research methods

Six different high school students spent $10, $13, $2, $12, $13, and $4, respectively, on entertainment. The mode of this group's expenditures is

$13

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest relationship between two variables?

-.85

Mary watches several different species of birds to discover how they feed their young in their habitat, without being intrusive. This would be an example of what type of study?

naturalistic observation

Which of the following is the best definition of "illusory correlation"?

A perceived but nonexistent correlation

What must a researcher do to fulfill the ethical principle of informed consent?

Allow participants to choose whether to take part.

Which of the following statements is most correct about the relationship between correlation and causation?

Correlation indicates the possibility of a causal relationship, but it does not prove causation.

American males shake hands in greeting; Japanese men bow. However, people can communicated with a smile. What does this tell us about the role of culture in understanding our psychology?

Culture shapes our behavior, but certain underlying processes guide people everywhere.

What are the 3 important components for a psychologist with a scientific attitude?

Curiosity, skepticism, and humility

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

Informed consent, protection from harm, confidentiality, debriefing

Why are researchers careful to use large, representative samples in their studies?

Larger, representative sample sizes help ensure reliable and valid results.

Which of the following demonstrates the need for psychological science?

Out intuitions about human thinking and behavior are not always accurate

Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?

Precise operational definitions

Why is replication important to science?

Repeated research with similar results increases confidence in the reliability of the original findings.

Researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. The researchers would be justified in concluding that...

Students who earn good grades tend to sleep more than those who do not

Which of the following is a potential problem for a case study?

They may be misleading because they don't fairly represent other cases

Why are researchers so careful about drawing conclusions regarding statistical significance?

They want to make sure an observed difference isn't due to chance.

Research finds that, in general, the higher an incoming college student scores on a given test, the higher the student's college GPA. Which of the following best describes this relationship?

a positive correlation

In 1848, Phineas Gage, a railroad 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 descriptive research method is being used?

case study

Factors that cause differences between the experimental group and control group other than the independent variable.

confounding variables

In an experiment designed to study the effectiveness of a new drug, research participants who received a placebo are participating in the ____________ condition.

control

When one trait is related to another, those traits can be considered

correlated

This research method is a measure of the extent to which two variables change together, and thus of how well either variable predicts the other

correlational

Which ethical principle requires at the end of the study participants be told about the true purpose of the research?

debriefing

The behavior or mental process that is measured in an experiment (the effect)

dependent variable

A correlation coefficient is a measure of the

direction and strength of the relationship between two variables.

Research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in control group.

double blind study

A research method in which an investigator manipulates factors that potentially produce a particular behavior is called a(n)

experiment

Dr. Lee is interested in the effect of lighting on people's ability to concentrate. Dr. Lee studies this by manipulating the amount of lighting while participants read and then measuring their scores on a reading comprehension test. Which of the following research methods is Dr. Lee using?

experiment

A phenomenon that occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results.

experimenter bias

"Monday Morning Quarterbacks" rarely act surprised about the outcome of the weekend football games. This tendency to believe they knew how the game would turn out is best explained by which psychological principle?

hindsight bias

A testable prediction is called (a/an):

hypothesis

A researcher wants to conduct an experiment to determine if eating a cookie before class each day improves student grades. He uses two psychology classes for the experiment, providing daily cookies to one and nothing to the other. The presence or absence of the cookies is the

independent variable

The factor the researcher manipulates in a controlled experiment

independent variable

What is curious skepticism?

open to new ideas but still questions them

Thinking that she had outperformed most of her classmates, Glenda was surprised to receive just an average grade on psychology test. Glenda's experience best illustrates

overconfidence

A psychological or physical treatment given to the control group that resembles the treatment given to the experimental group, but that contains no active ingredient.

placebo

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 enrolled at ASU are considered to be a(n)

population

Assigning participants to experimental or control groups by chance is called

random assignment

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

random sample

each time a study is repeated, the results are consistent.

reliability

the subgroup of the population

sample

Research design in which participants don't know whether they are in experimental or control group.

single blind

Measures the average difference between each score and the mean of the data set.

standard deviation

The condition that exists when the probability that the findings are not due to chance

statistical significance

Descriptive statistics _____________, while inferential statistics ____________.

summarize data; determine if data can be generalized to other populations

The advantage of this descriptive method of research is that it creates an immense amount of data to be gathered quickly and inexpensively.

survey

A teacher finds the distribution of scores on a final exam to be positively skewed with low variability. On the basis of this information, the teacher would be most justified in concluding that...

the exam was too difficult

What do scientists call an explanation that organizes observations and predicts future behaviors or events?

theory

It is important for researchers to use precise operational definitions when...

they want to be able to replicate the experiment

The extent to which an instrument measure what it is supposed to measure.

validating