PYB210 – Practice Exam 1 – Flashcards

1. Tom was experiencing dizziness just before he ate his lunch and noted that after he started eating his dizziness disappeared. From this he inferred that dizziness was due to a lack of nutrition and whenever someone complained of dizziness he encouraged them to eat. His inference that dizziness is due to lack of nutrition demonstrates what reasoning process? a. deduction b. hypothesis testing c. induction c. naturalism

2. In order to isolate the cause of a behaviour, research psychologists rely primarily on being able to a. get authoritative advice. b. do statistical testing. c. control the environment. d. communicate their findings.

3. Suppose that a student taking research methods proposes to test the hypothesis that "playing violent video games leads men to have negative attitudes toward women." After being asked to operationalize her variables the student proposes the following hypotheses. Which one provides the best operational definitions of her variables? a. Playing video games that advocate violence leads men to have bad feelings toward women. b. Playing video games does not lead men to have negative feelings toward women. c. Playing the violent video game Battle Warrior for 2 hours a day for one week will cause men to have negative attitudes toward women as measured by the Hostility Toward Women scale. d. Playing Nintendo for more fun

4. Which of the following best describes the relationship between empirical observation and theory? a. empirical observation guides theory (logic of discovery) b. theory guides future research which is empirically tested (logic of justification) c. both 'a' and 'b' are true - that is, there is constant interaction between theory and empirical observation d. theory and empirical observation are independent of one another

5. In a study designed to identify factors involved in helping behaviour, a man on a crowded bus clutches his chest and falls to the floor. In one of the conditions of the study the man is clean shaven and wearing a suit; in the other condition he has a scraggly beard and is wearing a dirty t-shirt and jeans. The amount of time it takes for someone to help the man is recorded. In this example the independent variable is? a. the amount of time it takes someone to help. b. the appearance of the man. c. the participants in the study. d. how crowded the bus is.

6. A(n) ______________ variable is one that can compete with the independent variable in explaining the outcome of the experiment. a. independent b. extraneous c. dependent d. moderating

7. Experimental research, as opposed to non-experimental research, allows us to make statements about cause-and-effect relationships. Why is this so? a. Experimental research involves studying only how two variables co-vary. b. Experimental research uses statistical analysis. c. In experimental research, we can observe the effects of manipulating variables under controlled conditions. d. Experimental research uses objective observations.

8. ___________ research is primarily descriptive and useful in theory generation while _______ research is more useful in testing hypotheses. a. Quantitative; qualitative b. Qualitative; quantitative c. Experimental; correlational d. Cross-sectional; longitudinal

9. Ramon determines that in his neighbourhood "amount of ice cream consumed" and "number of violent crimes" are positively correlated -- the more ice cream consumed, the more crimes are committed. He concludes that something in ice cream leads people to commit violent crimes. What has Ramon overlooked? a. the "third variable" problem as some other variable could lead to an increase in both ice cream consumption and violent crime b. the reactive effect as the people in his neighbourhood were probably aware that he was observing them, and altered their behaviour toward what they thought he wanted to see c. his observations are qualitative

10. It is useful for a research problem to be stated as precisely as possible because a. specific questions are more likely to be proved correct. b. the more specific the question is, the easier it is to get statistical significance. c. a specific question allows the researcher to focus on only one variable at a time. d. specific questions help the researcher decide what techniques, participants, and measures to use.

11. A research problem states the issue to be studied in question form. A scientific hypothesis a. states the predicted relationship between/among variables. b. specifies the procedure that the experimenter will use to answer the question. c. is another name for the research problem. d. states what statistics will be used to answer the research problem.

12. What is meant by "informed consent?" a. only people over 18 years of age should participate in psychology experiments b. agreement to participate in a psychological experiment forms a binding contract; the participant cannot back out once he or she consents c. before they agree to take part in an experiment, participants must be informed of all aspects of the study that may influence their decision to participate

13. Confidentiality is defined as: a. the scientists must respect the confidential nature of experimental data. Data must never be shared with other researchers. b. experimenters must be confident in their procedures before ever running a subject c. participant responses must remain confidential in that they should not be shared with anyone outside the study

14. Anonymity is defined as a. not revealing the information obtained from an experiment to anyone outside the study. b. the researcher must remain anonymous until the experiment is over c. keeping the identity of the participants unknown and/or untraceable. d. preventing the participants from sharing the nature of the study with future participants.

15. Which of the following measurement scales is accurately paired with an example? a. Interval - rankings of tennis players b. Ratio - zip codes c. Nominal - test scores on an exam d. Ordinal - a professor listing his students from the best to worst

16. If we include items assessing memory, logic, and verbal comprehension on an intelligence test - as opposed to food preferences or shoe size - then we have satisfied which of the following types of validity? a. Discriminant b. Convergent c. Face d. Internal

17. Construct validity a. is not needed if you use a good operational definition. b. is supported when similar results are obtained from different operationalization's of the dependent variable. c. is not needed if your measure if reliable. d. is determined by replicating the results of your experiment.

18. Tom wanted to assess the reliability of his measure of anxiety so he had a group of introductory psychology students complete the measure of anxiety on March 3 and again on March 25. He then compared the scores that the students made on the two testing occasions using a statistical technique called correlation. He used this quantitative index as his measure of reliability. Tom used what method to assess reliability? a. test-retest b. equivalent forms c. split-half d. Cronbach's alpha

19. Jacqueline wanted to assess the reliability of ratings made of children's aggressive behaviour so she had two students rate the degree of aggression displayed by each of 50 children while engaged in play. She then compared the ratings made by these two students and computed the degree of agreement between them. Jacqueline used what method of assessing reliability? a. split-half reliability b. inter-rater reliability c. internal consistency reliability d. test-retest reliability

20. Cronbach's alpha is a measure of a. face validity. b. internal consistency. c. predictive validity. d. concurrent validity.

