Research Methods Spring - Midterm Practice Questions
27. When is it acceptable for a researcher to study participants only from a specific group, such as a researcher studying depression in a sample of Native American women? a. if the specific group being studied is especially prone to the problem being studied (e.g., if depression rates are higher in Native American women) b. if the specific group being studied has participated in similar research previously (e.g., earlier studies of intelligence in Native American women) c. if the researcher has special access to the specific group (e.g., the researcher works on a Native American reservation) d. it is never acceptable for such a specific group to be studied
A
34. 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? a. an ordinal scale of measurement b. a self-report measurement c. a categorical measurement d. an interval scale of measurement
A
23. 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 makes Dr. Kang's study an experiment? a. The study included a manipulated variable and a measured variable. b. The study included a distractor task. c. The study was conducted at a university by a psychologist. d. The study investigated a theory of emotion on memory.
a
29. RESEARCH STUDY 4.1: Dr. Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester. He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance. For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr. Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them. After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr. Kushner plans to let them return to sleep. As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure. He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session. The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Upon receiving institutional review board (IRB) approval, Dr. Kushner trusts that his graduate student will conduct the study. However, his graduate student does not conduct the study and instead provides Dr. Kushner with invented results that support his hypotheses. This is known as which of the following? a. data fabrication b. data falsification c. plagiarism d. intellectual property destruction
a
. RESEARCH STUDY 1.1: Deci and Ryan (1985, 2001) have proposed that three fundamental needs 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 necessary only 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? a. a theory b. a hypothesis c. data d. research
a.
18. 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? a. statistical claim b. association claim c. causal claim d. frequency claim
c.
26. 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)? a. It is unfair to other researchers who cannot afford to pay participants. b. It unduly influences people into participating. c. It is unfair to people who choose not to participate in the study. d. It is not unethical to do this.
b
31. Ethical decision making is a. as easy as a yes-no decision. b. based only on what is good for society. c. based on a balance of priorities. d. determined by legal experts.
c.
12. Matthew is reading an empirical journal article and wants to know whether the authors used the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) or the NEO-PI to measure extraversion. In which section would he find this information? a. introduction b. method c. results d. discussion
b.
13. Advice that is based on ________ is most likely to be correct. a. personal experience b. research c. intuition d. authority's conclusions
b.
17. Dr. Ellison finds a relation between amount of sleep and problem solving. Specifically, having a higher amount of sleep the night before an exam is associated with higher scores on two measures of problem solving. This is an example of which type of association? a. negative association b. positive association c. zero association d. causal association
b.
19. 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? a. statistical claim b. association claim c. causal claim d. frequency claim
b.
32. Which of the following is NOT an example of coercion? a. a researcher hinting to participants that their employer will be told if they do not participate b. a researcher offering three points of extra credit to college students to participate in a study c. a researcher offering homeless participants $1,000 to participate in a study d. a researcher telling participants that he will be fired if he is unable to recruit at least 50 participants
b.
38. When using correlation coefficients to evaluate reliability, which of the following is undesirable? a. a correlation coefficient close to 1 b. a negative correlation coefficient c. a strong correlation coefficient d. it depends on the type of reliability being evaluated.
b.
39. Which of the following is the most direct way to control for question order effects? a. Give the survey questions to different groups of people. b. Prepare different versions of the survey, varying the order of the questions. c. Combine multiple questions into single questions. d. Order effects cannot be controlled for.
b.
41. Dr. Paul is concerned about a fence-sitting response set when he conducts his survey. Which of the following might you recommend to decrease fence sitting? a. using reverse-worded questions b. using scales with an even number of response options c. providing a "no opinion" option d. using a Likert scale
b.
42. A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year. In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class. At the end of the year, the "bloomers" showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways. This is an example of which of the following? a. observer bias b. observer effects c. a masked study design d. self-report operationalization
b.
48. Dr. Chandler is a personality psychologist who is interested in studying the characteristics of people who report being abducted by UFOs. She finds several people in an online support group for UFO abductees to participate and asks them if they can provide the names and contact information of other people who have also been abducted. Upon contacting these new participants, she asks them to refer her to even more people they may know who have been abducted. This is an example of what kind of sampling? a. purposive sampling b. snowball sampling c. convenience sampling d. self-selection sampling
b.
