PSY 230 EXAM 1
Benjamin is a social psychologist who studies marriage. He believes that marital satisfaction has two components: the ability to trust one's partner and a belief that one can be a good spouse. He conducts a study to test his ideas. Assuming that his data match his theory, which of the following statements should he make?
"The data provide support for my theory."
Which of the following phrases would NOT indicate that a researcher is making a causal claim?
"is at higher risk of"
RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results: A change to which of the following cells will result in a different interpretation of the results of subliminal messages?
A change in any cell will result in a different interpretation.
What is the problem with being swayed by a good story?
A good story may not be supported by data.
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
When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which section should you read first?
Abstract
What is the difference between advice from an authority and that from a researcher?
Authorities often base their advice on intuition, while researchers rely on facts.
When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," why should you read the abstract first?
Because it provides an overview of the article
After reading the chapter, Cyril says to himself, "I am sure other people might engage in faulty thinking, but I never would." What is Cyril experiencing?
Bias blind spot
You read a news article titled, "New Drug Reduces OCD Symptoms in Mice" about a recent scientific study. To evaluate whether the title's claim is supported, you should do which of the following?
Check whether the authors established covariance, temporal precedence, and internal validity.
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
To evaluate how well a study supports a frequency claim, you need to focus most on evaluating which of the following validities?
Construct validity and external validity
Which of the following is the last section of an empirical journal article?
Discussion
RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which of the following statements is true of Dr. Ramon's and Dr. LaSalle's claims?
Dr. Ramon's claim goes further than Dr. LaSalle's claim.
If you are interested in reading an overview of peer-reviewed scientific research within a specific area, which of the following reading sources would you choose?
Edited books
RESEARCH STUDY 1.2: Dr. White reads about a new theory that states that depression is caused by increased levels of estrogen in the womb. To test this theory, she conducted a study comparing the level of estrogen in amniotic fluid in individuals who were later diagnosed with depression with the level of those who did not develop depression. Dr. White found no differences between the groups in estrogen levels in the amniotic fluid. What should Dr. White do next?
Evaluate the ways in which her study differed from previous studies that supported this theory
How can you ensure that a popular media article accurately reflects the original research of a scientific study?
Find and read the original scientific article
Which of the following is a limitation of Google Scholar compared to PsycINFO?
Google Scholar is not limited to just psychology and related fields.
Stefan wants to make a causal claim in his dissertation. Which of the following is necessary?
He must conduct an experiment.
Elliott is double majoring in English and psychology. He plans on being a high school English teacher and is only majoring in psychology because he finds the classes interesting. Which of the following is an important reason for him to be a good consumer of research?
He will probably want to read research related to enhancing his teaching.
You and your friends go to see a speaker on campus. The speaker, Dr. Darian, is an "expert" on getting into graduate school. Which of the following should make you less skeptical about his advice?
His recommendations are based on research he conducted for his dissertation.
What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?
Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.
Compared with doing a generic Internet search, why is PsycINFO a superior way to find scientific sources?
It searches only sources in psychology and related fields.
Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. Where should she go if she wants to look for a list of the study's hypotheses or research questions?
Last paragraph of the introduction
Which of the following is NOT a section or subsection commonly found in an empirical journal article?
Outcomes
Which of the following is a limitation of PsycINFO compared to Google Scholar?
PsycINFO is not free to use.
Angela reads about a study in which cell phone use is associated with migraine headaches. She says, "Well, that study is not valid because I use a cell phone more than anyone I know and I never get migraines." Based on her comment, Angela may be forgetting which of the following?
Science is probabilistic.
Which of the following is true of the distinction between scientific journals and popular magazines?
Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not.
RESEARCH STUDY 2.1: Charlotte is studying subliminal messages and weight loss. She is curious whether people will lose more weight if they hear subliminal messages that encourage weight loss ("don't eat that food," "you want to be thin," etc.) in the music on their iPods compared to people who do not have subliminal messages in their music. She studies 40 people and finds the following results: To understand whether the subliminal messages have an effect, Charlotte needs to consider which of the following cells in the chart?
She must consider all of the cells.
What makes certain constructs harder to operationalize?
Some constructs are difficult to observe.
Which of the following is true of operational definitions?
Some psychological concepts are more difficult to operationally define than others.
RESEARCH STUDY 1.1: Deci and Ryan (1985, 2001) have proposed that there are three fundamental needs that are required for human growth and fulfillment: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Susan predicts that students who have these needs met in their psychology class feel happier and more satisfied with the class. She collects data and finds that students who feel more related and competent do feel happier but that feeling more autonomous does not seem to matter. Susan thinks that maybe autonomy is only necessary when people are in situations in which they are not being evaluated. After Susan collects and analyzes her data, which of the following is the next logical step?
Susan alters or amends the theory to fit her data.
Which of the following is a reasonable causal claim?
Texting while driving reduces impulse control.
Javier wants his lab partner to tell him if he thinks the article he found for their project is appropriate. Rather than have him read the article, which two parts of the paper could Javier have his lab partner read to get a summary of the article?
The abstract and the first paragraph of the discussion
Which of the following indicates that an article's claims are based on research?
The article describes how a scientific study measured a variable.
