exam one (midterm) Flashcards
1
Q
Example of empirical evidence A) thermometer B) Logical argument C) Expert opinion D) Common Sense
A
A) thermometer
2
Q
What type of research is done with a practical problem in mind?
A
Applied Research
3
Q
A statement, or set of statements, that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another is a ________________.
A
Theory
4
Q
Psychological scientists base their conclusions on the evidence. They collect data and use it to develop, support, or challenge a theory. This approach is known as ____________.
A
Empiricism
5
Q
Some theories are better than others. Which of the following is NOT considered a feature of a good theory?
A
The theory makes sense Intuitively
6
Q
Which of the following is a common way that journalists misrepresent science when they write about it for a popular audience?
A
exaggerating the strength of the findings
The Journal-to-Journalism Cycle — Journalists make scientific research more accessible to the public. They tend to exaggerate the strengths of the finding, not change the statistics. Clearly reporting the study or interviewing the researcher would not be misrepresenting the science.
7
Q
When the data from a study do not support the theory behind the study’s hypothesis, what does that mean for the theory?
A
Theory should be revised
The Theory Data Cycle — Theories need to be revised when they are not supported by data.
8
Q
Franchesca read about Elliot et al.’s (2007) study in which students scored lower on a cognitive test when the test had a red booklet cover. Franchesca is interested in the idea that the color red influences the perception of caution. Franchesca decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students rate themselves on several achievement-related characteristics, including critical reasoning skills, vocabulary, and math ability. Like the original study, the students write their self-ratings in booklets of either red, green, or white color. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students with red booklets would rate themselves lower than students with white or green booklets. Franchesca runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.
Franchesca’s process of conducting a study to evaluate whether the influence of the color red extends to self-ratings can best be described as which of the following?
A
Theory-data cycle
9
Q
Which of the following is primarily a consumer of research information? A) Biochemist B) Marriage and family counselor C) Systems analyst D)Economist
A
marriage and family counselor
10
Q
“All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” Which principle does this describe?
A
Parsimony
11
Q
Which of the following is an example of basic research?
A) a study investigating the effectiveness of a new treatment for depression
B) a study investigating whether children of divorced parents are more likely to be divorced themselves
A
B
12
Q
Research done specifically to add to our general understanding of psychology is known as ______________.
A
Basic Research
13
Q
Daniel’s teacher tells him that his theory about dating is not strong because it is not falsifiable. What does she mean?
A
The theory cannot be falsifiable
14
Q
Which of the following outlines the correct order of steps in the theory-data cycle?
A
theory, research design, hypothesis, data
TheRoadHadDucks
15
Q
Stratified Random
A
Random sample rom each group of designated people
(i.e., taking a random sample from the men and then the women of engineering to make sure you get both sexes in engineering)
16
Q
Issue w Stratified Random
A
Unrepresented sample of the population (scientist avoid this issue by doing weighted numbers to their surveys)
need all names of the population members
difficulty reaching all members
17
Q
Advantages of Stratified
A
it may be MORE representative than simple random
18
Q
Quota Sampling
A
getting enough participants for each group, and then stopping. Not random sample of the population
19
Q
oversampling
A
you want to do a stratified random sampling but your groups are small clusters
20
Q
Hilda is studying the effects of a major natural disaster 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 natural disaster caused the depression and stress-related symptoms?
A
She doesn’t have a comparison group– not an experiment
21
Q
confound
A
an alternative explanation for an outcome that comes about because more than one thing changed at the same time.
22
Q
Which of the following is the term used in psychology to describe a person who is an actor playing a specific role as part of an experiment?
A
Confederate
23
Q
A school district decides to compare a new math textbook to the textbook that has been in use for the past few years. Each of the fourth graders in one school is 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 to determine which book is better. Which of the following is a potential confound in this study?
A
The teachers have different amounts of experience using the books.
24
Q
Pavlina believes that people in red cars are much more likely to speed than people in cars of other colors. She is probably the victim of what tendency?
A
the present/present bias
25
After two students from his school commit suicide, Marcelino thinks that the most likely cause of death in teenagers is suicide. What type of bias is affecting in his thinking?
the availability heuristic
26
In a developmental psychology class, Trina learned about Baumarind’s (1971, 1991) work on parenting styles. She recognized that her parents used an authoritarian style of parenting, as did all her relatives. Since that was the style of parenting she planned to use, she researched the advantages to that style, while ignoring any studies that support the use of another parenting style. What is the term for what she was doing?
cherry-picking the evidence
27
Dr. Friedman suspects that women who work outside of the home might be frustrated with the balance of responsibilities in their household. She devises a survey to give to married women employed outside the home that includes the question "Does your spouse bother to help you around the house?" What is the problem with Dr. Friedman's approach?
confirmatory hypothesis testing
28
Which of the following is a reason to trust the advice of authorities?