50. Online surveys commonly suffer from which of the following? a. poor reliability b. self-selection c. probability sampling d. over sampling
b.
51. When you are interrogating the external validity of a sample, which is the most important question to ask? a. How many people are in the sample? b. How was the sample collected? c. How were the participants measured? d. How many people are in the population?
b.
53. Which of the following is necessary for a sample to be considered representative? a. All members of the population must be included in the sample. b. All members of the population have an equal chance of being included in the sample. c. All members of the sample belong only to the population of interest. d. All members of the sample are likely to provide the same data/information.
b.
54. Professor Adeyemi is examining well-being after retirement in a city, and it is important to have excellent external validity. If Professor Adeyemi obtains a sample that reflects the demographic proportions of their city, which of the following sampling techniques is most likely being used? a. cluster sampling b. stratified random sampling c. systematic sampling d. quota sampling
b.
14. Which of the following is true of the distinction between scientific journals and popular magazines? a. Scientific journals are published quarterly; popular magazines are published monthly. b. Scientific journals are published on specific topics; popular magazines are not published on specific topics like psychology. c. Scientific journal articles are peer-reviewed; popular magazine articles are not. d. Scientific journal article findings explain all cases all of the time; popular magazine articles explain only certain cases.
c.
28. In Milgram's (1963) experiments on obedience to authority, participants were led to believe that they were shocking a "learner" in another room each time the learner made an error. What was the main risk to participants in Milgram's study? a. physical harm b. psychological distress c. scientific fraud d. lack of confidentiality
b. psychological distress
21. 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 say for sure that being bullied leads to low self-esteem because they didn't measure being bullied before they measured self-esteem." Clarissa is concerned that the researcher a. failed to consider a third variable. b. concluded there was a relationship, but there really isn't one. c. failed to establish temporal precedence. d. concluded there was not a relationship, but there really is one.
c
36. Establishing construct validity would probably be most important for which of the following? a. a measure of heart rate b. a measure of the number of times a person eats alone during a month c. a measure of spirituality d. a measure of income
c.
43. Which of the following is a disadvantage of using open-ended questions? a. The answers provided are often spontaneous. b. The answers are unscientific. c. The answers must be coded. d. The answers are not taken seriously by participants.
c.
45. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Imagine that Dr. Ewell calculates a correlation (e.g., ICC) for his two raters. Which of the following would be the best value for Dr. Ewell to find? a. -0.92 b. 0.02 c. 0.89 d. 1.15
c.
47. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. What is Dr. Kramer's likely population of interest? a. all students at the university b. all psychology majors and minors c. all students he is currently teaching d. all students in his Introduction to Neuroscience class
c.
6. 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. In this study, "depressed individuals will have higher estrogen levels" was the a. theory. b. research question. c. hypothesis. d. data
c.
20. 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? a. the statistical validity of the study b. the internal validity of the study c. the construct validity of the study d. the external validity of the study
d
22. Stefan wants to make a causal claim in his dissertation. Which of the following is necessary? a. He must make a frequency claim first. b. He must manipulate all of his variables. c. He must measure all of his variables. d. He must conduct an experiment.
d
46. 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? a. It is a forced-choice question. b. It is a double-barreled question. c. It has a double negative. d. It is a leading question
d
3. A scientist is most likely to accept a theory when a. one study has data that are consistent with the theory. b. an evidence-based treatment confirms the theory. c. the theory is not falsifiable. d. the findings of replicated studies are consistent with the theory.
d.
33. Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a categorical way to operationalize caffeine consumption? a. the number of cups of coffee consumed in a day b. the number of milligrams of caffeine consumed during the study c. the frequency of buying energy drinks d. whether the participant drank coffee in the 24 hours prior to the study
d.
55. The study that found that two-thirds of Americans had experienced at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE) did not use a random sample. What conclusion should you make about the results of the study? a. We can generalize the results of the study to all Americans. b. We can generalize the results of the study only to Americans with adverse childhood experiences. c. The results are incorrect because the study did not use a random sample. d. We are uncertain about the generalizability of the results.
d.
