309 Psych Exam 1

Front 1

Research done specifically to add to our general understanding of psychology is known as ______.

Back 1

Basic research

Front 2

Which of the following is primarily a consumer of research information?

Back 2

Marriage and family counselor

Front 3

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which student scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2-week mindfulness training course. Franchesca is interested in the idea that practicing mindfulness improves the ability to control one's mind from wondering. She decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students practice either mindfulness or read and then take a test of attention. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students who had practiced mindfulness would perform better on the attention test. She runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.

Which of the following is the data in this study?

Back 3

The students' performance on the attention task

Front 4

What is one way to avoid being misled by journalism reports on scientific research?

Back 4

Consult the source of the article (i.e., the original scientific findings).

Front 5

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which students scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2- week mindfulness training course.

Franchesca writes up her experiment and submits it to a journey to be evaluated by fellow scientists for publication. What is this process called?

Back 5

The peer-review process

Front 6

Which of the following is true of publishishing in the field of psychology?

Back 6

Publishing in psychology involves a peer-review process.

Front 7

Daniel's teacher tells him that his theory about dating is not strong because it is not falsifiable. What does she mean by this?

Back 7

Daniel's theory cannot be disproven.

Front 8

What type of research is done with a practical problem in mind?

Back 8

Applied research

Front 9

A statement, or set of statements, that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another is a _______.

Back 9

Theory

Front 10

Franchesca read about Mrazek et al.'s (2013) study in which students scored higher on the GRE after completing a 2-week mindfulness training course.

The data matched Franchesca's prediction. What conclusion can Franchesca make?

Back 10

The data support the theory.

Front 11

What does it mean to say that research is probabilistic?

Back 11

Conclusion are meant to explain a certain proportion of possible cases.

Front 12

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?

Back 12

She doesn't have a comparison group.

Front 13

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?

Back 13

Although your experience with one exam is an exception, the research findings explain a certain proportion of the many possible cases.

Front 14

The idea that things that easily come to mind tend to guide our thinking is known as which of the following?

Back 14

The availability heuristic

Front 15

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 his thinking?

Back 15

The availability heuristic

Front 16

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 and Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to repeat the study, which section would he consult to find the details of the study's design?

Back 16

Method

Front 17

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?

Back 17

Confederate

Front 18

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. Because 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 Trina was doing?

Back 18

Cherry-picking the evidence

Front 19

As part of an assignment for his Introduction to Psychology class, Gilbert has to read a journal article, summarize it, and compare it with what is reported in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone and Neale (1984). Assuming that the article is written in accordance with APA style guidelines, what is the correct order of sections Gilbert should expect to find in this article?

Back 19

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References

Front 20

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 in his textbook. Gilbert selects the article "Effects of Severe Daily Events on Mood," Stone and Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to read about the study's contributions and significance, he should look at which section of the article?

Back 20

Discussion

Front 21

Marvin reads a journalistic report of a research study and asks, "How strong was the effect?" Which validity is Marvin asking about?

Back 21

Statistical validity

Front 22

Phuong is conducting an experiment on proofreading. All participants are asking 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?

Back 22

Type of proofreading and number or errors found.

Front 23

Professor Lee is curious if there is any pattern to who earns extra credit in her course. She examines this question by graphing a scatter plot 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?

Back 23

Negative

Front 24

Which of the following questions addresses constuct validity?

Back 24

How well has the researcher measured or manipulated the variables in the study?

Front 25

What kind of a claim is the following headlines making? "You Gotta Have Friends? Most Have Just Two True Pals."

Back 25

Frequency claim

Front 26

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 conduction 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, the number of decision tasks performed by women decreased. In this study, the number of decision tasks performed is best described as which of the following?

Back 26

A measured variable

Front 27

For an association claim, you interrogate the following validities:

Back 27

Statistical, construct, and external

Hint 27

Association claims are not asserting causality, so internal validity is not relevant to interrogate. Internal validity is relevant when you assert that one variable causes another to change.

Front 28

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?

Back 28

Internal validity of the study

Hint 28

Random assignment controls for possible alternative explanations.