They systematically and objectively compare different conditions.
29
Which of the following is a quantitative technique used in some review articles that combines the results of many studies and gives a number that summarizes the magnitude of a relationship?
meta-analysis
30
As part of an assignment for his Introduction to Psychology class, Gilbert has to read a journal article, summarize it, and compare it to what is reported in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone & Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to repeat the study, which section would he consult to find the details of the study's design?
Method
31
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 on the exam. What should you conclude about the relationship between study time and exam scores?
Although your experience with one exam is an exception, the research findings explain a certain proportion of the many possible cases.
32
Which of the following is NOT a reason why basing one's conclusions on research is superior to basing one's conclusions on intuition?
Intuition is always wrong.
The Research vs. Your Intuition — Intuition might lead you to a conclusion that is incorrect, but intuition isn’t always wrong.
33
Carolyn sometimes taps on the basketball before shooting a free throw. She has noticed the times when she taps and makes the free throw more than she notices the times she makes the free throw without tapping the ball. Carolyn is experiencing the __________.
present/present bias
34
Even when people are aware that people generally think in a biased way, they tend to think that they are unlikely to fall prey to those biases. This kind of bias is called ___________.
Bias Blind Spot
35
Reading the news on the Internet, Johan comes across the headline, "When Stress is Increased, Men Rush Ahead, Women More Cautious." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Lighthall et al., 2011.) In this study, men and women were asked to perform a decision task as many times as possible in a set period, in either a stressed or unstressed condition. In the unstressed condition, men and women performed similarly. However, in the stressed condition, the number of decision tasks performed by men increased while the number performed by women decreased. In this study, the number of decision tasks performed is best described as which of the following?
Measured Variable
36
Professor Lee is curious if there is any pattern to who earns extra credit in her course. She examines this question by graphing a scatterplot of her students' exam grades and the number of extra credit points earned. She finds that the students with the lowest exam grades tend to have the most extra credit points. What type of association is this?
Negative
37
It has been reported that half of Americans show road rage. For this claim to have strong external validity, which of the following would have been the best sample for the researcher to have used?
a cross-section of American drivers representing men and women; people from the city, suburbs, and farms; of all ages
38
For an association claim, you should interrogate all of the following validities EXCEPT __________.
Internal
39
There is a negative association between exercise and obesity. Which of the following would a researcher need to demonstrate in order to make the claim that a lack of exercise causes obesity?
The lack of exercise came before the obesity.
40
A recent headline read, "School Lunches Make Kids Fat." The article cited a study comparing children at two schools. The school with the lower obesity rate had few children who ate school lunches (lunch provided by the school). The other school had a greater percentage of obese children and most of these children ate school lunches. No mention was made that many of the children who eat school lunches are low-income children who receive free lunches. Poverty is a major factor in obesity. Which validity is threatened by the potential confound, poverty?
Internal Validity
41
Phuong is conducting an experiment on proofreading. All participants are asked to read a passage with several typos and correct the errors. However, one group proofreads by reading silently, a second group proofreads by reading aloud, and a third group proofreads by reading the passage silently backward. The researcher calculates the average number of errors found in each group and finds that both the reading silently and reading aloud groups found more errors than the reading silently backward group. What are the variables in this study?
Type of proofreading and number of errors found
42
Professor Nakum designs a memory experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. Which of the following is the independent variable in this study?
The Type of word list
43
Professor Nakum designs a memory experiment to test the effect of word familiarity on memory. Three lists of words are created: common words, uncommon words, and made-up words. Participants are randomly assigned to study one of the lists of 30 words for 5 minutes, do math problems for 5 minutes, then write all the words they recall from the list. Their score is the number of words correctly recalled. The use of random assignment of participants increases which of the following?
Internal Validity of the the study
44
Which of the following claims is an association claim?
- Depression in the elderly may predict dementia.
- Tanning changes the brain.
- A thoughtful gift makes the giver feel closer to the recipient.
- Teenage pot smoking affects intelligence.
Depression in the elderly may predict dementia.
45
What kind of a claim is the following headline making? “Former NFLers at Higher Risk for Brain, Mood Problems.”
Association claim
46
Which of the following questions addresses construct validity?
How well has the researcher measured or manipulated the variables in the study?
47
Jenny reads the headline, “Tea Party Supporters Have Slipped To 20 Percent.” She asks, “What is the margin of error of the estimate?” What validity is she interrogating?
