Research Design chapter 2
an article that discusses all the current published work on the eye-tracking technology
review article
Arthit wants to read about the study's contributors and significance
discussion
a computation of the average effect size of various studies on age and creativity
meta-analysis article
an article that quantitatively analyzes 30 previously conducted studies on gender discrimination
meta-analysis article
Swati's teacher asks her which city is farther north-- Des Moines, Iowa, or Boulder, Colorado. Swati recently saw a movie set in Colorado, which was cold and mountainous. she therefore concludes that Boulder must be farther north. her teacher tells her that Des Moines is actually farther north. what types of faulty thinking is Swati displaying
availability heuristic
Sana reads a post on Facebook about the health benefits of dark chocolate. the report mentions that dark chocolate has more antioxidants than fruit and claims it would be perfectly healthy to consume everyday. Sana concludes that it makes sense that dark chocolate would be healthy to eat frequently if it has antioxidants; this conclusion is an example of
being swayed by a good story
the tendency to accept ideas that feel natural
being swayed by a good story
the tendency to ignore the fact that you are vulnerable to biases
bias blind spot
a group used to contrast one possible outcome with another
comparison group
what does it mean to be probabilistic
conclusions are meant to explain a certain proportion of, but not all, possible cases
a person playing a specific role for the sake of a study
confederate
after realizing that his parents used an authoritarian parenting style, Jericho researchers the advantages of the authoritarian style while ignoring studies that support the use of another style
confirmation bias
Sohee finds a report on the effectiveness of essential oils on stress. the report includes a link to a website that sells essential oils
disinformation
Riaan is designing a study in which he combines the findings of ____ and calculates the magnitude of all the combined results, otherwise known as ____. research like this can combine the statistical findings of individual studies to identify a ____
empirical articles; a meta analysis; effect size
includes result of a new research study
empirical journal article
Arthit is curious about the researchers' theory and previous research on the topic
introduction
your college or university library may have subscriptions to scientific journals. once you graduate or leave your institution, you may find that you no longer have access to some articles that are ____. some solutions for this are to look for articles that are ____ or to check the researcher's website.
paywalled; open access
Augustin is looking for a new album to listen to and searches throughout a record store, comparing several different albums. he finds an album that he remembers hearing two of his friends praise in the past. Augustin thinks that because two of his friends liked it, he will like it too; however, he fails to notice that he has many other friends who have not told him their opinions on the album. what type of faulty thinking is Augustin displaying?
present/present bias
the tendency to ignore what it absent
present/present bias
Arthit wants to look at figures and tables showing the data the researchers gathered
results
a summary of the current literature on psychopathy and criminal behavior
review article
identify the true and false statements about meta-analyses
true: meta analyses do not allow cherry picking of certain studies; meta analyses summarize the magnitude of a relationship between variables; meta analyses are a type of review journal article false: meta analyses have less accurate results than empirical journal articles; meta analyses do not need to go through the peer review process
which source is a reliable form of information if you were choosing an allergy medication
a study conducted by the food and drug administration on the effectiveness of various medicines
Arthit wants to read a brief summary of the article to decide whether he should read the entire thing
abstract
place the parts of a typical journal article in order from first to last
abstract; introduction; method; results; discussion; references
after watching several news reports about people losing their jobs, Marcelino thinks that the rates of being laid off are much higher than they actually are
availability heuristic
Terrance has had a difficult time dealing with stress lately because of past traumatic experiences that have been bothering him. he goes to see a therapist and tells her his problem. his therapist, Janice, recently read an article about adjustment disorder. she suggests that Terrance may have this disorder and diagnoses him accordingly. Janice's diagnosis is not purely based on her client's symptoms but is partially influenced by the ____. because as a trained psychologist Janice should be aware of her susceptibility to faulty thinking, her mistake is an example of the ____.
availability heuristic; bias blind spot
Lethabo's psychology professor tells him that people are likely to be swayed by a story that sounds good or makes sense. later Lethabo begins experiencing stomach pain and thinks he may have a stomach ulcer. his girlfriend suggests that the pain must be from all the spicy food he likes to eat. Lethal believes he is objective and finds his girlfriend's point to be reasonable, so without doing any research, he avoids spicy food in an attempt to help his stomach pain. what type of faulty thinking is Lethal displaying?
