Psychology Unit 2 test

Alexandra is told that research supports the value of cosmetic surgery for boosting self-esteem. Beliinda is told that the esteem-enhancing value of cosmetic surger has been refuted by research. Both women would consider the findings to be common sense. This best illustrates the power of

the hindsight bias

Professor Shalet contends that parents and children have similar levels of intelligence largely because they share common genes. His idea is best described as a(n)

theory

In the hypothesis "Students who study a list of terms in the morning, just after waking up, will recall more terms than students who study the list just before falling asleep," what is the independent variable?

time of day

The hindsight bias leads people to perceive research findings as

unsurprising

To compare the pace of life in different countries, investigators measured the sepped with which postal clearks completed a simple request. This best illustrates teh use of a research method known as

naturalistic observations

The process of replication is most likely to be facilitated by

operational definitions

Carrie believes that she is a very good driver. her belief leads her to take unnecessary risks, such as driving too fast and cutting in front of other drivers. Carrie's driving appears to be affected by

overconfidence

Megan was certain that she would never live far away from her family. However, in order to further her career, she decideed to move. Megan's experience best illustrates

overconfidence

In order to learn about the political attitudes of all students enrolled at Arizona State University, Professor Marlow randomly selected 800 of these students to complete a questionnaire. In this instance, all the students enroleed at Arizona State University are considered to be a(n)

population

If college graduates typically earn more money than high school graduates, this would indicate that level of education and income are

positively correlated

Correlational research is most useful for purposes of

prediction

Professor Ambra was skeptical about the accuracy of recently reported research on sleep deprivation. Which process would best enable her to assess the reliability of these findings?

replication

Evelyn wants to know how consistent her bowling scores have been during the past season. Which of the following measures would be most relevant to this specific concern?

standard deviation

Professor Woo noticed that the distribution of students' scores on her last biology test had an extremely small standard deviation. This indicates that the

students' scores tend to be very similar to one another

A researcher interested in investigating the attitudes or opinions of a large sample of people is most likely to use which research method?

survey

To understand the unusual behavior of an adult client, a clinical psychologist carefully investigates the client's current life situation and his physical, social-cultural, and educational history. Which research method has the psychologist used?

the case study

Abdul has volunteered to participate in an experiment evaluating the effectiveness of aspirin. Neither he nor the experimenters know whether the pills he takes during the experiment contain aspirin or are merely placebos. The investigators are apparently making use of

the double blind procedure

To describe the behavior of animals in their native habitats, researchers are most likely to make use of

Naturalistic Observation

Which two questions exemplify the scientific attitude?

What do you mean? How do you know?

Dr. Roberts hypothesized that students in a classroom seating 30 would get higher course grades than students seated in an auditorium seating 300. In this example,

classroom size has been operationally defined

To determine whether a research finding is statistically significant, researchers

compare the means of a control group and an experimental group

Following the scientific discovery that a specific brain structure is significantly larger in violent individuals than in those who are nonviolent, a news headline announced: "Enlarged Brain Structure Triggers Violent Acts." The headline writer should most clearly be warned about the dangers of

confusing correlation with causation

When you question whether anecdotal evidence can be generalized to all people, you are applying

critical thinking

Historians of science describe which three attitudes as the basis of the scientific viewpoint?

curiosity, skepticism, humility

A functional MRI can measure _________ by taking a picture of the living human brain.

grey matter

Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the weakest degree of relationship between two variables?

-0.12

During the last Central High School basketball game, the starting five players scored 11, 7, 21, 14, and 7 points, respectively. For this distribution of scores, the range is

14

The belief that weather conditions signal the onset of arthritis pain best illustrates

an illusory correlation

The sequential occurrence of two highly unusual events is most likely to contribute to

an illusory correlation

Psychologists' personal values and goals

can bias their interpretations and observations

In 1848, Phineas Gage, a railroad construction foreman, survived when an explosion drove an iron rod through his head damaging the functioning of the frontal lobes. This instance provided evidence that the frontal lobe plays a role in personality and behavior. Researchers have continued to study Gage's brain to better understand this link. Which research method is being used?

case study

A researcher who deceives participants about the goals of the research needs to fully inform them of the true nature of the study later, according to which ethical principle of human experimentation?

debriefing

In an experiment, researchers manipulate one factor to see its effect on another factor, called the

dependent variable

Basing decisions or conclusions on observable evidence describes which of the following?

empirical approach

The most foolproof way of testing the true effectiveness of a newly introduced method of psychological therapy is by means of

experimental research

Dr. DeVries is interested in measuring how practice in problem solving affects this ability. The population of interest is high school seniors, and the sample consists of students who attend an exclusive college preparatory school. Half of the sample receives practice in solving particular types of problems, while the other half does not. Both groups take the same problem-solving test. Which of the following might best explain why Dr. DeVries may not be able to generalize his findings?

his sample is not representative of the whole population

Which of the following defines ethical principles that should guide human experimentation?

informed consent, protection from harm, confidentiality, debriefing

Which makes finding statistical significance more likely?

large sample size

The biggest danger of relying on case-study evidence is that it

may be unrepresentative of what is actually true

Psychologists who carefully watch the behavior of chimpanzee societies in the jungle are using a research method known as

naturalistic observation