Research Methods Ch. 6 Content

Which of the following is a general plan for implementing a research strategy? a. A research procedure b. A research design c. A research study d. A research protocol

A research design

What does nonexperimental and correlational research demonstrate?

Both demonstrate that a relationship exists between 2 variables but do not try to explain the relationship

Which of the following describes a variable that exists in a study but is not being directly examined? a. Independent b. Dependent c. Extraneous d. External

Extraneous

Which of the following questions can be addressed with the descriptive strategy? a. What is the average number of text messages that a typical adolescent sends in a month? b. Is there a relationship between the number of text messages that adolescents send each month and the number of pages of leisure reading done by adolescents? c. Does decreasing the number of text messages sent by adolescents cause an increase in number of pages read for leisure? d. None of these questions can be addressed with this strategy

What is the average number of text messages that a typical adolescent sends in a month?

The degree to which your research results generalize beyond the specific characteristics of your study refers to a. internal validity. b. external validity. c. general validity. d. reliability

external validity

_________________ ________________ ______ __________ _________ can change a participants normal behavior and thereby influence the _____________ of the study

-Demand characteristics and participant reactivity -outcome

What are the exact steps that research procedures go by?

-Exactly how the variables will be manipulated, regulated, and measured. -Exactly how many individuals will be involved. -Exactly how the individual participants or subjects will proceed through the course of the study.

What are the 3 kinds of generalization?

-Generalization from a sample to the general population -Generalization from one research study to another -Generalization from a research study to a real-world situation

What are some common threats to external validity?

-Generalizing across participants or subjects -Generalizing across features of a study -Generalizing across features of the measures

What is a threat to both internal and external validity?

Artifact

Curvilinear

Curved line

Cues given to participants about how they are expected to behave define which of the following terms? a. Reactivity b. Demand characteristics c. Experimenter bias d. Volunteer bias

Demand characteristics

Results from a research study suggest that a stop-smoking program is very successful. How- ever, the participants who volunteered for the study were all highly motivated to quit smoking and the researcher is concerned that the same results may not be obtained for smokers who are not as motivated. What kind of validity is being questioned? a. Internal validity b. External validity c. Experimental validity d. Validity of measurement

External validity

Multiple treatment interference

Fatigue & practice occurs in one treatment and then affects performance in the following treatment

A researcher measures mood for a group of participants who have listened to happy music for 20 minutes and for a second group who have listened to sad music for 20 minutes. If different mood scores are obtained for the two groups, the researcher would like to conclude that music influences mood. However, the happy music group was tested in a room painted yellow and the sad music group was in a room painted dark brown and the researcher is concerned that the room color and not the music may influence mood scores. What kind of validity is being questioned? a. Internal validity b. External validity c. Experimental validity d. Validity of measurement

Internal validity

What aspect of a study is threatened if the participants are tested in one treatment condition at one time and then tested in a second treatment condition at a different time? a. Internal validity b. External validity c. Reliability d. Accuracy

Internal validity

A research study attempts to describe the relationship between self-esteem and birth order position by measuring self-esteem for each individual in a group of first-born boys, and then comparing the results with self-esteem scores for a group of later-born boys. Which research strategy is being used? a. Nonexperimental b. Correlational c. Experimental d. Quasi-experimental

Nonexperimental

What is sensitization?

Process of measurement can alter participants so that they react differently to the treatment

Environmental variables

Size of room, time of day, gender of the experimenter

Linear

Straight line

How does balancing internal and external validity?

Tends to be a trade-off between the two

A journal article reports that a new teaching strategy is very effective for first-grade students. A teacher wonders if the same strategy would be effective for a class of third-grade students. What is the teacher questioning? a. The external validity of the report b. The internal validity of the report c. The reliability of the report d. The accuracy of the report

The reliability of the report

How can sensitization threaten external validity of a study? a. The results may be limited to the novel situation of the research study. b. The results may be limited to individuals who have experienced a pretest. c. The results may be limited to individuals who have experienced a series of different treatment conditions. d. The results may be limited to participants taking on different subject roles.

The results may be limited to individuals who have experienced a pretest

A study examining the relationship between humor and memory compares memory performance scores for one group presented with humorous sentences and a second group presented with nonhumorous sentences. The participants in one group are primarily 8-year-old students and those in the second group are primarily 10-year-old students. In this study, age is potentially a(n) ________ variable. a. independent b. dependent c. extraneous d. confounding

confounding

Experimental research studies tend to have very _______ internal validity but often have relatively _______ external validity. a. high; low b. low; high c. high; high d. low; low

high; low

What are some limitations/conclusions of nonexperimental research?

-Compares 2 or more groups of scores -Measures only 1 variable for each individual

Negative

-Increases, decreases -Decreases, increases

Positive

-Increases, increases -Decreases, decreases

What are some limitations/conclusions of correlational research?

-One group of participants -Measures 2 variables for each individual

Basic fact of life has 2 implications, what are they?

-Research studies vary in terms of validity -Being aware of threats to validity can help you critically evaluate a research study

What are some experimenter characteristics?

-demographics -personality