Research methods review
Which of the following graph formats is the best way to examine an association claim between a categorical variable and a quantitative variable?
A bar graph
Which of the following studies would probably require written informed consent?
A confidential study examining income level and voting behavior
According to this chart, which effects are there? # of accidents On cell. Not on cell. Effects to interpret young drivers. 10. 10. 10 older drivers. 10. 4. 7 effects to interpret. 10. 7
A main effect of cell phones, a main effect of drivers, and an interaction of driver age and cell phone use.
Bilinguals with dementia tend to exhibit symptoms around 4 years later than monolinguals with dementia. Researchers speculate that this is due to exercising brain connections as bilinguals use two languages every day. This statement describes:
A mediator
You are interested in whether car owners in Laredo have insurance. Which sample is most likely to generalize to this population of interest?
A sample of 25 car owners who have oil change appointments at a mechanic shop in town.
Which of the following is an example of translational research?
A sports psychologist who uses information on how we emotionally process victory to design an intervention for improving mental stamina during athletic performance
Which of the following is necessary for a sample to be considered representative?
All members of the population have an equal chance of being included in the sample.
Which of the following is an example of applied research?
An educational psychologist who looks for a way to increase math skills in 8-year-olds
Cross-lag correlations are NOT helpful for answering/addressing which rule of causation?
Are there third variables that could explain the relationship?
A study found that bilinguals are faster at a cognitive task than monolinguals. What are the variables for this bivariate association?
Being bilingual or not AND speed on the cognitive task
Which of the following words/symbols would indicate that you are reading results from a multiple-regression analysis?
Beta
When examining the results of a multiple regression, which of the following should be compared to determine which predictor variables have the largest relationship to the criterion variable?
Beta values
From an ethical standpoint, in what way is researching prisoners with tuberculosis similar to researching children with ADHD?
Both groups of participants have less autonomy than other types of participants.
Which is the best method to make sure than behavioral observations have good interrater reliabilty?
Clearly define the behaviors you are measuring
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?
Confirmation bias
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who created a scale to diagnose and treat pathological gambling. His supervisor says that his measure appears to test all the components of pathological gambling, including feeling restless when attempting to stop gambling, jeopardizing jobs in order to keep gambling, and using gambling to escape from problems and a bad mood. Given this information, Dr. Sheffield's measure has evidence of which of the following?
Content validity
Adding several variables to a regression analysis can help do which of the following?
Control for several variables at once
Which validity would you be interrogating by asking: How did the researchers get their sample of people for this survey?
External
Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. She decides to use the scale to measure narcissism. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Rodriquez is concerned about the validity of the measure of narcissism. She sends a copy of the measure to the faculty members in her psychology department to look at, and they all tell her it looks like it will measure narcissism. She now has evidence of which of the following?
Face validity
True or False: Exceptions are a way to disprove rules.
False
A researcher uses a longitudinal design to study the relationship between Facebook (FB) use and grades over time. She measures both of these variables in year 1, then measures both variables again in year 2. Which pattern of cross-lag correlations would indicate that FB use leads to lower grades (rather than the reverse)?
Grades at Year 1 shows no correlation with FB use at Year 2, but FB use at Year 1 shows a strong correlation with grades at Year 2.
Which of the following headlines is an association claim?
Happiness is linked to relaxing after a test.
A study found that people who like ice cream are generally friendly. Which of the following questions interrogates the construct validity of this correlation?
How well did they measure each variable: liking ice cream and friendliness
What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?
Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.
Which is TRUE?
Internal consistency measures whether all of the questions on the scale are asking the same thing AND the best value for Cronbach's alpha would be 0.
Which is NOT true about having a small sample size?
It impacts the effect size
The following item apprears on a survey:"Do you like wearing sunscreen and swimming?" What is the biggest problem with this wording?
It is a double-barreled question
Dr. C wants to study the effects of eating an entire bag of Halloween candy on class performance the next day. Which of the following is a probable reason for why she did a bivariate correlation instead of conducting an experiment?
It would be unethical to manipulate high levels of candy consumption since sugar has adverse effects.
Which of the following is a necessary component of a longitudinal design?
Measuring the same variables at two points in time
Which of the following statements is true of observational data?
Observational measures can be used to make frequency claims
A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year. In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class. At the end of the year, the "bloomers" showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways which altered their performance. This is an example of which of the following?
Observer effects
Which of the following events did NOT occur in the Tuskegee Study?
Participants in the study were given/infected with the disease.
In considering whether research is ethical, which of the following are balanced against each other?
Risk to participants versus value of the knowledge gained
For her research methods class, Serena plans to interview several teachers about their attitude toward teaching children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This is an example of what type of measurement?
Self-report measurement
Which of the following sampling techniques would you recommend to a researcher interested in studying rare individuals, like people who have been struck by lightning or people with very specific social habits (e.g., people who attend Halloween parties in July)?
Snowball sampling
When people use the acquiescent response set they are:
Tending to agree with every item, no matter what it says
A researcher uses a longitudinal design to study the relationship between Facebook (FB) use and grades over time. She measures both of these variables in year 1, then measures both variables again in year 2. Which of the following is an example of an autocorrelation in the results?
The correlation between FB use in Year 1 and FB use in Year 2.
A psychologist believes that marital satisfaction is related to the ability to trust one's partner. She conducts a study to test this idea. She finds that people who trust their partners report higher marital satisfaction. Which of the following statements should she make?
The data support the theory.
The belief that the participants in a research study should be representative of the type of people who would also benefit from the findings of the research stems from which principle of the Belmont Report?
