Psychology Midterm Unit Two

In order to represent graphically the correlation between two variables, researchers often construct a:

Scatterplot

Mr. and Mrs. Klostreich have six children aged 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, and 16. The mean age of the Klostreich children is:

8

During the past year, Zara and Ivan each read 2 books, but George read 9, Ali read 12, and Marsha read 25. The median number of books read by these individuals was:

9

A person displays a set of rare behaviors that psychologists had not known about previously, because nobody had ever shown them before. The best strategy to investigate the nature of those behaviors is

A case study

Seven members of a boys' club reported the following individual earnings from their sale of cookies: $2, $9, $8, $10, $4, $9, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings, the median is ________ the mean and ________ the mode.

Greater than; less than

Which of the following is used to reduce the effects of confounding variables in experiments?

Random assignment

Statistical reasoning can help us to generalize correctly from a ________ to a ________.

Sample; popuation

Which of the following is the strongest correlation?

-.90

In an experimental study of the effects of anxiety on self-esteem, anxiety would be the ________ variable.

Independent

In a group of five individuals, two report annual incomes of $10,000, and the other three report incomes of $14,000, $15,000, and $31,000, respectively. The mode of this group's distribution of annual incomes is:

$10,000

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

-.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

Which of the following research approaches would be best for testing the hypothesis that the presence of certain odors causes people to gamble more?

Experimental

On a test, the mean score for a class of 100 students is 80 and the standard deviation of the scores is 10. The professor who gave the test then realizes that she made a scoring error, which she corrects by adding 5 points to each student's score. The standard deviation of the student's new scores is

10

The perception that seemingly infertile couples who adopt a child are subsequently more likely to conceive a child themselves best illustrates:

An illusory correlation

Researchers have found a negative correlation between income and dental problems. What conclusion can correctly be drawn from this statement?

As income increases, the likelihood of dental problems decreases.

If the correlation between the physical weight and reading ability of elementary school students is +.85, this would indicate that:

Better reading ability is associated with greater physical weight among elementary school students.

When a statistical average is reported in the news, it is most important for readers to:

Consider whether it is distorted by a few extreme cases.

In order to study the effects of loud noise on worker productivity, Dr. McDuffee had one group of research participants work in a noisy room and a second group work in a quiet room. Those who worked in the quiet room were exposed to the ________ condition.

Control

Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and the strength of a relationship between two variables?

Correlation coefficient

If those who watch a lot of TV violence are also particularly likely to behave aggressively, this would not necessarily indicate that watching TV violence influences aggressive behavior because:

Correlation does not prove causation

A statistical measure that indicates the extent to which changes in one factor are accompanied by changes in another is called a(n):

Correlational Coefficient

In order to determine whether the strength of people's self-esteem is related to their income levels, researchers would most likely make use of:

Correlational research

Which of the following results of correlational studies implies that environment contributes to the determination of IQ?

Correlations for children and their adoptive parents are statistically significant and positive.

Many survey respondents thought it would be more reasonable to observe the reactions of 1000 individuals receiving an untested drug than to give the drug to only 500 people and compare their reactions to the other 500 who received no drug. These survey respondents most clearly failed to recognize the value of:

Creating a control condition

A hard-headed curiosity that questions truth claims and demands evidence most clearly facilitates:

Critical thinking

Coile and Miller's analysis of animal research published during a five-year period in American Psychological Association journals revealed that psychologists:

Did not shock animals with extremely painful shocks that caused them to die, place animals in isolation chambers until they were driven insane, or allow animals to slowly die from hunger and thirst

A statistically significant difference between two sample groups is not likely to be:

Due to chance variation within and between the sample groups.

In a research study, informed consent is a concern of

Ethics

The American Psychological Association and British Psychological Society have developed ethical principles urging investigators to:

Explain the research to the participants after the study has been completed.

Which of the following is a statistical approach concerned with forming conclusions about the effect of the independent variable on variations in the dependent variable?

Inferential

In a normal distribution, which of the following statements is true about the area that falls between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean?

It contains the middle 68% of the distribution.

A sample average can be used to estimate a population average with greater precision if the sample is:

Large

Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research

May reveal a casual relationship

When Mr. Adams calculated his students' algebra test scores, he noticed that two students had extremely low scores. Which measure of central tendency is affected most by the scores of these two students?

Mean

Which measure of central tendency is used to calculate your grade-point average?

Mean

Professor Ober carefully monitors and records the behaviors of children in their classrooms in order to track the development of their social and intellectual skills. Professor Ober is most clearly engaged in:

Naturalistic observations

If the points on a scatterplot are clustered in a pattern that extends from the upper left to the lower right, this would suggest that the two variables depicted are:

Negatively correlated

The process of replication is most likely to be facilitated by:

Operational definitions

All of the following are American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for researchers EXCEPT:

Participants must be offered alternative activities if research participation is a course requirement.

An inert substance that may be administered instead of a drug to see if it produces any of the same effects as the drug is called a:

Placebo

In a study of the effects of alcohol consumption, some participants drank a nonalcoholic beverage that actually smelled and tasted like alcohol. This nonalcoholic drink was a:

Placebo

In order to learn about the TV viewing habits of all the children attending Oakbridge School, Professor DeVries randomly selected and interviewed 50 of the school's students. In this instance, all the children attending the school are considered to be a(n):

Population

The placebo effect best illustrates the effect of ________ on feelings and behaviors.

Positive expectations

Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?

Precise operational definitions

The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is the:

Range

Which measure of variation is affected most by a few extreme scores?

Range

If students get approximately the same score on the second administration of a test as they did on the first, then the test is

Reliable

A researcher interested in finding a simple way to estimate intelligence decides to evaluate skull circumference as a possible indicator of intelligence. He finds that the size of an adult's skull remains the same from one measurement to the next, but he finds that skull circumference is not a very good predictor of intelligence. In this example, skull circumference as a measure of intelligence is

Reliable but not valid

Professor Saxton was very skeptical about the findings of a recently reported experiment on the effects of sleep deprivation. Which process would best enable her to assess the reliability of these findings?

Replication

The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a

Scatterplot

Standard deviation is a measure of how much

Scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

Psychologists study animals because:

Similar processes often underlie animal and human behavior.

Alicia insists that Dr. Phillip's theory of aggression be checked against observable evidence. She is demonstrating the scientific attitude of:

Skepticism

Two fundamental characteristics of the scientific attitude are:

Skepticism and humility

Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable?

Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment

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

Both the researchers and the participants in a drug-evaluation study are ignorant about which participants have actually received an experimental drug and which have received a placebo. This investigation involves the use of:

The double-blind procedure

Which of the following methods is most helpful for revealing cause-effect relationships?

The experiment

If psychologists discovered that intelligent parents have smarter children than unintelligent parents, this would demonstrate that:

The intelligence of parents and children is positively correlated.

Illusory correlation refers to:

The perception of a relationship between two variables that does not actually exist.

An instructor conducted an experiment to determine the effects of two different methods of study on the amount students learned in introductory physics. The results showed that the average amount learned by the group using one method was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Which of the following is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn?

There is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occurred by chance.

Which of the following best describes the response of members of the American Psychological Association to ethical issues in research?

They have developed codes of ethics for research with both human participants and animal subjects.

Participants in an experiment are said to be "blind" if they are uninformed about:

Which experimental treatment, if any, they are receiving.

Surveys indicate that people are much less likely to support "welfare" than "aid to the needy." These somewhat paradoxical survey results best illustrate the importance of:

Wording effects