- construct
- internal
- external
- statistical
statistical validity
48
What kind of a claim is the following headline making? “You Gotta Have Friends? Most Have Just Two True Pals.”
Frequency claim
49
Heather reads an article entitled, “Waist Circumference Associated with Life Expectancy.” She wants to use the correlation reported in the article to predict her own life expectancy based on her waist circumference. What kind of correlation would be best for her to make this prediction?
Strong positive correlation
50
Which of the following are two ethical issues raised by Milgram’s studies of obedience?
the stress experienced by the teachers and the lasting effects of the study on the teachers
51
Dr. Kim is researching treatments for childhood cancer. There is some risk that patients who undergo Dr. Kim’s new therapy may be harmed by the procedure. However, based upon preliminary lab testing, the patients might benefit substantially from his treatment. If you were on the IRB evaluating Dr. Kim’s research proposal to test his new treatment, what would make you more likely to approve the proposal?
You decide that the potential benefits of the study outweigh the potential risk
52
Which of the following pieces of information should be provided to potential research participants as part of the informed consent process?
information about the risks and benefits of participating in the research study
53
A researcher suggests to potential study participants that if they do not participate they will suffer negative consequences. This undue influence is called ____________.
coercion
54
In a study of a new drug for asthma, a researcher finds that the group receiving the drug is doing much better than the control group, whose members are receiving a placebo. Which principle of the Belmont Report requires the researcher to also give the control group the opportunity to receive the new drug?
beneficence
55
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
56
Dr. Sanders conducted a study that investigated the happiness of people listening to different kinds of music. He predicted that people would report being happier when they were listening to rock music than when they were listening to country music. Dr. Sanders threw out the data from several participants who reported being very happy while listening to country music because he thought that they weren’t being honest. Dr. Sanders has committed what kind of ethical violation?
Data falsification
57
Professor Silva is a clinical psychologist who teaches a course in abnormal psychology at the university. He maintains a clinical practice and several of his current students are his clients. Which of the APA’s Five General Principles does this violate?
Fidelity and Responsibility
58
Pop up and positive positive
++ is a 2x2 chart, and pop up is a recall of the frequency.
59
Which of the following is NOT an example of information researchers must be careful to protect to ensure research participants' confidentiality?
answers to a completely anonymous questionnaire
60
When an experimenter actively lies to a participant, this is considered which of the following?
Deception through commission
61
Which principle from the Belmont Report and the APA’s Ethical Principles do animal rights activists draw upon to argue against the use of animals in experiments?
Justice
62
What type of research misconduct involves representing the ideas or words of others as one’s own?
Plagiarism
63
Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class each day, she passes around a chart showing the dates of the class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if present. She photocopies the sheet after each class so that she can find if any students initial for days in the past that they were absent. The students are not aware that they were participating in the study until the end of the quarter. What standard of Ethical Standard 8 does this violate?
Informed Consent to Research
64
Research using animals must be approved by _______________.
an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
65
Professor Kwan studies violence and designs a study of the effects of video game violence on children. She recruits low-income, Hispanic children from schools near the university to participate. Each child is assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game two hours each evening for a month. The children’s teachers are asked to assess changes in behavior. To assure good participation, the participants are offered a chance to win a family trip to a major theme park. Which of the APA’s Five General Principles is violated by this incentive?
Respect for peoples rights and dignity//Justice
66
Independent variable and dependent for moms working or staying at home in comparison to kids behavior
mothers working//child behavior
67
Survey at USf, does it apply to other colleges? What kinda validity is that asking about
External validity
68
Reliability of Olympic judges would be what kinda reliability
interrater
69
depression scale is hat kinda reliability
internal
70
predictive validity
predicting in the future
71
convergent validity
2 measures different thing
72
concurrent
2 of the same things
73
discriminate
less strongly associated w dissimilar things
74
Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class each day, she passes around a chart showing the dates of the class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if present. She photocopies the sheet after each class so that she can find if any students initial for days in the past that they were absent. The students are not aware that they were participating in the study until the end of the quarter. What standard of Ethical Standard 8 does this violate?
Informed consent t Research
75
In a study of aggression in children, a researcher has his undergraduate research assistants watch a group of children on the playground and record the number of instances of physical or verbal attacks. Which category of measured variable is this researcher using?
Observational Methods
76
Which of the following is an example of a categorical variable?
- current age
- declared major in college
- IQ score
Declare major in college
77
The Department of Motor Vehicles receives a complaint that some of their employees who administer the road test pass a much higher percentage of test-takers than other employees. In this example, what aspect of the road test is being questioned?
