Psy173 - Intro To Research And Statistic Methods

Front 1

A researcher wants to compare new employees’ level of job satisfaction after one week with a company to their job satisfaction after one year with that company. Which statistic should he use to analyse his results?

a. independent samples t-test

b. single sample t-test

c. Pearson’s r

d. related samples t-test

e. Z statistic

Back 1

d. related samples t-test

Front 2

If a student has a T score of 35, how many standard deviation units is this away from the mean (note that the T distribution has a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10)?

a. 15

b. 1.5

c. –1

d. 10

e. –5

Back 2

b. 1.5

Front 3

Which of the following modalities of measurement would be unsuitable for measuring the current anxiety levels of a group of adults?

a. an objective test

b. a self-report questionnaire

c. a physiological measure

d. a behavioural measure

e. any of the above (a-d) would be suitable.

Back 3

a. an objective test

Front 4

A literature review of studies on the effects of a new ‘smart drug’ identifies sixteen studies that consistently demonstrate that the self-reported intelligence of people taking the drug increases relative to placebo controls over a period of one month. If you were considering conducting research in the area, which of the following would be the most useful next step?

a. Find another area – we know all there is to know about the effects of the drug.

b. Carefully replicate the previous studies’ methodology and see whether your findings are the same.

c. Try conducting a study without a control group and see if that makes a difference to the results.

d. Try measuring intelligence with an objective test and see if that makes a difference to the results.

e. Try using the same methodology but over a shorter time frame and see whether the results are sustained or whether they fade over time.

Back 4

d. Try measuring intelligence with an objective test and see if that makes a difference to the results.

Front 5

A researcher conducts a study in which he observes a strong relationship (r = -.96) between psychological stress and performance on memory tests. Which of the following statements is true?

a. This result suggests that stress causes poor memory.

b. This result shows that stress causes poor memory.

c. This result suggests that poor memory causes stress.

d. This result suggests that poor memory and stress are caused by the same thing and that more research needs to be conducted in order to find out what this might be.

e. None of the above.

Back 5

e. None of the above.

Front 6

Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Z distribution?

a. The mean and mode are equal.

b. The standard deviation is always 1.

c. It is bell-shaped, but the exact shape of the distribution varies depending on the number of degrees of freedom.

d. It is bilaterally symmetrical.

e. It can be applied to individual scores or to sample means.

Back 6

c. It is bell-shaped, but the exact shape of the distribution varies depending on the number of degrees of freedom.

Front 7

Which of the following statements is true?

a. The best research is rarely made public.

b. Only good research is made public.

c. The public has no role to play in the evaluation of research.

d. Most psychological research is irrelevant to the public.

e. None of the above.

Back 7

e. None of the above.

Front 8

Which of the above statements is true?

a. Experiments are always conducted in laboratories.

b. Good experiments are always conducted in laboratories.

c. Good experiments are rarely conducted in laboratories.

d. True experiments always involve manipulation of an independent variable.

e. None of the above.

Back 8

d. True experiments always involve manipulation of an independent variable.

Front 9

An experimenter finds that when people take part in a study they become quite nervous, when normally they are confident and assertive. This threatens the internal and external validity of their findings and is an example of what phenomenon?

a. Demand characteristics.

b. Experimental blind.

c. Regression.

d. Reactivity.

e. Test-retest reliability interacting with the experimental treatment.

Back 9

d. Reactivity.

Front 10

“Matching” means:

a. randomly allocating participants to experimental and control groups.

b. ensuring that all members of an experimental group are alike in certain characteristics.

c. ensuring that for each member of a group in a quasi-experimental design there is a similar person in the other group.

d. eliminating confounds by testing participants in pairs.

e. ensuring that for each member of the experimental group, there is a corresponding member of the control group who has the same score on the dependent variable.

Back 10

c. ensuring that for each member of a group in a quasi-experimental design there is a similar person in the other group.

Front 11

If an experimenter conducts a t-test to see whether the responses of participants in a control group differ from those of an experimental group, which of the following outcomes will yield the highest t value?

a. If there are 52 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 10 and both have standard deviations of 3.5.

b. If there are 52 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 20 and both have standard deviations of 3.5.

c. If there are 52 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 20 and both have standard deviations of 5.2.

d. If there are 15 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 20 and both have standard deviations of 3.5.

e. If there are 15 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 20 and both have standard deviations of 5.2.

Back 11

b. If there are 52 subjects in each condition, the mean difference between the responses of the control group and the experimental group is 20 and both have standard deviations of 3.5.