bias blind spot
includes summaries of research
edited book
a report of an experiment that tested the effects of different types of grammar on decision making
empirical article
Kareem comes across a popular media article discussing the link between smart phone use and sleep quality. he doesn't think the article included the full results of the original study
information
Naimah reads a popular media article on the health benefits of red wine. she doesn't agree with the results of the report
information
Arthit wants to repeat the study himself and needs to find the details of the study design
method
the idea that the outcomes of behavioral research do not explain all (but most) cases
probabilistic
searches sources only in psychology
psychinfo
identify the following behaviors as examples of either scientific thinking or intuitive thinking
scientific thinking: seeking potentially disconfirming evidence; collecting data using a comparison group intuitive thinking: seeking information that confirms our ideas; basing our beliefs on information that seems to be reasonable; strongly believing that we are not personally
Hilda is studying the effects of a major earthquake on people living nearby. she finds that many of the victims are depressed and show stress related symptoms. why can't Hilda conclude that the earthquake caused the depression and stress related symptoms
she doesn't have a comparison group
later at the grocery store, the Facebook post comes to Sana's mind while she is walking by the candy aisle, so she purchases a large bag of dark chocolate. This is an example of
the availability heuristic
identify the true and false statements about good stories
true: falling for untested good stories can have physically harmful effects false: good stories are rarely accurate; doctors and authority figures are not susceptible to good stories; people often base their actions on good stories while knowing they are false
identify the true and false statements about authorities
true: sometimes authorities present only their side of an argument; it is possible for an expert to be wrong false: authorities who have researched a certain area should not be questioned; authorities cannot fall victim to the same biases that other people do
which statement is a legitimate reason to trust the advice of authorities
authorities systematically and objectively compare different conditions
the tendency to think the first thing that pops into your head is correct
availability heuristic
a school district decides to compare a new math textbook with the textbook that has been used for the past few years. each of the fourth graders in one school is randomly assigned to be in one of two classes, one in which a teacher continues using the old book and another in which a new teacher uses the new book. the school administrators compare the average scores of the two classes on a mathematics standardized test at the end of the year and find that the class with the new textbook performed better on the test. which of the following, if they occurred, could be potential confounds in the study?
confounds: the teacher using the new book has more teaching experience; the class using the new textbook is smaller than the class using the old textbook not confounds: both classes have children who report that they do not like math; there are different children in the fourth grade this year than there were last year
which of the following statements are ways to identify high quality scientific journals?
correct answers: utilize online reports of exploitative journals; find out whether the impact factor of the journal is at least 1.0 incorrect answers: check to see that the name of the journal is scientific and legitimate; make sure that the journal is charging researchers fees in order to publish their research
Jayla comes across a celebrity's website promoting the healing power of crystals. which of the following should Jayla d to determine that the claim about crystals is trustworthy
correct: she should find out whether there is research comparing the effectiveness of crystals with the effectiveness of other treatments; she should find our whether the celebrity is basing the claim on empirical evidence incorrect: she should find out whether the celebrity has a scientific degree; she should find out whether the celebrity has any personal experience with the healing power of crystals
an article about a 3 year field study on risky decision making among at-risk youths
empirical article
Pavlina does not consider the other cars that she has seen speeding when she says that people in red cars are much more likely to speed
present/ present bias
Research suggests that the time a student spends studying for an exam is positively related to the grade that student receives on the exam. however, last week, you took an exam without studying and got an A anyway. what should you conclude about the relationship between study time and exam scores
your experience could be an exception, while the research findings about the correlation between studying and grades explain a high proportion of the many possible cases
Juan sees his roommate's socks on the floor when he wakes up and overestimates how messy his roommate is
availability heuristic
Eliza believes that exposure to violent media makes people more aggressive and decides to look up research on this topic. she spends an hour reading one particular study that found higher levels of aggression after exposure to 30 minutes of a violent action movie versus a nonviolent action movie, but she skips past multiple other studies showing that violent media and aggression are not related. because of this, she concludes that her belief about the relationship between violent media and aggression is correct. what type of faulty thinking is Eliza displaying?