Interrater reliability of the road test`
78
What information can you learn from a scatterplot that you cannot learn from the correlation coefficient?
the values for each pair of measurements
79
Which statistic is used to represent the internal reliability of multiple-item self-report scales?
Cronbach’s alpha
80
Professor Morgan questions whether the ratings he receives from his students on "teaching effectiveness" indicate how much the students learn in his class or whether they are just a reflection of how much his students like him. What aspect of the ratings is he questioning?
the measurement validity of the ratings
81
Dr. Kamran studies domestic violence and has designed a self-report scale that is meant to assess men's negative attitudes toward women. To validate her scale, she administers it to two groups of recently incarcerated male prisoners: prisoners convicted of domestic violence and prisoners convicted of other crimes. Dr. Kamran finds a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the two groups. What technique is Dr. Kamran using to validate her scale?
known-groups paradigm
82
Sun Mi is designing a questionnaire on loneliness. She is concerned that some features of loneliness are similar to depression and to low self-esteem. What type of validity does she need to show to demonstrate that her questionnaire assesses loneliness and not depression or low self-esteem?
discriminate validity
83
Dr. Nolan gives his new anxiety measure to a group of his colleagues who are anxiety experts. They agree that the questions on the measure appear to assess anxiety symptoms. This suggests that Dr. Nolan's measure has which of the following types of measurement validity?
Face validity
84
Which of the following is an example of a physiological measure?
- speed in solving a puzzel
- responses to a questionare
- ratings by an observer
- skin conductance
Skin conductance
85
Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. First, Lorenzo administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Then Lorenzo and his lab partner observe the children while they play and record instances of aggression. What type of measure is the questionnaire?
Self-Report
86
Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and pre-school-aged children. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of her intervention, Julie video records the parents interacting with their children at the end of the study. She has two research assistants watch the videos and rate the level of warmth in the interaction. Julie then correlates the ratings of the raters. She finds a high positive correlation (r = .87) between the two raters. What type of reliability is she examining?
Interrater
87
Dr. Johnson wants to do a study to investigate whether the physiological measure, heart rate variability, varies over time or whether it is a trait that stays stable within the same person over time. He records participants’ heart rate variability once at the beginning of the semester and once at the end of the semester. He finds a high positive correlation (r = .55) between the first and second time points. What would a scatterplot of these results (heart rate variability at the beginning of the semester on the x-axis, heart rate variability at the end of the semester on the y-axis) look like?
the cloud of points would slope upward from left to right
88
Mendoza et al. (2009) introduced a coin rotation task as a convenient test of motor dexterity. It involves timed completion of twenty 180° rotations of a nickel using the thumb, index, and middle fingers. The results were compared to the results of another widely used test of motor dexterity, the finger-tapping task, in which participants tap their index fingers as many times as possible in 10 seconds. The results indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the finger-tapping task and the coin rotation task (r = -.40). What would a scatterplot of these results (coin rotation scores on the x-axis, finger-tapping scores on the y-axis) look like?
Slope downward from left to right
89
Construct validity is important in psychological science because research questions are likely to include:
psychical bodies
abstract concepts
scientific laws
space n time
abstract concepts
90
The following item appears on a survey: "On a five-point scale, where 1 is Strongly disagree, 2 is disagree, 3 is Neither agree nor disagree, 4 is Agree, and 5 is Strongly agree, rate the following statement:”I look forward to coming to class". What type of question format is being used?
Likert scale
91
The following problematic question appears on a survey: "Please indicate whether the following statement is true or false for you: My cell phone is new and has all the latest features". How could this question be changed to improve its construct validity?
split the question into two so that it is not double-barreled
92
Jenny recently learned of plans to cut down an old beautiful tree on her campus to make way for a new bike path. Jenny is opposed to cutting down the tree, and she decides to survey some students at her university to see if others also oppose cutting down the tree. She plans to share the results of her survey with the school administration to argue to keep the tree. One question on Jenny’s survey asks, “Would you be in favor of brutally cutting down this majestic tree to make way for a stupid bike path?” A problem with this question is that it is a _______________.
Leading question
93
Which of the following is a method to control for observer bias?
masked or blind study
94
Jenny recently learned of plans to cut down an old beautiful tree on her campus to make way for a new bike path. Jenny is opposed to cutting down the tree, and she decides to survey some students at her university to see if others also oppose cutting down the tree. She plans to share the results of her survey with the school administration to argue to keep the tree. One question on Jenny’s survey asks, “Do you oppose not cutting down this tree?” A problem with this question is that it is a _____________.