Front 12

If extraversion scores are normally distributed in the population, what proportion of the population would achieve Z scores either greater than 1.28 or less than -1.28?

a. .90

b. .10

c. .20

d. 1.80

e. There is insufficient information to tell.

Back 12

c. .20

Front 13

A researcher administers a personality test to a group of school teachers. Six weeks later, he administers the test again to the same group of school teachers and correlates their scores from the first test with their scores from the second test. This would tell him:

a. the inter-rater reliability of the test.

b. the split-half reliability of the test

c. the retest reliability of the test

d. the Kuder-Richardson coefficient for the test

e. Cronbach’s alpha for the test

Back 13

c. the retest reliability of the test

Front 14

A television station conducts a survey in which viewers are asked to vote for their favourite programme. The programme receiving the most votes scores ‘1’, the programme receiving the second most votes scores ‘2’ (and so on). Which of the following statements is true?

a. The scores 1, 2, 3… are labels only and have no mathematical properties.

b. Programme 2 is twice as popular as Programme 4.

c. This is an example of an ordinal scale.

d. This is an example of a ratio scale.

e. The difference in popularity between Programme 5 and Programme 10 is the same as the difference in popularity between Programme 20 and Programme 25.

Back 14

c. This is an example of an ordinal scale

Front 15

Which of the following would definitely NOT alert you to the presence of subgroups in your sample who score very differently? a. standard deviation

b. mode

c. mean

d. frequency histogram

e. kurtosis

Back 15

c. mean

Front 16

The mean emotional intelligence score of a sample politicians (n = 25) is 110. The standard error of the mean calculated for this sample is 1.00. What is the 95% confidence interval of the mean?

a. 107.936 - 112.064

b. 107.940 - 112.060

c. 106.200 - 113.800

d. 108.040 - 111.960

e. 109.000 - 111.000

Back 16

a. 107.936 - 112.064

Front 17

_____ often violates _____.

a. Science; public verification

b. Pseudoscience; the principle of falsifiability

c. Science; systematic empiricism

d. Basic research; systematic empiricism

e. Random assignment; ethical codes

Back 17

b. Pseudoscience; the principle of falsifiability

Front 18

The group of people who participate in the study is to _____ as all of the people about whom a study is meant to generalize are to _____.

a. sample; population

b. population; sample

c. positive correlation; negative correlation

d. negative correlation; positive correlation

e. case study; experiment

Back 18

a. sample; population

Front 19

Increasing or decreasing together is to _____ as moving in an opposite direction is to _____.

a. quasi-experimental method; experimental method

b. experimental method; quasi-experimental method

c. positive correlation; negative correlation

d. negative correlation; positive correlation

e. significant; non-significant

Back 19

c. positive correlation; negative correlation

Front 20

Which of the following is a participant (subject) variable?

a. marital status

b. gender

c. political affiliation

d. education level

e. all of the above

Back 20

e. all of the above

Front 21

Manipulated independent variable is to non-manipulated independent variable as _____ method is to _____ method.

a. experimental; quasi-experimental

b. correlational; quasi-experimental

c. experimental; correlational

d. quasi-experimental; experimental

e. none of the above

Back 21

a. experimental; quasi-experimental

Front 22

If participants are randomly assigned to conditions, then _____ research is being conducted.

a. case study

b. experimental

c. correlational

d. quasi-experimental

e. b and d

Back 22

b. experimental

Front 23

Descriptive methods include

a. correlational and quasi-experimental methods.

b. only the experimental method.

c. observational, case study, and survey methods.

d. only the quasi-experimental method.

e. all methods can be descriptive

Back 23

c. observational, case study, and survey methods.

Front 24

Hypothesis is to _____ as theory is to _____.

a. an organized system of assumptions and principles that attempts to explain certain phenomena and how they are related; a prediction regarding the outcome of a study

b. a prediction regarding the outcome of a study; an organized system of assumptions and principles that attempts to explain certain phenomena and how they are related

c. not used in science; used in science

d. used in science; not used in science

e. experiment; case study

Back 24

b. a prediction regarding the outcome of a study; an organized system of assumptions and principles that attempts to explain certain phenomena and how they are related

Front 25

Making observations in a systematic manner to test hypotheses and refute or develop a theory is known as

a. systematic empiricism.

b. the principle of falsifiability.

c. pseudoscience.

d. public verification.

e. the hypothetico-deductive model

Back 25

a. systematic empiricism.