Front 29

In most experiments, tradeoffs are made between validities because it is not possible to achieve all four at once. What is the most common tradeoff?

Back 29

Increased internal validity results in decreased external validity.

Hint 29

Experiments are studies designed to show causality, which depends on internal validity. To emphasize causality, the generalizability of the results is reduced.

Front 30

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 example for the researcher to have used?

Back 30

A cross-section of American drivers representing men and women; people from the city, suburbs, and farms; and people of all ages.

Front 31

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 on preliminary lab testing, the patients might benefit substantially from his treatment. If you were on the institutional review board (IRB) evaluating Dr. Kim's research proposal to test his new treatment, what makes you more likely to approve?

Back 31

You decide that the potential benefits of the study outweigh the potential risks.

Front 32

Which of the following are two ethical issues raised by Milgrams studies of obedience?

Back 32

The stress experienced by the teachers and the lasting effects of the study on the teachers.

Hint 32

Two big issues is participants showed signs of great stress and they may have suffered aftereffects that weren't addressed.

Front 33

Which is NOT an example of information researchers must be careful to protect to ensure research participants confidentiality?

Back 33

Answers to a completely anonymous questionnaire

Front 34

What type of research misconduct involves representing the ideas or words of others as ones own?

Back 34

Plagiarism

Front 35

Following a study using deception, how does the researcher attempt to restore an honest relationship with the participant?

Back 35

By debriefing each participant in a structured conversation

Hint 35

Must describe nature of deception, why it was necessary, and importance of the research.

Front 36

A researcher suggests to potential study participants that if they do not participate they will suffer negative consequences. This undue influence is called _______.

Back 36

Coercion

Front 37

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?

Back 37

Data falsification

Front 38

Professor Hammond studies ethical behavior and designs a study to examine the amount of cheating at her school. At the beginning of class meetings, with boxes for students to initial if they were present. She photocopies the sheet after class so she can find if any students initial for days they were absent. She waits for interesting results before writing a proposal for the institutional review board (IRB). Which ethical standard does waiting to propose the study violate? The students are not aware they were participating in the study until the end of the quarter. Which ethical standard does this violate?

Back 38

Institutional approval, informed consent to research

Front 39

When an experimenter actively lies to a participant, this is considered which of the following?

Back 39

Deception through commission.

Front 40

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 with 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). Which of the following would a scatter plot of these results (coin-rotation scores on the x-axisx finger-tapping scores on the y-axis) look like?

Back 40

The cloud of points would slope downward from left to right.

Hint 40

A negative correlation coefficient means there is a downward (from left to right) slope. The lower scores of the coin rotation task correspond to quicker turning, and higher scores on the tapping task correspond to faster tapping, producing a negative correlation.

Front 41

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. He administers a questionnaire to the children that asks them about their feelings of aggression. Which type of measure is the questionnaire?

Back 41

Self-report

Front 42

Josiane has found an online test that claims to measure IQ. It consists of choosing the correct definitions for a series of words. She is concerned that it doesn't include tests of other things that are part of IQ, such as problem solving or visual-spatial ability. Which type of validity is she questioning?

Back 42

Content validity

Front 43

Julie has developed an intervention to improve the relationship between parents and preschool- aged children. 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. Which if the following types of reliability is she examining?

Back 43

Interrater

Front 44

Which of the following can you learn from a scatter plot that you cannot learn from the correlation coefficient?

Back 44

The values for each pair of measurements

Front 45

Lorenzo is studying aggression in children. Lorenzo and his lab partner observe the children while they play, and record instances of aggression. The total number of instances of aggression for each child is used to quantify the aggressiveness of each child. Which type of quantitative variable is this?

Back 45

Ratio scale

Front 46

Which statistic is used to represent the internal reliability of multiple-item self-report scales?

Back 46

Cronbach's alpha

Hint 46

CA is a statistic based on the average of inter-item correlations. It is used to assess internal reliability of a scale.

Front 47

Which of the following is an operational definition of memory?

Back 47

The accuracy with which a person can retell a short story based on the number of correct details

Front 48

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?

Back 48

The interrater reliability of the road test

Front 49

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?

Back 49

Observational measures