Psych Exam Quiz Questions

The "third variable problem" is associated with which scientific thinking principle?

Correlation is not causation.

Why do most individuals on both sides of the animal rights debate believe that it is a bad idea for animal activists to release captive laboratory animals?

Many of the animals die shortly after being released.

An important principle of scientific thinking states that if two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon, we should generally select the simpler one. This principle is known as __________.

Occam's Razor

Jerry is asked to estimate which is more common in the English language: Words that end in "ing" or words that have "-n-" as the second-to-last letter. He mentally recites many examples of the first category ("running," "jumping," "flying," "talking") but can only think of a few examples of the second category ("sink," "nine"). He judges that "ing" endings are more common, which of course is incorrect. (All words that end in "ing" also have "n" as the second-to-last letter; the addition of words that do not have an "i" and a "g" on either side of the "n" makes that second group larger.) After all this hubbub, it is clear that Jerry relied on __________ to reach his conclusion.

System 1 thinking

The idea that we can dismiss scientific theories (such as Darwinian evolution) from serious consideration because a theory "is just an educated guess" is __________.

a misconception

Sherri wants to design a self-report measure for her study of personality traits, but she knows she should be concerned that respondents might distort their answers, especially to paint themselves in a positive light. This tendency is known as __________.

a response set

The technical term for a score that is much higher or lower than the typical responses, and might produce a misleading interpretation of the data set, is __________.

an outlier

Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman refers to intuitive thinking as System 1. What type of thinking does Kahneman refer to as System 2?

analytical

People have a tendency to continue holding on to their beliefs even when those beliefs have been shown to be wrong. This phenomenon is known as __________.

belief perseverance

The cases of facilitated communication and lobotomies demonstrate that good research design is important because intelligent, well-trained people __________.

can be swayed into believing that a treatment is effective when it is not

The easiest way to determine if two variables are associated with one another is to use a(n) __________ research design.

correlational

Psychological researchers have become more aware of the importance of replicating research results. Part of this awareness is driven by the observation that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time. This phenomenon is known as the __________.

decline effect

Questions such as, "What is the average level of extraversion in this sample?" call for the use of which kind of statistics?

descriptive

You meet a psychologist who tells you that she conducts research on children to determine how their cognitive processes differ as the child gets older. You recognize that this person is most likely a(n) __________.

developmental psychologist

Ten-year-old Candace Newmaker died as a result of a pseudoscientific treatment called "rebirthing therapy." This is an example of pseudoscience causing __________.

direct harm

One reason people are drawn to believing in pseudoscience is that we use our emotions as guides to evaluate the validity of claims. This is known as the affect heuristic or the __________.

emotional reasoning fallacy

The only research designs that allow us the possibility of drawing cause-and-effect inferences are __________.

experimental designs

Dr. Ingo Larsen is testing the effectiveness of a new memory-enhancing study technique. He greets each participant at the door and escorts them into either the control group (that receives the old memory technique) or the experimental group (that receives the new memory technique). He then conducts the experiment and analyzes the results. This is all quite problematic, because of the potential presence of __________.

experimenter expectancy effects

Dr. Frohardt is a psychology professor who has been asked to explain what all people will look at first when they view photographs of dangerous animals. Dr. Frohardt will find this task difficult because __________.

eye-tracking studies show differences between cultures when inspecting visual materials

A mental shortcut or general "rule of thumb" is referred to as a(n) __________ by psychologists.

heuristic

One primary purpose of sending research articles to peer reviewers prior to publication is to __________.

identify flaws in the research

The APA Ethical Principles for Human Research state: "A contact [person] who can answer questions about the research and the participant's rights should be provided." This statement is most relevant in which of the following aspects of ethical research?

informed consent

Research involving animals can generate strong, often negative, feelings among people. This is especially so when the research involves __________ procedures that cause physical harm to the animals.

invasive

Evolutionary psychology has been criticized because __________.

its predictions are difficult to falsify

As a discipline, psychology spans multiple __________, which can be thought of as the rungs on a ladder.

levels of analysis

The two ingredients that make a research study an experiment are 1) random assignment of participants to conditions, and 2) __________.

manipulation of an independent variable

Which term describes the common sense belief that we see the world as it really is?

naive realism

If we want to study people's actual behavior "in the wild" without them being influenced by the researcher, we can use __________.

naturalistic observation

Bud and Sandy are discussing the merits of new automobiles. Bud noted, "This car model has been tested by four different consumer agencies in hundreds of tests with virtually the same outcomes each time; it is very reliable." Sandy countered, "Yeah, but my neighbor down the street bought that car, and he has had nothing but problems. I would stay away from it." Which hallmark of pseudoscience has Sandy fallen prey to?

overreliance on anecdotes

Freda is reading a journal article in psychology, and sees that a statistically significant outcome would have occurred by chance alone less than 5 out of 100 times. This statement would be summarized in the journal article as __________.

p < .05

Media reports have a tendency to try to present two opposing sides of an issue as though both sides were equally valid. What is this tendency called?

pseudosymmetry

Just as behaviorism was gaining popularity in the United States, Sigmund Freud was founding a new field of psychology, one that focused on internal psychological processes such as unconscious impulses, thoughts, and memories. This approach is called __________.

psychoanalysis

Laurie told her friend Sandi, "I had a headache this morning so I used an old family cure: Three sips of ginger ale, and an hour later my head felt better." Sandi replied, "I am glad you are feeling more comfortable now, but maybe the sheer passage of time made your headache go away." Sandi is offering a(n) __________ in response to Laurie's explanation.

rival hypothesis

One important aspect of a research study that peer reviewers consider is whether the study considers alternate explanations. This is called __________.

ruling out rival hypotheses

The police have arrested a suspect in an assault case and the victim has agreed to look at a lineup to see if he can identify the person who attacked him. Gary, a police psychologist, is advising the detectives on the most accurate way to put together a lineup. What should he recommend that they use?

sequential lineup

In the popular media (as opposed to scientific journals), research results can be presented in a misleading way because reporters have the tendency to exaggerate the gist or central message of the study. This is called __________.

sharpening

Analytical thinking is __________ compared to intuitive thinking.

slow

Which term indicates applying mathematics to describe and analyze data?

statistics

Mark Twain referred to three kinds of untruths: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics," because __________.

statistics sometimes can be used to mislead people

E.B. Titchener was a leading figure in which framework of psychology, which advocated the use of introspection to identify basic elements of experience?

structuralism

What shameful experiment was conducted over the course of 40 years to determine what would happen if syphilis was left to run its course in unsuspecting "subjects" (at a time when a cure for the disease was already available)?

the Tuskegee study

Science writer Michael Shermer coined the termed "patternicity" to refer to __________.

the human tendency to see patterns in meaningless data

Some main warning signs of pseudoscientific claims include overreliance on anecdotes, exaggerated claims, absence of connectivity to other research, lack of peer review, and __________.

use of scientific-sounding terms that make little sense

Alice is looking for an effective diet program. She is able to evaluate the claims of competing programs in an open-minded and careful fashion by __________, the hallmark of scientific skepticism.

using her critical thinking skills

The authors accept the philosophical belief that science is __________; that is, neither good nor bad in itself.

value-neutral