research methods in psyc exam 1
Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim?
"is at higher risk of"
You read a news article about a recent scientific study titled, "New Drug Reduces OCD Symptoms in Mice." To evaluate whether the title's claim is supported, you should do which of the following?
Check whether the authors established the three criteria for a causal claim.
You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus. The speaker, Dr. Darian, is an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?
His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.
A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have
a comparison group that did not receive the drug.
Ellie is looking for a summary of research on the effect size of childhood abuse on adult depression. Which of the following scientific sources would be an ideal source?
a meta-analysis
Which of the following is the first section of an empirical journal article?
abstract
The Anatomy of an Empirical Journal Article
abstract introduction/literature review methods results discussion reference
Being a good consumer of research can
all of the above: -save you from wasting time and money on ineffective treatments -alert you to information that can be helpful in your life. -provide you with skills that are valued in the workplace.
Which of the following is a reason that a journalist may report scientific research inaccurately?
all of these are possible reasons: -they dumbed down the results to make it more accessible -they didn't have time to fully understand the results -they lacked the scientific training to properly understand the results
Research that is performed with a practical problem in mind, with the goal of finding solutions to the problem is called _____ research.
applied
After performing a single research study, good scientists will
ask new questions and run more studies
Two biases of intuition discussed in the text are
being swayed by a good story and being persuaded by what comes easily to mind.
After reading the chapter, Cyril says to himself, "I am sure other people might engage in faulty thinking, but I never would." What is Cyril experiencing?
bias blind spot
Which of the following allow us to make strong predictions using association claims?
both strong positive associations and strong negative associations
Science journalists have argued that cigarette smoking leads to a variety of health problems. What type of claim are they making?
causal
a manipulated variable in
controlled
Researchers collect _____ to test their _____.
data; hypotheses
The deliberate creation and sharing of information known to be false is
disinformation.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really say for sure that being bullied leads to low self-esteem because they didn't measure being bullied before they measured self-esteem." Clarissa is concerned that the researcher
failed to establish temporal precedence.
good theories are
falsifiable
When researchers conduct an experiment comparing two different treatment conditions, they are likely to be more concerned with ________ validity than ________ validity.
internal; external
Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. Where should she go if she wants to look for a list of the study's hypotheses or research questions?
last paragraph of the introduction
Matthew is reading an empirical journal article and wants to know whether the authors used the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) or the NEO-PI to measure extraversion. In which section would he find this information?
method
a measured variable is
observed and recorder
Which of the following could be an independent variable in a causal claim?
one that is manipulated
Journal articles that are available through subscription only are
paywalled.
An editor sends a scientific paper to three subject experts so that they can evaluate the paper's merits and flaws. This is known as
peer-review.
studies do not:
prove theories
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. If Dr. Kang decided against using random assignment, which of the following would be threatened?
the internal validity of the study
RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish is also curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Clarissa's concern is addressing which of the following?
the study's construct validity
RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish is also curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?"
the study's statistical validity
What is one reason that causal claims cannot be made from correlational studies?
the temporal order of the variables is unknown
A _____ is a set of statements that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another.
theory
One criterion for determining that X causes Y is that
we can determine that X occurs before Y.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the authors were interested in participants' board game performance. Which of the following would be a reasonable operational definition of performance?
whether participants won against a partner
A scatterplot is a graph
with points plotted to show a possible relationship between two sets of data.
Edited books consist of a collection of chapters
written by many different experts.
______________ involves using evidence from the senses or from instruments that assess the senses as the basis for conclusions. Those who follow this approach aim to be systematic, rigorous, and to make their work independently verifiable by other observers or scientists.
Empiricism
Compared with doing a generic internet search, why is PsycINFO a superior way to find scientific sources?
It searches only sources in psychology and related fields.
Dr. Klein receives an email inviting her to submit an article based on her research to The Journal of Science. The email promises a rapid publication process and charges a fee to cover the costs of expediting the process. She is not familiar with this journal and decides to look up its impact factor in Journal Citation Reports. Unfortunately, it is not listed there. What would Dr. Klein likely conclude about this journal?
NOT 2 1. It would be a great way to get her work out quickly to other scientists. 2. It is probably too new to be in Journal Citation Reports. 3. It likely has a rigorous peer-review process 4. It is likely a predatory journal.
Both PsycINFO and Google Scholar
NOT 2 1. identify whether an article is peer-reviewed. 2. allow you to limit your search terms to specific fields. 3. allow you to identify journal articles on a specific topic. 4. are free search tools.
Which of the following is a causal claim?
NOT 3 1. Texting while driving is associated with poor impulse control. 2. Texting interferes with a driver's ability to pay attention. 3. Most drivers have reported texting while driving. 4. Teens spend too much time texting and driving.
Research performed simply to enhance the general body of scientific knowledge is called _____ research.
NOT 3 1. applied 2. translational 3. foundational 4. basic
Using evidence from the senses, or from instruments that assist the senses, as the basis for conclusions is called
NOT 4 1. pragmatism. 2. skepticism. 3. empiricism. 4. realism.
Scientists evaluate their theories based on
NOT 4 1. the extent to which the theory has been proven true. 2. the number of studies that have been conducted to test it. 3. the weight of the evidence for or against them. 4. all of these are criteria for evaluating theories
In her notes on his research paper, Rohan's Research Methods instructor noted that his hypothesis was "falsifiable". What is the most appropriate response to this comment?
Rohan should be pleased. The instructor is telling him that he has set up his hypothesis in such a way that it's accuracy can be fairly tested.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following makes Dr. Kang's study an experiment?
The study included a manipulated variable and a measured variable.
Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the present/present bias, what would you ask him?
What about the times you opened with a joke and didn't become friends with the person?
RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups. Their results showed that White women can feel threatened by racism, men of color feel threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. The results of this study can be generalized to which of the following groups?
White women and men of color
Sasha believes that she is a nice person. To confirm this, she asks all her friends whether she is a nice person; they all agree that she is. Sasha concludes that she is a nice person and says she has evidence of it. However, she does not ask any of her enemies whether they think she is a nice person. This is an example of which of the following?
a confirmation bias
RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. LaSalle making?
association claim
When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," why should you read the abstract first?
because it provides an overview of the article
Lana is writing her first empirical journal article. Although she thinks she knows why she found the results she did, she also wants to mention some alternative explanations for her findings. In which section will she mention these alternative explanations?
discussion
If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?
edited books
Which of the following is NOT a feature of good scientific theories discussed in the text?
experiential
News and commentary that you encounter on TV, in magazines, newspapers, and on internet sites is typically written by _____ for _____.
non-scientists; the general public
Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association?
positive association
According to the text, professors who are actively conducting research, and undergraduate students who help them with this research, are considered _____ of research.
producers
A consumer of research is someone who
reads about research so they can later apply it to their life.
You read research that found that first-born children tend to have higher IQs than their siblings. However, you typically earn higher grades than your older brother. Scientists might explain this discrepancy by saying that
research is probabilistic.
When scientists want to tell the scientific world about the results of their research, they publish their results in a(n)
scientific journal.
Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following?
the availability heuristic
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr. Kang sends his study to a journal to be published. One of the peer reviewers questions the way Dr. Kang manipulated emotion, arguing that being exposed to emotional words does not make one emotional. The reviewer is questioning which of the following?
the construct validity of the study
RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music.
the gender of the participant
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr. Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory. He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university. He puts the names of all the participants in a hat. The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B. Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder). Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk). He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university. He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following is the dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study?
the number of words remembered