Edward believes that there are a lot of differences between men and women on a variety of different dimensions. He believes this because when he thinks about books that have been written on men and women, he can quickly recall only books that say men and women are different (e.g., Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus) and cannot recall any that say men and women are the same. His reliance on what comes to mind is an example of which of the following?
The availability heuristic
Hannah just finished reading an empirical journal article for a class project. What information might she get out of reading the references section of her article?
The name of an article that researched a similar topic
Looking for which of the following in a trade book will give you a hint as to its scientific rigor?
The number of references
Why is it important to adopt the mindset of a scientific reasoner?
To avoid falling into the pitfalls of personal biases
Vanessa claims that she sleeps better when she falls asleep to music. She has a comparison group because she has noticed that she does not listen to music every night, only when she remembers to charge her iPod. She typically remembers to charge her iPod on nights when she is able to finish studying earlier. What problem do you see in Vanessa's reasoning about sleeping better to music?
Vanessa may be sleeping better because she is less distracted by studying/going to bed sooner.
Tim tells you that the best way to make friends is by opening the conversation with a joke. He can easily recall all the friends he met by telling a joke and also the times he opened with chitchat and didn't befriend the person. If you were concerned that Tim was making the present/present bias, what would you ask him?
What about the times you opened with a joke and didn't become friends with the person?
In which of the following scenarios should you be skeptical of an authority?
When they based their opinions on their intuition
A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have:
a comparison group that did not receive the drug.
A Type I error is known as which of the following?
a false positive
Which of the following statements is an operational definition of "fear of snakes" that could be assessed as a structured question?
asking, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how afraid of snakes are you?"
RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. LaSalle making?
association claim
RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr. Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr. LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr. Ramon making?
causal claim
Asking questions to get the answers we want is known as:
confirmation bias.
Different factors that could account for significant results are called ______.
confounds
When researchers conduct an experiment comparing two different treatment conditions, they are likely to be more concerned with ______________ validity than validity.
internal; external
Another word for data is a(n) _________________.
observation
Which of the following could be an independent variable in a causal claim?
one that is manipulated
Occam's razor states that the simplest solution is the best, all things being equal. This speaks to a theory's:
parsimony
Dr. Hadden wants to conduct a study that will allow him to make claims that apply to all college students. Which of the following validities is he prioritizing?
the external validity of the study
Who is responsible for deciding which validity is prioritized in a study?
the researcher
RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish also is curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Quinn's concern is addressing which of the following?
the study's external validity
RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced. I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish also is curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. Could you predict one from the other?" Manish's concern is addressing which of the following?
the study's statistical validity
RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. Which of the following is a constant in this study?
the type of game
According to the text, the bridge between basic and applied research is known as:
translational research.
Vinai learns that people with schizophrenia have a problem labeling their emotions. Using this information, he designs a research study to examine whether teaching patients with schizophrenia to label the emotions of people they see in movie clips helps them to better label their own emotions. Vinai hopes that the findings of this research could then be used to create an intervention to treat schizophrenia. Vinai's study is an example of:
translational research.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups. Their results showed that White women can be threatened by racism, and men of color threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. In this study, the article's headline is ________ because ________.
unjustified; the researcher did not study all groups of individuals who are sexist or racist
Which of the following is a reason why it is important to be a knowledgeable consumer of research?
It is important to understand whether the information you read is accurate.
Which of the following is a reason that a journalist may misrepresent a psychology study in a magazine?
Journalists may not personally have the scientific background to understand the study.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the researchers recorded how many errors participants committed. This is an example of which of the following?
a measured variable
RESEARCH STUDY 1.2: Dr. White reads about a new theory that states that depression is caused by increased levels of estrogen in the womb. To test this theory, she conducted a study comparing the level of estrogen in amniotic fluid in individuals who were later diagnosed with depression with the level of those who did not develop depression. Dr. White found no differences between the groups in estrogen levels in the amniotic fluid. Another depression researcher reads Dr. White's findings. This new researcher is LEAST likely to:
reject the theory of what causes depression.
RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: 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. Which of the following is the dependent variable in Dr. Kang's study?
the number of words remembered
RESEARCH STUDY 1.1: Deci and Ryan (1985, 2001) have proposed that there are three fundamental needs that are required for human growth and fulfillment: relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Susan predicts that students who have these needs met in their psychology class feel happier and more satisfied with the class. She collects data and finds that students who feel more related and competent do feel happier but that feeling more autonomous does not seem to matter. Susan thinks that maybe autonomy is only necessary when people are in situations in which they are not being evaluated. Deci and Ryan's general statement of how the three needs are related to growth and fulfillment is an example of which of the following?
theory
RESEARCH STUDY 1.2: Dr. White reads about a new theory that states that depression is caused by increased levels of estrogen in the womb. To test this theory, she conducted a study comparing the level of estrogen in amniotic fluid in individuals who were later diagnosed with depression with the level of those who did not develop depression. Dr. White found no differences between the groups in estrogen levels in the amniotic fluid. Based on these results, Dr. White should conclude that:
there may be factors influencing the results that haven't yet been examined that contributed to the results of studies on this topic.