confirmation bias
the tendency to seek out information that supports your beliefs
confirmation bias
when she gets home, Sana looks up research on dark chocolate and ignores the studies showing that dark chocolate should be consumed only in moderation because of its calorie content. she is engaging in
confirmation bias
an alternative explanation for a study's results
confound
which of the following scenarios could potentially have confounds
confounds: parents enroll their children in a top Montessori preschool conclude that the preschool programs made their children smarter; a graduate student attending a stress-reduction seminar decides that the seminar has significantly reduced her stress and anxiety not confounds: children assigned to the running and reading groups in a study all complain that they are not very athletic. the running group ends up with lower levels of stress; in a study examining venting and anger, participants assigned to three different conditions are equally angry at the beginning of the study
Seattle libraries were interested in the effectiveness of summer reading programs in improving the reading ability of elementary school students. the libraries near the city center were all selected to implement a longer program that lasted the entire summer. one year later, city officials compared reading abilities using standardized tests of all the elementary schools in Seattle. they found that elementary schools whose students had attended the longer summer reading programs and thus read more books boasted higher reading comprehension. Which of the following, if they occurred, could be potential confounds in the study?
confounds: the elementary schools were of different qualities; the libraries were located in the areas whose populations differed in socioeconomic status not confounds: the students in the longer program read more books; the completion of each program resulted in a free book; the standardized tests were scored incorrectly
max watches a ten second video clip of his mayor from unknown source. he doesn't recall the mayor expressing this idea before
disinformation
consists of a collection of chapters by different contributors on a common topic
edited book
undergoes a rigorous peer review process
empirical journal article
which of the following behaviors are examples of faulty thinking
faulty thinking: focusing on thoughts that come to mind quickly; reaching a conclusion just because it makes sense; noticing occurrences when you expect them not faulty thinking: looking for evidence that both supports and does not support your ideas; testing your hunches through systematic, empirical observations
makes searching for sources intuitive and familiar
google scholar
makes searching through many different disciplines difficult
google scholar
JaTonya comes across a questionable news report stating that horns are growing on young peoples skulls. she wants to be a critical consumer of research and carefully considers what elements of the report might be due to flaws of the original scholarly article and what might be due to flaws of the news report. identify the problems as either flaws of the scholarly article or flaws of the news article
scholarly: studied only a small portion of the general population; did not disclose a conflict of interest news: misrepresented the results due to lack of training; used a sensational title rather than one that truly represents the findings
identify the true and false statements about reading empirical journal articles
true: it can be effective to focus only on the theoretical parts of the argument being made; reading only certain parts of an article can be helpful false: if you do not understand the results section, you should ignore it; the abstract repeats the rest of the article and does not need to be reviewed
identify the true and false statements about the differences between scientific research and personal experience
true: a comparison group allows experimenters to show that a treatment is effective; using multiple groups allows researchers to isolate potential confounds; even If a research study finds an effect that majority of the time there is no guarantee it will happen to you false: personal experience can be as scientifically valid as research if you document your experiences properly; if the results from a study do not apply to every case, that research should not be taken seriously
Nguyen is conducting a study on the effectiveness of the certain sales tactics. she has Zhao act as a salesman selling posters on campus, and she has Erica pretend to be a customer to test whether her presence will increase potential customers' interest in the product. Mirembe and Sam, students on campus, walk up to Zhao and ask him about the posters. Zhao then informs them that this is part of a research experiment and that he would like to ask them a few questions about their interest in the poster. Match each person to their role in the study
participant: Mirembe confederate: Erica researcher: Nguyen
Sharnae notices the times when she scores on a free throw after tapping the basketball more than she notices the times she scores on a free throw without tapping the ball
present/present bias
Imagine you are looking for reliable scientific sources about self esteem. match each tool for finding scientific sources to the correct advantage and disadvantage: makes turning questions into correct search terms tricky
psych info
Arthit wants to find a list of additional journal articles on the topic of daily events and mood
references
which of the following statements are reasons why basing one's conclusions on research is superior to basing one's conclusions on personal experience
reasons: research involved systematically comparing conditions; conclusions based on experience can have alternative explanations; experience does not involve systematic comparisons Not reasons: experience is probabilistic; research definitively proves theories
identify the sources as either reliable or unreliable
reliable: personality and social psychology bulletin, and APA journal; open access scientific articles; handbook of emotion regulation, edited by James J. Gross unreliable: scientific evidence found in the magazine psychology today; a scientific study reported by NBC; information from you uncle bob who was once a participant in a psychology study
overestimating the percentage of shark attacks that occur each year due to recent news reports about a particular shark attack is an example of ____. failing to consider all of the times you went to the beach and didn't see anyone get attacked by a shark is an example of ____.
the availability heuristic; the present/present bias