21. Students sometimes complain that scores on the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) are not related to how well students perform in graduate school. Essentially the students are saying that the GRE does not have a. reliability. b. internal consistency. c. predictive validity. d. discriminant validity.

22. One way to assess construct validity is to establish that scores on the test in question do NOT correlate with established scales that are dissimilar or conceptually unrelated concepts. (e.g, a scale to measure depression would likely not correlate with scales designed to measure happiness). This type of validity is called a. concurrent validity. b. convergent validity. c. discriminant validity. d. predictive validity.

23. Construct validity is most related to what other concept discussed in research methods? a. reliability b. operational definitions c. falsifiability d. measurement

24. In a truly random sample from a population, a. all participants will be matched on important characteristics. b. all members of the population have an equal chance of being selected. c. gender distribution should be 50% male and 50% female. d. every member of the population has a 50:50 chance of being selected

25. Suppose you wish to test a representative sample of people in your psychology class on attitudes toward on-line courses. There are 40 people in the class, 30 females and 10 males. What would be the most efficient strategy to ensure that your sample reflects the distribution of males and females in the classroom population? a. simple random sample b. cluster sample c. proportional stratified sample d. convenience sample

26. Non-random sampling techniques typically produce ______ samples. a. random b. representative c. biased d. systematic

27. Without internal validity, an experimenter cannot a. control extraneous variables. b. manipulate the independent variable(s). c. measure the dependent variable. d. make statements about cause and effect.

28. A ____________ variable is one that is not controlled by the experimenter; if this variable has a differential impact on the different groups in the study then it is called a ___________ variable. a. confounding; extraneous b. extraneous; confounding c. independent; extraneous d. independent; confounding

29. Which of the following could be used to eliminate the confounding influence of extraneous variables? a. holding the variable constant b. rejecting the participant that is above or below a certain criteria c. using random assignment d. a and c

30. Sanjay is studying whether his racism awareness program increases people's awareness of issues of race and ethnicity in his city. On Monday, he gives an attitude survey to his participants to gauge their awareness. On Tuesday through Thursday, he puts them through his program. On Wednesday, a local predominantly black church is firebombed and the KKK claims responsibility. On Friday, Sanjay gives his awareness survey again and finds awareness of racial issues has increased dramatically. This example illustrates the possibility of ________________ as a plausible rival hypothesis. a. history b. maturation c. regression artifact d. selection

31. Dr. Prentice, principal of an elementary school, instructs her teachers to employ a new aggression-reduction program with the second graders, and to keep using it on that group of students for the next three years. She finds that relative to the start of the program, aggression in that group of students is down 35%. This example illustrates the possibility of ________________ as a plausible rival hypothesis. a. history b. maturation c. attrition d. selection

32. In a study designed to assess the effectiveness of a new therapeutic technique to help patients stop smoking, research participants are asked to record in a diary each time they smoke a cigarette. At the beginning of the two week experiment participants are very careful about noting every time they smoke a cigarette. However by the end of the two weeks they often forget to record each cigarette they smoke making it appear that they smoked less at the end of the experimental treatment. The results in this study are confounded by a. instrumentation. b. attrition. c. history. d. maturation.

33. "External validity" of an experiment refers to the extent to which a. the operational definitions of variables really do represent the concepts they are meant to capture. b. we can be confident that the experiment is testing the hypothesis we think it is testing. c. we can make causative statements about the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. d. the results of an experiment can be generalized across people, settings, times, treatments, and outcomes.

34. There is frequently a trade-off between increasing either internal validity or external validity in an experiment. Which of the following may weaken internal validity while strengthening external validity? a. conducting the experiment in the students' high school rather than a university laboratory b. testing all participants at 10:00 a.m. c. using a standardized set of instructions that are given by a tape recording d. testing all participants in the same room

35. Suppose you do find an extraneous variable that could have great influence on your results, beyond the influence of the independent variable. You could increase the experiment's sensitivity by a. studying that variable first. b. exposing half of your participants to the independent variable, and half to the extraneous variable, and comparing the performance of the two groups. c. incorporating that extraneous variable as a second independent variable. d. randomly assigning participants to experience either the independent variable or the extraneous variable.

36. What is the primary benefit of matching? a. it eliminates the influence of virtually all known extraneous variables b. it eliminates experimenter expectancy and participant effects c. it overrides the need for random assignment d. the influence of the variables on which participants are matched is spread evenly across groups

37. Carryover effects occur when a. the effects of one condition are still present when the next condition is administered. b. something internal to the participants changes over time that is unrelated to the independent variable. c. the independent variable affects the dependent variable d. participants drop out of the study at differential rates.

38. Order effects and carryover effects differ in that a. carryover effects only occur when there are two independent variables. b. for carryover effects it doesn't matter which treatment occurs first, just how often it is repeated. c. for order effects it is only the ordinal position of the treatment that matters. d. for carryover effects it is only the ordinal position of the treatment that matters.

39. If possible _____________ should be used in repeated measures designs. a. carryover b. matching c. counterbalancing d. intrasubject balancing

40. In the context of experimental design, "double blind" refers to the situation in which a. neither the experimenter nor the participant knows which experimental treatment the participant is receiving. b. the experimenter randomly chooses which group and treatment sequence each participant is assigned to. c. neither the data analyst nor the participant knows what hypothesis is being tested. d. two investigators analyze the data independently, and both are kept unaware of the identity of all participants.