Chapter 2: Psychology as a Science

What is the primary difference between a hypothesis and a theory? a. A hypothesis is based on a hunch, and a theory is based on data. b. A hypothesis is an untested theory. c. Hypotheses are used to generate theories. d. A theory is a collection of data-based hypotheses.

d. A theory is a collection of data-based hypotheses..

In experimental research, which of the following variables is controlled by the researcher? a. Confounding b. Experimental c. Dependent d. Independent

d. Independent

You feel sick after eating leftovers you found in the back of the refrigerator. Occam's razor would favor the hypothesis that you have a. food poisoning. b. been poisoned by your roommate. c. stomach cancer. d. contracted swine flu.

a. food poisoning.

To identify the most popular exhibits at a science museum, visitors were asked every day for six weeks to rate how much they enjoyed each exhibit. The data were analyzed to look for age and sex differences in exhibit preferences. This was an example of a. naturalistic observation. b. survey research. c. case study research. d. experimental research.

b. survey research.

Which of these correlations has the least predictive value? a. −0.75 b. −0.35 c. +0.10 d. +0.50

c. +0.10.

In an analysis testing differences between an experimental and a control group on the dependent variable, a p-value of 0.07 means there is a a. statistically significant difference between the groups. b. statistically significant validity problem with the measure of the dependent variable. c. 7 percent chance that differences between the two samples are due to chance alone. d. 93 percent chance that differences between the two samples are due to chance alone

7 percent chance that differences between the two samples are due to chance alone..

Which approach would be most appropriate for testing the hypothesis that taking practice tests improves learning more than studying alone does? a. Experimental research b. Correlational research c. Surveys of representative samples of students d. Case studies of high-achieving students

a. Experimental research

You take a job selling magazine subscriptions from home because the recruitment video says the average earnings per employee are $90,000 a year. You work 60 hours a week for a year and earn $30,000. An Internet search reveals that hundreds of people have had the same experience with this and other work-at-home schemes. How can companies legitimately claim that the average salary is $90,000 if most employees make less than $30,000? a. The median salary is higher than the mean salary. b. The mean salary reflects the presence of outliers. c. The modal salary is higher than the mean salary. d. The average salary does not consider the highest and lowest salaries.

a. The median salary is higher than the mean salary.

The key purpose of an Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to a. determine whether a proposed study is ethical. b. identify the most appropriate statistical analyses for a study. c. punish unethical researchers. d. evaluate whether a researcher's conclusions match the data.

a. determine whether a proposed study is ethical..

A self-report measure of the personality trait of agreeableness produces very similar scores each time the same person completes it. It is also strongly correlated with whether family members describe a person as friendly and cooperative. This measure appears to be a. reliable and valid. b. valid but not reliable. c. reliable but not valid. d. neither reliable nor valid.

a. reliable and valid..

A researcher would be most likely to find a negative correlation between _______ and _______. a. shyness; party attendance b. hopelessness; depression c. conscientiousness; grade point average (GPA) d. occupational success; self-esteem

a. shyness; party attendance.

The median is a better measure of central tendency than the mean for which of the following distributions? a. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 b. 10, 12, 13, 14, 106 c. 275, 282, 293, 300, 311 d. 1024, 1024, 1024, 1048, 1059

b. 10, 12, 13, 14, 106.

On an empathy questionnaire, Group 1 had a mean score of 117 with a standard deviation of 14. Group 2 had a mean score of 96 with a standard deviation of 23. Therefore, _______ scored higher on average and their scores were _______ spread out than scores from _______. a. Group 1; more; Group 2 b. Group 1; less; Group 2 c. Group 2; more; Group 1 d. Group 2; less; Group 1

b. Group 1; less; Group 2.

Students _______ would be the most representative sample for a study of competitiveness in high school. a. competing in sports b. in a required health class c. in advanced math classes d. who agree to do the study during lunch

b. The mean salary reflects the presence of outliers..

Refer to the figure. This scatterplot reveals a _______ correlation. a. positive b. negative c. spurious d. non-linear

b. negative

"Green is the prettiest color" is a _______ hypothesis because it is _______. a. poor; not true b. poor; not testable c. good; testable d. good; true

b. poor; not testable

Which is the correct order of measures of central tendency, from lowest to highest, for a positively skewed distribution? a. Mean, median, mode b. Median, mode, mean c. Mode, median, mean d. Mean, mode, median

c. Mode, median, mean.

A news organization wanted to predict who would win the next U.S. presidential election. They sent an opinion poll to every fiftieth person on a list of students enrolled at a nearby college. Which of the following is the study population? a. Americans in general b. College students in general c. Students at this particular college d. Students who return the questionnaire

c. Students at this particular college.

A professor wanted to learn more about the body image concerns of young teenage girls. She randomly selected 200 girls from local middle schools to complete her questionnaire. These girls were a. a random population. b. an experimental group. c. a representative sample. d. the sampling frame.

c. a representative sample..

An unethical experimenter wants to test the relationship between discomfort and aggression. On a hot day, she turns off the air conditioning in one dorm and leaves it on in another, then has her research assistants count occurrences of verbal aggression in common areas of the buildings. Students in the air-conditioned dorm would be the _______, and students in the overheated dorm would be the _______. a. representative sample; random sample b. study population; sampling frame c. control group; experimental group d. independent sample; dependent sample

c. control group; experimental group.

A depressed teenager treated with medication begins feeling better immediately, even though the medication typically takes weeks to work. This is an example of a _______ effect. a. demand b. double-blind c. placebo d. confound

c. placebo

A research team was investigating the impact of stereotypes on performance. In one group, women read a magazine article about why the structure of men's brains makes them better at math. In the second group, women read a magazine article saying there are no biological differences in the mathematical abilities of men and women. All women in the study then took a challenging math test. Researchers scored the number of items women answered correctly. In this study, which of the following was the dependent variable? a. How difficult women found the test b. Women's beliefs about their math abilities c. Which article the women read d. Women's scores on the math test

d. Women's scores on the math test

A correlation of −0.80 between meditation and anxiety symptoms would indicate a. meditation and anxiety symptoms are unrelated. b. meditation effectively reduces anxiety symptoms. c. anxious people are more likely to meditate. d. meditation predicts lower levels of anxiety.

d. meditation predicts lower levels of anxiety..

A researcher testing a new medication for attention deficit disorder randomly assigns half of the participants to get the actual medication and half to get a sugar pill. Neither the researcher nor the participants know who is getting what. This study design will a. increase measurement reliability. b. increase explicit bias. c. reduce study validity. d. reduce unconscious bias.

d. reduce unconscious bias.

Whether depression levels are truly lower in a treatment group than in a control group is assessed by determining the _______ of the difference in scores between groups. a. variance b. validity c. statistical inference d. statistical significance

d. statistical significance.