Psych Investigations Midterm
Why is it unethical to provide an incentive that is too large to refuse (for example, offering undergraduate students free tuition for a semester for participating in a study)?
It influences people into being participants
Dr. Jewell is interested in measuring people's attitudes toward proposed tax cuts. One of his items reads, "People who support cutting taxes are not well informed about how the government works." What is the problem with this question?
It is a leading question
What is answering yes or strongly agree to every item in a survey or interview?
acquiescence
Naomi is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for her research methods project. To do this, she has elementary school students rate how popular each member of their class is. She then uses this information to rank the students on popularity (e.g., John is the most popular, Vanessa is the second-most popular). Which of the following best describes this variable?
an ordinal scale of measurement
What is a research study in which identifying information is not collected, thereby completely protecting the identity of the participants?
anonymous study
What is research that is done with a practical problem in mind and whose goal is to find a solution to a real-world problem (outside of health care and treatment interventions)?
applied research
What is a bias in intuition, in which people incorrectly estimate the frequency of something, relying predominantly on instances that easily come to mind rather than using all possible evidence in evaluating a conclusion?
availability heuristic
What is the tendency for people to think that compared to others they themselves are less likely to engage in biased reasoning?
bias blind spot
How are quota sampling and stratified random sampling similar?
both identify subgroups that need to be studied
What is choosing a sample by selecting groups of participants within the population at random?
cluster sampling
What is a variable of interest, stated as an abstract, or conversational, level?
conceptual variable
What is a research study in which identifying information is collected but protected from disclosure to people other than the researchers?
confidential study
What is the tendency to consider only the evidence that supports a hypothesis, including asking only the questions that will lead to the expected answer?
confirmation bias
Which validity would you be interrogating by asking: How well did the researchers measure sensitivity to tastes in the study?
construct validity
What is the extent to which a measure captures all parts of a defined construct?
content validity
What is choosing a sample based on those who are easiest to access and readily available?
convenience sampling
What is an empirical test of the extent to which a self-report measure correlates with other measures of a theoretically similar construct?
convergent validity
What is a form of research misconduct in which a researcher invents data that fits the hypothesis?
data fabrication
What is a form of research misconduct in which a researcher influences a study s results, perhaps by deleting observations from a data set or by influencing participants to act in the hypothesized way?
data falsification
What is informing participants afterward about a study's true nature, details and hypotheses?
debriefing
What is a variable that is measured in an experiment?
dependent variable
What is a type of question in a survey or poll that is problematic because it asks two questions in one?
double-barreled question
What is the magnitude or strength of a relationship between two or more variables?
effect size
What is a scholarly article that reports for the first time the results of a research study?
empirical journal article
What is the use of verifiable evidence as the basis for conclusion?
empiricism
A researcher e-mails his five-item measure of conscientiousness (e.g., "I get chores done right away," "I follow a schedule," "I do not make a mess of things") to 20 experts in personality, psychology, and asks them if they think his items are a good measure of conscientiousness. This result is an example of
face validity
What is the extent to which a measure is subjectively considered a plausible operationalization of the conceptual variable in question?
face validity
What is a variable that is manipulated in an experiment?
independent variable
What is the right of research participants to learn about a research project, know its risks and benefits, and decide whether to participate?
informed consent
What is a committee responsible for ensuring that research using human participants is conducted ethically?
institutional review board
What is consistency in a pattern of answers no matter how a question is phrased?
internal reliability
A researcher asks a sample of 40 people a set of five items that are all capturing how extroverted they are. The cronbach's alpha for the five items is found to be 0.75. This result is an example of
interrater reliability
What is degree to which two or more coders or observers give consistent ratings of a set of targets?
interrater reliability
What is a quantitative measurement scale that has no true zero and in which the numerals represent equal intervals between levels?
interval scale
In order to study a sample of participants from only one ethnic group, researchers must first demonstrate that the problem being studied is especially prevalent in that ethnic group. This is an application of which principle from the Belmont Report?
