Chapter 2: conducting research in psychology

Question 1

True or false? Psychology is not science

Answer 1

False: psychologists often use the scientific method to test hypotheses; therefore psychology is a science

Question 2

Scientific thinking

Answer 2

The process of using the cognitive skills required to generate, test, and revise theories

Question 3

True or false? Doubt and skepticism activate the same brain region as disgust.

Answer 3

True: when we disbelieve a statement, the same region of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) also involved in perceptions of taste and disgust, is activated.

Question 4

Scientific method

Answer 4

The procedures by which scientists conduct research, consisting of the five basic processes of observation, prediction, testing, interpretation, and communication.

Question 5

Theory

Answer 5

A set of related assumptions from which scientists can make testable predictions.

Question 6

Hypothesis

Answer 6

A specific, informed, and testable predication of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design.

Question 7

The scientific methon and how it works.

Answer 7

The scientific method consists of an ongoing cycle of observation, prediction, testing interpretation, and communication (OPTIC). Research begins with observation, but it doesn’t end with communication. Publishing the results of a study allows other researchers to repeat the procedure and confirm the results.

Question 8

Replication

Answer 8

The repetition of a study to confirm the results; it is essential to the scientific process.

Question 9

pseudoscience

Answer 9

claims presented as scientific that are not supported by evidence obtained with the scientific method.

Question 10

The scientific method consists of

a. observing, predicting, and testing
b. observing, predicting, trying.
c. observing, predicting, testing, communicating
d. observing, predicting, testing, interpreting, communication

Answer 10

d. observing, predicting, testing, interpreting, communication

Question 11

Which of the following is not a characteristic of science?

a. it is cumulative.
b. it is a search for truth
c. it is an attitude
d. it require intellectual honesty.

Answer 11

b. it is a search for truth

Question 12

Scientific theories are

a. a set of related assumptions that guide and explain observations and allow testable predictions to be made.
b. educated guesses
c. hunches
d. hypotheses.

Answer 12

a. a set of related assumptions that guide and explain observations and allow testable predictions to be made.

Question 13

what distinguishes science from pseudoscience?

a. the use of statistics
b. the content area studied.
c. open skepticism
d. the search for the truth

Answer 13

c. open skepticism

Question 14

Research designs

Answer 14

Plans of action for how to conduct a scientific study.

Question 15

Variable

Answer 15

a characteristic that changes or “varies” such as age, gender, weight, intelligence, anxiety, and extra-version

Question 16

populations

Answer 16

The entire group a researcher is interesting in-for example, all humans, all adolescents, all boys, all girls, or all college students

Question 17

samples

Answer 17

Subsets of the population studied in a research project.

Question 18

Descriptive designs

Answer 18

study designs in which the researcher defines a problem variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything.

Question 19

Case study

Answer 19

A study design in which a psychologist, often a therapist, observes one person over a long period of time.

Question 20

Naturalistic observation

Answer 20

A study in which the researcher unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world.

Question 21

representative sample

Answer 21

a research sample that accurately reflects the population of people on is studying.

Question 22

meta-analysis

Answer 22

A research technique for combining all research results on one question and drawing a conclusion.

Question 23

effect size

Answer 23

A measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables or the extent of an experimental effect.

Question 24

correlation designs

Answer 24

studies that measure two or more variables and their relationship to one another; they are not designed to show causation.

Question 25

correlation coefficients

Answer 25

statistics that range from -1.00 to +1.00 and assess the strength and direction of associations between two variables.

Question 26

experiment

Answer 26

A research design that includes independent and dependent variables and random assignments of participants to control and experimental groups or conditions.

Question 27

Independent Variable

Answer 27

A property that is manipulated by an experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it caused the predicted outcome of an experiment.

Question 28

Dependent variable

Answer 28

In an experiment, the outcome of or response to an experimental manipulation.

Question 29

Random Assignment

Answer 29

The method used to assign participants to different research conditions, so that all participants have the same chance of being in any specific group.

Question 30

Experimental group

Answer 30

A group consisting of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior

Question 31

control group

Answer 31

a group of research participants who are treated exactly in the same manner as the experimental group, except that they do not receive the independent variable or treatment.

Question 32

placebo

Answer 32

a substance or treatment that appears identical to the actual treatment but lacks the active substance.

Question 33

confounding variable

Answer 33

a variable whose influence on the dependent variable cannot be separated from the independent variable being examined.

Question 34

single-blind studies

Answer 34

studies in which participants do not know that experimental condition (group) to which they have been assigned.

Question 35

double-blind studies

Answer 35

studies in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been assigned to the experimental or control group.

Question 36

experimenter expectancy affects

Answer 36

results that occur when the behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenter’s knowledge of who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group.

Question 37

One explanation for experimenter expectancy effect is

a. double-blind studies
b. self-fulfilling prophecy
c. cofounding variables
d. experimental manipulation

Answer 37

b. self-fulling prophecy

Question 38

The best way to lessen the effects of experimenter expectancy is to design a study what uses

a. singl-blind methods
b. double-blind methods
c. triplee-blind methods
d. quasi-experimental methods.

Answer 38

b. double-blind methods