The principle of justice
Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Kansas. Below are her findings. • Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = -.57 (p = .01) • Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, not sig. • Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36 (p = .04) Which of the following conclusions can Dr. Guidry draw about the number of friends one has and life satisfaction based on her statistical analyses?
The probability of her sample coming from a zero association population is about 4%.
Which of the following sentences describes a moderator for the relationship between liking ice cream and friendliness?
There is a positive relationship between liking ice cream and friendliness for women, but not for men
Why might a researcher use an oversampling technique?
They are conducting stratified random sampling, but one of their strata makes up only a small percentage of the population
Which of the following is a reason why multiple regression designs are inferior to experimental designs?
They can only control for third variables that are measured.
What do purposive, convenience, quota, and snowball sampling have in common?
They result in samples where some people are systematically left out (not random).
Which of the following is NOT true of third variables and mediating variables?
Third variables can be detected using multiple regression techniques, but mediating variables cannot.
If you fail to detect that variables are related, this is a
Type 2 error
How can you prevent maturation effects?
Using a control/comparison group
Which of the following is a problem presented by the availability heuristic?
We do not examine all of the evidence, only what we can quickly think of.
Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a CATEGORICAL way to operationalize caffeine consumption?
Whether the participant drank a soda in the 24 hours prior to the study
Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction. He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic. He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size. His research is most accurately described as:
a meta-analysis.
To be an empiricist, one should:
base one's conclusions on direct observations
Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses." Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making?
causal claim
Sara is a Republican. She wants to vote for the best candidate in an upcoming election, so she conducts Google searches to look for evidence that Trump is a good candidate. Her searches include, "Is Trump a good candidate?", "Should I vote for President Trump". As she scrolls through the results, she finds plenty of evidence that Trump is a good candidate and decides to vote for him. Sara has fallen victim to which bias?
confirmation bias
Factors that could account for significant results that we are NOT trying to manipulate or measure are called:
confounds
If a person is asking whether the variables in an association claim are measured appropriately, ________ is being interrogated.
construct validity
Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. She decides to use the scale to measure narcissism. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Rodriquez is concerned about the validity of the measure of narcissism because she thinks narcissism has multiple components (vanity and manipulation). She is afraid that her survey only measures vanity, so she adds questions about manipulation to increase which type of validity?
content validity
You are testing whether people who switch between languages are better multitaskers. You find no correlation, but upon closer inspection of the data, you realize that people who never and frequently switch between languages are not good at multitasking, but people who switch only sometimes are very good. In other words, people at the extreme ends of the scale do poorly, while those in the middle of the scale do well. What statistical validity issue were you facing?
curvilinear data
A criterion variable is also known as a(n) variable.
dependent
How can we collect evidence about something we cannot see?
develop operational definitions
I ran a research study on language habits in the lab. I then ran this same study in the mall, where people were less likely to be influenced by the lab environment. By running the study in a location where people act more natural, I have improved:
ecological validity
__________ is the approach of collecting data and using it to develop, support, and/or challenge a theory.
empiricism
You measure how people perceive the flavor of tea when they consume it at a number of different temperatures. You find a U-shaped curve that reflects the best flavor is perceived when the temperature is neither too hot nor too cold.. You have tested the:
functional relationship
Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Kansas. Below are her findings. • Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = −.57 (p = .01) • Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, not sig. • Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36 (p = .04) Comparing all three correlations, Dr. Guidry will be most able to accurately predict life satisfaction from the experience of daily stress because the relationship:
has the largest effect size.
You want to measure how many times TAMIU students remove their masks while at the food court. You ask two research assistants to observe the same students that you do. Then you compare the results of the two research assistants to make sure that your findings are reliable. What type of reliability have you obtained?
interrater reliability
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who created a scale to diagnose and treat pathological gambling. To test his measure, Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in Gamblers Anonymous (GA) and another group of people in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). He finds that people in the GA group have higher scores on his new measure than people in the AA group. This procedure is known as a:
known-groups paradigm.
You want to know whether the finding that people who make better grades are happier occurs BECAUSE getting good grades increases self-esteem, and self-esteem impacts happiness. What kind of variable is self-esteem?
mediating
You want to test whether the positive correlation between the number of hours sleeping and happiness changes based on the season. The season is what type of variable?
moderating
Another word for data is a(n) .
observation
Masked, or blind, study designs are designed to deal with:
observer bias
The degree to which a good scientific theory provides the simplest explanation of some phenomenon is known as .
parsimony
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
Another word for hypothesis is a(n) .
prediction
James is asked about the best way to study for an exam. He responds that the best way to study is by making flash cards. He easily thinks of all the times he used flash cards and he made As. However, he fails to take into consideration all the times he made As and did not use flash cards and the times he used flash cards and did not do well. His faulty thinking is an example of:
present/present bias.
In the theory-data cycle, theories first lead to .
questions
You are testing the correlation between traditional values and happiness. You find that most of your subjects in Laredo have very traditional values. You might face which statistical validity issue?
restriction of range
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's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following?
the internal validity of the study
Research studies are superior to personal experience because:
they include at least one comparison group.
Which of the following decreases power:
using a between subjects design rather than within subjects
RESEARCH STUDY 5.1: Dr. Rodriquez is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer romantic relationships than those who are not narcissistic. She decides to use the scale to measure narcissism. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as I think about myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special." Dr. Rodriquez is concerned whether her measure will really measure narcissism or if it will measure some other related concept. She is concerned about the scale's .
validity
