Research Methods Exam

How would research studies that are intended to answer practical problems be classified?

Applied research

What kind of reasoning uses a few specific observations to produce a general hypothesis?

Inductive reasoning

What additional information is obtained by measuring on an interval scale compared to an ordinal scale?

The size of the differences

Which of the following is usually the initial factor for determining whether a specific article is relevant to your research question

Title

Which of the following is typical of quantitative research?

d. All of the above.

Which of the following is a brief summary of a psychology article?

Abstract

What questions should you ask when reading an introduction to a research article?

All of the above.

Counting the number of times a third-grade student leaves his or her seat without permission during a 30-minute observation period is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Behavioral

Using a PET scan to measure brain activity while participants solve mathematics problems is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Physiological

Why is the range effect known as a "ceiling effect" a problem for researchers?

The scores are already so high that there is no chance of measuring improvement.

A research study reports that participants who scored high on a new test measuring self- esteem made eye contact during an interview, whereas participants who scored low on the test avoided eye contact. Assuming that more eye contact is associated with higher self-esteem, what kind of validity is being demonstrated?

predictive

What term is used for a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly but is useful for describing and explaining behavior?

Construct

A researcher conducts a study in which 50 college students are assigned to different treatments and tested. In the study, the students are called

Research participants

For which of the following questions would the scientific method be an appropriate method for seeking an answer?

What conditions promote student learning in an elementary classroom?

A restaurant chef tried replacing rice with pasta in one of her recipes to see what would happen. Which method of acquiring knowledge is she using?

A circular process that leads to a tentative answer

Which of the following is a distinction between science and pseudoscience?

All of the other options are differences between science and pseudoscience.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of using an operational definition?

All of the other options are disadvantages.

A researcher is intrigued by an explanation of children's problem-solving strategies found in a journal article and develops a research study to determine whether the article's ideas are correct. How would this study be classified?

Basic research

What is typically included in the introduction section of a research article?

It describes the overall purpose and rationale of the research.

What is typically included in the method section of a research article?

It provides the details of the methodology used in the study.

Which of the following accurately describes the relationship between validity and reliability?

Measurement cannot be valid unless it is reliable.

Which method of knowing is used when you find the address and phone number of a restaurant by googling the name of the restaurant?

Method of authority

An elementary school teacher separates students into high, medium, and low reading skill groups. What scale of measurement is being used to create the groups? a. Nominal

Ordinal

Research results indicate that the more time individuals spend watching educational television programs as preschool children, the higher their high school grades will be. What kind of rela- tionship exists between educational TV and high school grades?

Positive

After measuring a set of individuals, a researcher finds that Bob's score is three times greater than Jane's score. What scale of measurement is being used?

Ratio

Last year Tim and his friend Jack were both too short to ride the roller coaster. Jack went to the park this year and was tall enough to ride. Tim knows that he is taller than Jack, so he knows that he will be able to ride the roller coaster as well. Which method of knowing is Tim using?

Rational method

A hypothesis is a __________ statement and a prediction is a __________ statement.

Scientific answers are obtained without influence by the researcher's biases or beliefs.

Using an anonymous questionnaire to determine how many times students send or receive text messages during class is an example of using what modality of measurement?

Self-report

Why is an artifact like experimenter bias a threat to the validity of measurement?

The measurements may be distorted by the artifact.

1. Which method of knowing is being used by a student who believes that his performance on tests is influenced by wearing a lucky hat?

The method of tenacity

Which of the following would be a danger of relying upon a primary source?

There is no danger because you can rely on primary sources for accurate information.

Which of the following is not a good example of a research hypothesis?

There is no relationship between fatigue and reaction time.

Which of the following describes participants taking on the negativistic subject role?

They try to act so that their data are in contrast to the hypothesis.

What is the goal of an operational definition?

To provide a definition and a method for measuring a hypothetical construct

While shopping, you observe the behavior of adolescents at the mall and get some ideas about what may be causing the behavior. This is an example of getting research ideas from

casual observation

The first step in the research process is

identifying a topic area and searching the literature to find a research question.