justice
What is a type of question in a survey or poll that is problematic because its wording encourages one response more than others?
leading question
What is a way of mathematically averaging the effect sizes of all the studies that have tested the same variables to see what conclusion that whole body of evidence supports?
meta-analysis
What is an association in which high levels of one variable go with low levels of another variable and vice versa?
negative association
What is a question in a survey or poll that contains negatively phrased statements, making its wording complicated or confusing?
negatively worded question
Masked, or blind, study designs are designed to deal with _____?
observer bias
What is the specific way in which a concept of interest is measured or manipulated as a variable in a study?
operational variable
What is a quantitative measurement scale whose levels represent a ranked order, and in which distances between levels are not equal?
ordinal scale
Which of the following is NOT a section or subsection commonly found in an empirical journal article?
outcomes
What is the stance that the simplest explanation of a pattern of data is usually correct?
parsimony
What is an association in which high levels of one variable go with high levels of the other variable, and low levels of one variable go with low levels of the other variable?
positive association
What is a bias in intuition, in which people incorrectly estimate the relationship between an event and its outcome, focusing on times the event and outcome are present while failing to consider evidence that is absent and harder to notice?
present bias
What is choosing a sample from a population of interest so each member has an equal and known chance of being included in the sample?
probability sampling
What is a variable whose values can be recorded as meaningful numbers?
quantitative variable
What is a quantitative measurement scale in which the numerals have equal intervals and the value of zero truly means none of the variable being measured?
ratio scale
What is a good way of preventing reactivity?
waiting for the participants to become used to the observer
In which of the following ways are content and face validity similar?
Both are preferred by psychologists as ideal measures of validity
In order to use the known groups paradigm to establish criterion validity, which of the following is necessary?
After testing, the groups should have significantly different scores on the measure
Which of the following has been used as a defense of animal research by animal researchers?
Animal research has resulted in many benefits to both animals and humans
What of the following is a limitation of PsycINFO compared to Google Scholar?
PsycINFO is not free to use
Dr. Smitherman conducted a study 5 years ago, and his graduate student now recommends that they conduct the study again to see if the effect still occurs. Dr. Smitherman says, ""No, I cannot do that study now; I think it is unethical."" Which of the following is NOT a reasonable explanation for Dr. Smitherman's response?
There were no ethical guidelines 5 years ago, but there are now
What is a false positive result in the statistical inference process in which researchers conclude that there is an effect in a population, when there really is none?
Type 1 error
What is a miss in the statistical inference process, in which researchers conclude that their study has not detected an effect in a population, when there really is one?
Type 2 error
In reading an empirical journal article, what are the two questions you should be asking as you read?
What is the argument? What is the evidence to support the argument?
When using correlation coefficients to evaluate reliability, which of the following is undesirable?
a negative correlation coefficient
What is a change in behavior of study participants (such as acting less spontaneously) because they are aware they are being watched
reactivity
What are the 3 R's in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals?
refinement, reduction, replacement
Who is responsible for deciding which validity is prioritized in a study?
researcher
What is an article summarizing all the studies that have been published in one research area?
review journal article
Online surveys commonly suffer from _____?
self selection
What is a sampling technique in which participants are asked to recommend acquaintances for the study?
snowball sampling
What is giving answers on a survey that make one look better than one really is?
socially desirable responding
What makes certain constructs harder to operationalize?
some constructs are difficult to observe
What is a probability sampling technique in which the researcher uses a randomly chosen number and, using that number, counts off every member of a population to achieve a sample?
systematic sampling
What is the consistency in results every time a measure is used?
test-retest reliability
Which of the following is true regarding interrogating frequency claims?
the chief concern is to evaluate the sampling technique
Looking for which of the following in a trade book will give you a hint as to its scientific rigor?
the number of references
What is a statement that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another?
theory
What is research that uses knowledge to develop and test applications to health care, psychotherapy, and other forms of treatment and intervention?
translational research
