Psychology Unit 1

In a study of children's reading abilities, one group of 8-year-olds is exposed to a new program that supposedly enhances literacy. Another group is taught with standard methods for teaching reading. Results of the study indicated that the children taught with the new program learned to read more complex material than did the group who were exposed to the standard teaching methods. In this study, which is the control group?

the group that received the standard teaching methods

Which research topic would best be studied using the case study approach?

The personality characteristics of an individual serial killer

Which of the following titles would most likely be found in a research journal for social psychology?

"How the presence of other people affects helping behavior in public situations"

Which correlation coefficient represents the strongest degree of relationship between two variables?

-0.98

According to the behavioral perspective, psychological science should be rooted in what?

Observation

Of the following correlation coefficients, which represents the strongest relationship between two factors?

+.38

What is the mode of the following distribution: 8, 2, 1, 1, 3, 7, 6, 2, 0, 2?

2

What is the mean of the following distribution of scores: 3, 4, 5, 4

4

What is the median of the following distribution of scores: 1, 3, 7, 7, 2, 8, 4

4

Your professor directs a child and adolescent clinic that specializes in shaping behavior through rewards and consequences. Which of the following branches of psychology does this clinic support?

Behaviorism

Who highlighted the reproductive advantages of environmentally adaptive traits?

Charles Darwin

_____ is to structuralism as _____ is to functionalism

Edward Titchener; William James

_____ is to psychoanalysis as _____ is to humanistic psychology

Freud; Rogers

This group is responsible for reviewing all proposed research to make sure it follows ethical guidelines

Institutional Review Board

What type of study repeatedly studies the same group of individuals over an extended period of time?

Longitudinal Study

Which of the following contributions to Psychology is Ivan Pavlov known for?

The classical conditioning of dogs

Key figures in the development of behaviorism include:

Watson, Pavlov, and Skinner

What situation best illustrates the placebo effect?

You drink a nonalcoholic drink and become "intoxicated" because you think it contains alcohol

A researcher sets out to test the following statement: "If one or both of their parents smoke then adolescents are more likely to start smoking." This statement is an example of:

a hypothesis.

An operational definition is:

a precise description of how each variable in a particular study will be manipulated or measured.

In an experiment, the dependent variable is:

affected by changes in the independent variable.

After analyzing her data, Professor Nelson discovers that a correlation coefficient of +.75 exists between the amount of coffee a person drinks and the degree of stress experienced. Professor Nelson can safely conclude that:

as coffee consumption increases, stress also increases.

Ingo finds that children's hours of daily exercise and quality of nutritional intake are correlated +0.63 with one another. What does this correlation coefficient indicate?

as quality of nutritional intake increases, rate of exercise increase

In order to increase confidence in the findings of a particular study, it is important that the study and its results:

be repeated or replicated.

Professor Hebb is studying whether learning is affected by different environments. He raises some rats in cages with many interesting objects to play on and explore. Other rats are raised in isolated, barren cages with none of the interesting objects. Later, Hebb carefully records how many attempts it takes each rat to learn to run a maze with no mistakes. What is the independent variable in this study?

being raised in an interesting or a barren environment

Please identify the dependent variable in the scenario below. A clinical psychologist hypothesizes that listening to an inspirational tape will lead one to be in a better mood.

better mood

Dr. Jackson is studying changes in the brain after stressful experiences. Dr. Jackson is most likely to subscribe to the _____ perspective.

biological

Psychologists use different levels of analysis (Combine multiple psychological approaches) that offer complementary outlooks on various topics. This is best understood by using

biopsychosocial approach

Joanna has suffered a series of personal setbacks, including the death of a family member, academic problems in college, and a divorce. She feels so sad, upset, and lonely that she is contemplating suicide. Joanna could probably best be helped by a(n) _____ psychologist.

clinical

What is an advantage of the survey method?

collecting large amounts of information in a relatively short period of time

The tendency to look for information that supports one's preexisting beliefs and worldview is called ________

confirmation bias

According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of

conscious experience

As a psychology researcher, you have found that the public expression of emotions differs among people from the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and Israel. This type of research fits best with which perspective in psychology?

cross-cultural perspective

Juanita participated in a psychology research project that involved answering a number of arithmetic problems. During the experiment, she was informed that her answers were incorrect. After the experiment was completed, a research assistant explained the purpose of the experiment. He told Juanita that she had actually answered all items correctly, and then explained why the experiment required that she be told that her answers were wrong. This stage of the research represents:

debriefing

In an experiment, the independent variable is the variable that is:

deliberately manipulated by the researcher.

Professor Anderson is interested in how family relationships change over time. During the last two decades, he has kept track of and repeatedly surveyed the same group of 3,000 participants about changes in their relationship with their parents and siblings. Professor Anderson is most likely a _____ psychologist.

developmental

In a study on the effects of caffeine on memory, participants drank a bottle of tasteless water containing 100, 50, or 0 milligrams of caffeine. Neither the researcher who handed out the bottled water nor the study participants knew whether the water contained caffeine or not. This is an example of a _____ study.

double-blind

Which type of research method is used to show that one variable causes change in another variable?

experimental method

While conducting research on intelligence, the experimenters were very careful to control for unwanted variability in such factors as age, gender, ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and so on. They did this in order to avoid or minimize the influence of:

extraneous or confounding variables.

A representative sample is a:

group of subjects that closely parallels the larger group to be studied on all relevant characteristics, such as age, sex, and race.

A case study is a(n):

in-depth investigation of a single individual or a small group of individuals, often involving information from a wide variety of sources.

Representative samples are better than biased samples because they

more accurately reflect the population.

Dr. Harmon wants to study the conditions under which some children are rejected by their peers. Daily, from the beginning of a school year, she carefully observes and records the behavior of kindergartners, first-graders, and second-graders in the classroom and on the playground. Dr. Harmon is using:

naturalistic observation.

The ethical requirement of informed consent means that:

participants must be completely informed about the purpose and conditions of the research, and must be free to withdraw from the research at any time.

One potential problem with surveys and questionnaires is that:

people may misrepresent their personal characteristics or lie in their responses.

In an experiment investigating the hypothesis that aerobic exercise improves concentration and memory, all the participants had an equal chance of being assigned to any of the three conditions in the study. The researchers have used _____ to minimize the possibility of bias when assigning participants to the different groups.

random assignment

Which procedure helps to ensure that the participants in a survey are representative of a larger population?

random sampling

Correlation is to ___________ as experimentation is to __________________

relationship, causation

The cognitive perspective of psychology focuses on:

the important role of mental processes in how people process information, develop language, solve problems, and think.

Psychoanalysis emphasized:

unconscious causes of behavior.