeless individuals in a shelter maintain their self-esteem and identity, a researcher went undercover to volunteer at a homeless shelter. While completing her volunteer duties, she observed the individuals in the shelter and had some conversations with them. She covertly recorded her observations in a journal. This study could be best described as a(n) _____.

participant observation

A _____ control group is a special kind of control group in which the participants are led to believe that they are receiving a specific treatment when, in fact, they aren't. This type of control group is commonly used in research on the effectiveness of drug treatments.

placebo

If you want to select a representative sample, you will have the best luck if you use _____ sampling.

probability

A research methods course teaches the _____ of developing knowledge about psychological phenomena, which can be applied to all areas of psychology. Other psychology classes focus mainly on the specific _____ that has been discovered in their area.

process; content

In an experiment, practice can cause performance to steadily improve over trials, while boredom or fatigue can cause performance to get steadily worse. This type of order effect, in which performance changes steadily over trials, is called a _____ effect.

progressive

In order to protect non-human animal subjects, the APA Code of Ethics requires that researchers must do all of the following, EXCEPT:

promise not to euthanize the animals in their study after its conclusion.

The term _____ is applied to any field of inquiry that gives the impression of using scientific methods (and tries hard to give that impression), but is actually based on inadequate, unscientific methods and makes claims that are false, overly simplistic, or unsupported.

pseudoscience

In a recent study, researchers measured participants' reaction times when presented with pleasant and unpleasant stimuli. This study is an example of _____ research.

quantitative

Some studies resemble an experiment in their design, but subjects cannot be randomly assigned to conditions, or the independent variable cannot be manipulated, or they are missing some other aspect of an experiment. We typically refer these as ______ designs.

quasi-experimental

Researchers can use unobtrusive measures in observational studies in order to:

reduce possible participant reactivity.

Like the Westinghouse study described in your textbook, researchers sometimes try to match their groups on a pretest when they use a nonequivalent control group design . This seems like a good idea. But, it can lead to _____ effects that distort the results of the study if participants scored unusually high or low on the pretest.

regression

When we evaluate whether a measure or metric provides consistent measurements over time, whenever the behavior is re-measured, we are asking about its _____.

reliability

A survey is a structured set of items used to measure people's attitudes, beliefs, values, or tendencies to act. However, we can only draw meaningful conclusions from a survey if we have a _____ sample; otherwise, our sample is potentially biased and our results will not be valid.

representative

In a within-subjects design: a) researchers must create equivalent groups. b) researchers must take steps to control for order effects. c) all of these options d) each participant experiences only one level of c) the independent variable.

researchers must take steps to control for order effects.

Some respondents have a tendency to agree with every statement in a survey, a response bias that researchers call _____.

response acquiescence

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) is supposed to:

review all research proposals at an institution to ensure they are ethically planned.

When we rely uncritically on our own personal experiences, we can easily be influenced by the confirmation bias. The confirmation bias refers to our tendency to:

seek and pay more attention to information that supports our pre-existing beliefs.

If your experiment involves assigning participants to two different groups, you need to use a randomizing process to make sure that your groups are constructed of similar types of participants. If you don't, and your groups are already different before your experiment begins, it might suffer from a threat to internal validity that we call a(n) _____ effect.

selection

In science, we draw conclusions and develop theories that are best supported by all of the objective data that are currently available. However, we may find new, unexpected things in the future, and we may discover that some of our current ideas are wrong. Because of this constant process of self-correction and discovery, all conclusions in science are considered ____.

tentative

Experiments are the best type of research design to use when you want to find out:

the effect of independent variables on dependent variables.

The main difference between a single-factor, two-level experiment and a single-factor, multilevel experiment is:

the multilevel design has more than two levels of the independent variable.

If you wanted to measure the amount of variability in a sample, you could calculate:

the standard deviation

A central feature of the APA Code of Ethics is the concept of informed consent: Participants must be given enough information to make a knowledgeable decision about participating. Typically, this involves information about all of the following, EXCEPT:

their right to absolute confidentiality no matter what they disclose.

When researchers take principles discovered in basic research studies and test them in an applied or clinical setting, it is known as _____ research. This research is done to better understand a particular phenomena and to promote better physical and psychological well-being.

translational

Serendipity can be a source of inspiration for researchers when they:

unintentionally discover something while looking for something else entirely.

Nobody believes that scientists can completely eliminate their expectations and biases, or otherwise be entirely machine-like in their objectivity. Instead, an objective observation, as the term is used in science, is simply one that:

uses a systematic technique that can be verified by more than one observer.

When we evaluate whether a measure or metric can actually measure what it claims to be measuring, we are asking about its _____.

validity