7. A professor may agree to an interview with a journalist who expresses an interest in writing a popular article describing findings from the professor's recently published empirical journal article. What is the professor most likely hoping to achieve by working with this journalist? a. He is hoping to communicate new knowledge to other scientists. b. He is hoping to help solve problems identified by other scientists related to their field of research. c. He hopes to become known as an expert in his field. d. He wants to make the findings available to a wider audience that might be able to benefit from the findings.
d.
8. Which of the following is a reason why it is important to be a knowledgeable consumer of research? a. It is important to know how to write in APA style. b. It is important to understand how to design an effective study. c. It is important to know why researchers protect the anonymity of participants. d. It is important to understand whether the information you read is accurate.
d.
10. One of the reasons that research studies are superior to personal experience is that a. they include at least one comparison group. b. they avoid constants. c. they use confederates. d. an authority is involved.
a.
15. Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction. He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic. He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size. His research is most accurately described as a. a meta-analysis. b. a review journal article. c. a chapter in an edited book. d. a PsycWiki.
a.
16. Which of the following is an association claim? a. "Owning a dog is related to higher life satisfaction." b. "A majority of Americans like dogs." c. "Dog traveled 500 miles to find its owners." d. "Being visited by dogs in the hospital causes decreases in recovery time."
a.
2. 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. This is known as a. a theory. b. a hypothesis. c. data. d. research.
a.
25. The use of debriefing in a study such as Milgram's obedience study appeals to which principle of the Belmont Report? a. principle of beneficence b. principle of integrity c. principle of respect for persons d. principle of justice
a.
30. A study suggesting a link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism led to reduced vaccination rates and increased rates of measles. This example demonstrates the serious implications of a. data falsification/fabrication. b. using deception. c. failing the Principle of Justice. d. legal protection of lab animals.
a.
35. Todd is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for his research methods project. He decides to measure popularity by asking each elementary school student to tell him how many friends he or she has. He assumes that more friends means the student is more popular. Which of the following best describes this variable? a. a ratio scale of measurement b. a qualitative variable c. an other-report measure d. a categorical variable
a.
4. Dr. Knepp studies Extrasensory Perception (ESP) which is the ability to perceive things through telepathy or clairvoyance. She theorizes that ESP exists but only in people who believe it exists and who are not skeptical of ESP. She surveys a large number of adults about their beliefs in ESP and, as expected, only adults who believe in ESP report having those abilities. What is true about Dr. Knepp's theory? a. It is not falsifiable. b. It does not have a hypothesis. c. It is not translational research. d. It is provable.
a.
40. How do reverse-worded items address the issue of shortcuts in surveys? a. They slow down readers, making them answer more carefully. b. They give people more answer options. c. They are easier for people to read. d. They ask each question twice so the participant answers twice.
a.
44. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr. Ewell is concerned that the children will behave differently because of the presence of research assistants. He is concerned about a. reactivity. b. observer bias. c. faking good. d. interrater reliability.
a.
52. If a sample is biased, then it is ________ the population of interest. a. unrepresentative of b. unrelated to c. incorrectly compared to d. unfairly applied to
a.
9. 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? a. a confirmation bias b. a present/present bias c. fourth cell reasoning d. overconfidence
a.
24. 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. Dr. Kang's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following? a. the covariance of the study b. the temporal precedence of the study c. the internal validity of the study d. the external validity of the study
c
11. What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic? a. Conclusions drawn from behavioral research are probably true. b. Behavioral research involves probability sampling. c. Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases. d. Behavioral research requires the calculation of probability estimates.
c.
37. An educational psychologist is testing the discriminant validity of a new measure of numerical learning difficulties. He gives his measure to a group of students along with another measure of verbal learning difficulties, which he predicts should not be strongly related to numerical learning difficulties. Which of the following correlations would the psychologist hope to find in order to establish discriminant validity? a. r = 1.0 b. r = -1.0 c. r = 0.83 d. r = -0.18
d.
49. Having a representative sample is most important in which of the following example claims? a. "Having a dark triad personality is associated with having greater relationship problems." b. "Receiving weekly feedback from your supervisor increases work productivity." c. "People who report knowing someone who has been diagnosed with skin cancer also report having greater sunscreen use." d. "Forty-three percent of psychology majors report being frustrated by people asking them if they are psychoanalyzing them."
d.
5. 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. In this study, estrogen levels in participants were the a. theory. b. research question. c. hypothesis. d. data
d.
