Abnormal Psychology Ch 2: Research Methods – Flashcards
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Researchers find that a chemical in a recently discovered rainforest plant significantly reduces appetite in laboratory mice. Other researchers then make the chemical into a drug and test it to see whether it helps obese people lose weight. This type of research is called
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translational
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Which of the following represents all of the different levels of research in abnormal psychology?
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cellular, individual. group, and population
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The human nervous system has two main parts
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the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system
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A primary function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis and the regulation of
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blood pressure, temperature, and weight
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The autonomic nervous system includes the
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sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
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Communication in the nervous system relies on signals transmitted by
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a. electrical impulses b. chemicals called neurotransmitters c. an electrochemical process d. ALL OF THE ABOVE
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Neuroscientists who want to see brain activity in people with a snake phobia would use:
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fMRI
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The study of whether certain behavioral traits or mental disorders are heritable, or influenced by genes, is called
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behavioral genetics
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Which of the following statements best describes what we know about how genes affect behavioral traits
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behavioral traits are rarely caused by single genes
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Twin studies have been of particular importance in the study of abnormal behavior because they have
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identified genetic vs. environmental contributions to psychological disorders
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We cannot infer the causes of behavior from case studies but they do let us
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objectively describe rare phenomena
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When a treatment cannot be reversed, or if it would be unethical to withdraw a treatment, the single-case design strategy that should be used is called a
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multiple baseline design
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A strong positive correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked and the amount of alcohol consumed per day can be interpreted to mean that
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any of the above
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The most common type of research in abnormal psychology is
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controlled group design
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A researcher interested in social anxiety placed an ad in the newspaper seeking people with public speaking anxiety. People who volunteer for this type of study are part of an
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analogue sample
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Research on an exciting new treatment that takes place with carefully selected patients at a world-renowned laboratory is less likely to have
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external validity
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In placebo-controlled studies, experts who rate the degree of patient improvement following treatment must be kept unaware of
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which subjects were in the treatment group and which were in the control group
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the meaningfulness of experimental results can be evaluated in several ways. The statistical significance of the results indicates the
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mathematical probability that the findings occurred by chance
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A criticism of early group-based research in abnormal psychology is that is
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failed to include diverse samples
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Children accidentally exposed to mercury when vaccinated are evaluated at one point in time. They are followed for 10 years and evaluated again. These children are part of a study called a
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longitudinal design
