Unit 1-2 Short Answer
Nonhuman animals are often subjects in psychological experiments. Provide three reasons why a psychologist might use animals instead of humans in a study.
Some researchers use nonhuman animals because they are interested in understanding the animals themselves, including their thinking and behaviors. Others use nonhuman animals to reduce the complexity that is part of human research. They hope to understand principles that may be similar to those that govern human psychological phenomena. Researchers also study nonhuman animals in order to apply the findings in ways that will help both humans and the other animals.
A researcher is conducting a study and wants to ensure that the sample chosen to participate will yield good results. Why is it better to have a large sample of data instead of a small sample? What happens to reliability as sample size increases?
A larger sample will be less variable (for example, a large sample from a population with 40 percent women and 60 percent men will be more likely to be close to that demographic breakdown than a smaller sample). As the sample size increases, the results are more likely to be reliable (represent the opinions) of the population as a whole.
Six months ago, Carlos emigrated from Mexico to the United States. Although fluent in English and an honor student in Mexico, Carlos has had difficulty completing his assignments since moving to the United States. His parents don't understand why he is not succeeding like he did in his last school. Carlos has quit participating in family traditions. Explain how each of the following psychological perspectives might explain Carlos' behavior: Psychodynamic Cognitive Social-cultural
A psychodynamic perspective focuses on how our unconscious drives and urges influence our behavior. Unconsciously, Carlos could have aggressive thoughts towards his new school and his family because he is upset about moving to America. These unconscious urges could be changing Carlos' attitude in school. If he is upset about the move, Carlos can, without his own awareness, be giving attitude to teachers and not applying himself as much as he would if he was back in Mexico at his old school. A cognitive perspective focuses on mental processes associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating. Despite being fluent in English, Carlos could struggle with solving problems and perceiving different concepts that are different in English. A social-cultural perspective focuses on how situations and culture influence our behavior. If at Carlos' new school the students tend to have racist biases towards Mexicans, assuming that Carlos is an undocumented and making fun of his accent, Carlos may withdraw and isolate himself from his own culture. The situation of being surrounded by people who look down on him may make him look down on his own culture and lead him to quit participating in family traditions. Carlos is used to addressing his elders in a specific formal way and he struggles to accept the fact that in English everyone is addressed with the same verb tense. Since he is unable to process this, he may struggle to adapt to his new environment.
Dr. Cheema is interested in studying the prevalence of cheating on exams at her local high school. Describe one disadvantage of using each of the following research methods to study this topic: Case study Naturalistic Observation Survey
Case studies are descriptive techniques that study an individual, group, or incident in depth. Because case studies are so specific, it might be hard to generalize the information found from the study to the rest of the population. If Dr. Cheema observes one student cheating, that one student's cheating doesn't apply to the rest of the high school. Naturalistic observations are descriptive techniques in which behavior is observed in a natural environment without manipulating or controlling the situation. If Dr. Cheema is sitting in on a class to observe cheating, reactivity may occur among the students. Reactivity is the tendency to change our behavior when we are aware that we are being observed. Since the students know that Dr. Cheema is studying them, they might not cheat in that specific situation. Also, since Dr. Cheema won't be able to figure out the causes of people cheating, since she can't control for any variables. A survey is a descriptive technique for obtaining self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group. Even if Dr. Cheema chose a random sample, a representative group of the population, the results of the survey may not be accurate because some students may have lied or not answered truthfully.
Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti in 2016, causing a staggering loss of life and infrastructure and billions of dollars in damage. How might each of the following types of psychologists contribute to making life better in Haiti following the hurricane? Clinical psychologists Social psychologists
Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat people with psychological disorders. Social psychologists focus on our thoughts about people and how we interact and relate to one another. Clinical psychologists could help individuals struggling with trauma and aggravated mental health issues in the aftermath of the hurricane. They also might conduct research on the effects of such a natural disaster on mental health, which could improve preparedness for future disasters. Most social psychologists focus on conducting basic research rather than clinical practice, so their involvement in the aftermath of a hurricane would probably be limited to collecting data and making observations. They might study the ways that social behaviors, like empathetic acts, change in the aftermath of natural disasters. Mention PTSD?
Alex, a high school junior, has been struggling recently in many areas of his life. He is overweight and spends several hours per day watching Netflix and YouTube. He is having trouble keeping up in class and says he cannot seem to maintain his focus. He also is having trouble making friends and "fitting in" at school. Explain how the following applied psychologists might attempt to help Alex's current situation. Health psychologists School psychologists Counseling psychologists
Health psychologists focus on how biological, social and psychological factors influence health and illness. Since Alex is struggling with his weight, a health psychologist might ask him about his diet and exercise schedule. If Alex is eating too many carbohydrates and not enough vegetables, a health psychologist might suggest a specific diet. They also might suggest a workout routine that Alex could do instead of watching Netflix. School psychologists work to support students through various developmental and mental health issues on an individual level in a school environment. Alex has trouble keeping up in class. If he talks to a school psychologist about this, they might suggest techniques to help solve this problem. For example, they could tell Alex to keep a planner and write down when all his assignments are due so he won't fall behind. If Alex tells the psychologist about his issue maintaining focus, the school psychologist could suggest staying off his computer unless necessary in classes because it serves as a distraction. Counseling psychologists help people with problems in living and achieving a greater well-being. They could talk to Alex about why he thinks he is having trouble making friends and fitting in. The psychologist could give suggestions on how to open up more to some people and be more comfortable and confident in school. They could tell Alex to join a club he's interested in or ask someone to hang out on the weekend.