Negative question
95
When people are asked why they made a certain choice, they ______________.
will tell you why they think they made that choice, but they may not be accurate at identifying the true reason for their choice
96
Judy writes a survey to assess how much people worry. Her survey has 20 questions that people can rate their level of agreement to on a seven-point Likert scale. All of the questions are worded so that higher responses will indicate a higher level of worry. After having 100 people complete her survey, she finds that a lot of respondents often respond to all of the questions by choosing only the “strongly agree” option. What is this kind of responding called?
Acquiescence
97
Which of the following is true about open-ended questions?
They provide rich data, but they can be time-consuming for researchers because the responses need to be coded.
98
Is it ethical for psychological researchers to observe people in a public place?
Yes, because in those settings people can reasonably expect their behavior to be public, not private.
99
Professor Law wants to construct a survey to assess involvement with computer games. Which of the following would be an example of an open-ended question?
What computer games have you played?
100
Professor Law wants to construct a survey to assess involvement with computer games. Which is a forced-choice question?
Which is truer of you? a) I have little interest in computer games or b) I would miss computer games if I couldn’t play anymore.
101
The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. Both observers are very interested in the topic because they have been struck by bicycles. Although the interrater reliability is high, what threat to construct validity should concern Professor Ibrahim?
Observer Bias
102
The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. Initially, the observers can’t agree about what is dangerous behavior. Professor Ibrahim refines his codebooks to clearly define the rating scales and retrains the observers. What is he addressing by doing this?
Reliability of the measurement
103
The campus safety committee has asked Professor Ibrahim to study bicycling on his campus. He trains two observers and has them observe the number of cyclists and their safety at various points around campus. After completing the observational study, Professor Ibrahim sends a survey out to the entire campus about bicycle safety, and asks all bicyclists to respond. He finds a large difference between their reports of how safely they ride and what his observers found. What is the most likely cause of the self-report ratings being inconsistent with the observational data?
The bicyclists were probably responding in a socially desirable way on the self-report survey.
104
What kind of sample is best for external validity?
a sample where each member of the population has an equal chance of being selected
105
Dr. Rhodes is interested in how differing levels of light affect how people perceive color. He finds participants for this research study by making an announcement in several psychology classes at his university. What kind of sampling method is Dr. Rhodes using?
Convenience sampling
106
a sample is always ___ than a population
smaller
107
The superintendent of schools in a small town in Ohio made a lot of policy changes to the way school administration worked in his district. A researcher at a nearby university wanted to look at what teachers in his district thought about the changes. The researcher made a list of all of the schools in the district and used a random number generator to select a sample of five schools from the district. Then the researcher interviewed every teacher at each of those five schools. What sampling method did the researcher use?
Cluster sampling
108
The student government at a college is interested in determining how important intercollegiate sports are to the students there. Since all students have e-mail accounts, they are able to send a survey to all the students. About 50 percent of the students respond. Which is the most likely bias in this sample?
Self-selecion bias
109
Which of the following is most important for enhancing external validity?
Random sampling
110
Which of the following is considered a biased sampling method?
Convenience sampling
111
Dr. Jennings is doing a study on the experience of being a racial minority on a college campus. He goes to the Asian Student Association, Black Student Union, and Hispanic Student Group on his campus to recruit participants for his study. Dr. Jennings only includes Asians, African-Americans, and Hispanic participants in his study. What type of sampling is Dr. Jennings using?
purposive sampling
112
Dr. Lawrence is the director of Counseling Services at her university. She is planning to conduct a survey of 100 students at the university to see how aware they are of the counseling services that are offered at the university. She wants the proportion of males and females in her sample to reflect the proportion in the university as a whole (55 percent female and 45 percent male). Dr. Lawrence plans to stand in the Student Union and ask people to participate until she has given the survey to 55 females and 45 males. Is Dr. Lawrence collecting a representative sample?
No, because the participants are selected nonrandomly.
113
A political research center obtains a list of phone numbers for all registered voters in Texas and uses a random number generator to select 1,000 of the phone numbers to call. They ask each voter which gubernatorial candidate they plan to vote for in the upcoming election. What is the population of interest that the research center wants to generalize to?
Restored voters in texas
114
A political research center obtains a list of phone numbers for all registered voters in Texas and uses a random number generator to select 1,000 of the phone numbers to call. They ask each voter which gubernatorial candidate they plan to vote for in the upcoming election. What sampling method is being used?
random sampling
115
Which sample would be most likely to represent the population of American teenagers?
cluster sample of 1000 teens from around the US
Cluster sampling will create a representative sample, which makes this the best option. For making a representative sample, the sample size is not as important as the sampling method.