Researchers interested in studying stress gave 150 high school seniors a very difficult math exam. After the test, the researchers measured stress by examining physiological changes with extensive medical testing that included drawing blood samples. When the test was over, they shared the results with the students but did not publish individual data. Explain whether or not this study conforms to each of the ethical standards: Informed consent Debriefing Confidentiality Protection from harm
It is unclear whether the researchers obtained informed consent. In order to obtain it from the subjects, the researchers would have had to inform the students that they would be taking a test and that afterwards they would have to undergo medical testing that included drawing blood samples. The researchers seemed to have met the standard of debriefing because they informed the students of their results in the study. The study also conforms to confidentiality because the researchers did not publish individual data. The researchers met the criteria for protection from harm because the subjects were not exposed to greater-than-usual harm and discomfort since test taking and drawing blood are pretty standard.
Ms. Ledbetter wants to determine if the new review activity she developed will improve student performance on unit exams. She randomly separates 160 students into two groups. Group A reviews for the unit exam in the traditional manner they have always used. Group B participates in the new review activity. After reviewing, both groups are given the same unit exam and their scores are compared. Explain how the following terms relate to this study: Independent variable Dependent variable Control group
The independent variable is the variable that is being controlled and manipulated by the researcher, who, in this case, is Ms. Ledbetter. The independent variable is the type of review. Since Ms. Ledbetter wants to see what effect the new review has on student performance, it is the variable being manipulated since she is giving one group the traditional review and the other group the new review. The dependent variable is the variable that is being measured and that is affected by the independent variable. In this case the dependent variable is the student performance on the exam. The control group in an experiment is the group that is not exposed to the independent variable and is used as a comparison group to the experimental group. The control group is Group A because those students are given the traditional review. After the students take the test, Ms. Ledbetter will see if the students who used the new review scored better than those who used the traditional review.
Researchers surveyed 800 high school students enrolled in AP® Psychology to determine whether students with higher scores on anxiety scales had lower scores on standardized tests. Students with higher scores on anxiety scales were indeed found to have lower scores on standardized tests. Explain how each of the following terms or phrases applies to the situation described above: Random sampling Generalization Correlation does not mean causation
The researchers could have used random sampling to choose the 800 students for their survey. Random sampling is when each member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen so the sample fairly represents the population. The researchers could have done this if, for example, they made a list of all high school students enrolled in AP Psychology in NYC and then included every 25th student in the survey to ensure that every student has an equal opportunity for being chosen. If random sample is used, the results of the study will be more generalizable to the whole population since the sample accurately represents the population. The results of the survey would only apply to AP Psychology students and not all high school students. Even though there is a relationship between higher anxiety levels and lower scores on standardized tests, we can not assume that one causes the other. In order to prove that there causation occurs the researchers would need to perform an experiment.
A teacher wants to know if nightmares are more common than dreams. He asks volunteers from his second-period class to report how many dreams they had last week. He asks volunteers from his third-period class to report the number of nightmares they had last week. Describe two things wrong with the design of this study.
The teacher lacks an hypothesis, which is a testable prediction. In asking for volunteers, the teacher is taking a nonrandom sample that is probably not representative of the population of interest. Neither "dreams" nor "nightmares" are operationally defined, so they might be interpreted differently by later researchers.
Explain why the teacher may wish to calculate the standard deviation for this set of data.
The teacher would likely want to calculate the standard deviation of the dataset because it is highly variable, ranging from 2 hours to 21 hours. On the other hand, the teacher must be careful while interpreting the standard deviation, since it will be greatly affected by one extreme outlier: student seven's value of 21 hours will greatly increase the perceived variation of the data; if this outlier were excluded, the data would vary far less.
Explain why each of the following people were significant in the history of psychology: William James Mary Whiton Calkins Margaret Floy Washburn
William James was a key proponent of the functionalist school of thought. He authored the first psychology textbook and courageously mentored Mary Whiton Calkins. Mary Whiton Calkins was the first woman to complete the work necessary for a psychology Ph.D. (from Harvard), though she was denied that degree due to her gender. She was a distinguished memory researcher and was the first female president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Margaret Floy Washburn earned the first official psychology Ph.D. She wrote an influential book, The Animal Mind, and was the second female president of the APA.
