exam one (midterm) Flashcards
Example of empirical evidence A) thermometer B) Logical argument C) Expert opinion D) Common Sense
A) thermometer
What type of research is done with a practical problem in mind?
Applied Research
A statement, or set of statements, that describes general principles about how variables relate to one another is a ________________.
Theory
Psychological scientists base their conclusions on the evidence. They collect data and use it to develop, support, or challenge a theory. This approach is known as ____________.
Empiricism
Some theories are better than others. Which of the following is NOT considered a feature of a good theory?
The theory makes sense Intuitively
Which of the following is a common way that journalists misrepresent science when they write about it for a popular audience?
exaggerating the strength of the findings
The Journal-to-Journalism Cycle — Journalists make scientific research more accessible to the public. They tend to exaggerate the strengths of the finding, not change the statistics. Clearly reporting the study or interviewing the researcher would not be misrepresenting the science.
When the data from a study do not support the theory behind the study’s hypothesis, what does that mean for the theory?
Theory should be revised
The Theory Data Cycle — Theories need to be revised when they are not supported by data.
Franchesca read about Elliot et al.’s (2007) study in which students scored lower on a cognitive test when the test had a red booklet cover. Franchesca is interested in the idea that the color red influences the perception of caution. Franchesca decides to conduct a similar study in which she has students rate themselves on several achievement-related characteristics, including critical reasoning skills, vocabulary, and math ability. Like the original study, the students write their self-ratings in booklets of either red, green, or white color. Franchesca predicts that, in line with the original study, students with red booklets would rate themselves lower than students with white or green booklets. Franchesca runs the study and finds that the results match her prediction.
Franchesca’s process of conducting a study to evaluate whether the influence of the color red extends to self-ratings can best be described as which of the following?
Theory-data cycle
Which of the following is primarily a consumer of research information? A) Biochemist B) Marriage and family counselor C) Systems analyst D)Economist
marriage and family counselor
“All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” Which principle does this describe?
Parsimony
Which of the following is an example of basic research?
A) a study investigating the effectiveness of a new treatment for depression
B) a study investigating whether children of divorced parents are more likely to be divorced themselves
B
Research done specifically to add to our general understanding of psychology is known as ______________.
Basic Research
Daniel’s teacher tells him that his theory about dating is not strong because it is not falsifiable. What does she mean?
The theory cannot be falsifiable
Which of the following outlines the correct order of steps in the theory-data cycle?
theory, research design, hypothesis, data
TheRoadHadDucks
Stratified Random
Random sample rom each group of designated people
(i.e., taking a random sample from the men and then the women of engineering to make sure you get both sexes in engineering)
Issue w Stratified Random
Unrepresented sample of the population (scientist avoid this issue by doing weighted numbers to their surveys)
need all names of the population members
difficulty reaching all members
Advantages of Stratified
it may be MORE representative than simple random
Quota Sampling
getting enough participants for each group, and then stopping. Not random sample of the population
oversampling
you want to do a stratified random sampling but your groups are small clusters
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?
She doesn’t have a comparison group– not an experiment
confound
an alternative explanation for an outcome that comes about because more than one thing changed at the same time.
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?
Confederate
A school district decides to compare a new math textbook to the textbook that has been in use for the past few years. Each of the fourth graders in one school is assigned to be in one of two classes, one in which a teacher continues using the old book and another in which a new teacher uses the new book. The school administrators compare the average scores of the two classes on a mathematics standardized test at the end of the year to determine which book is better. Which of the following is a potential confound in this study?
The teachers have different amounts of experience using the books.
Pavlina believes that people in red cars are much more likely to speed than people in cars of other colors. She is probably the victim of what tendency?
the present/present bias
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 in his thinking?
the availability heuristic
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. Since 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 she was doing?
cherry-picking the evidence
Dr. Friedman suspects that women who work outside of the home might be frustrated with the balance of responsibilities in their household. She devises a survey to give to married women employed outside the home that includes the question “Does your spouse bother to help you around the house?” What is the problem with Dr. Friedman’s approach?
confirmatory hypothesis testing
Which of the following is a reason to trust the advice of authorities?
They systematically and objectively compare different conditions.
Which of the following is a quantitative technique used in some review articles that combines the results of many studies and gives a number that summarizes the magnitude of a relationship?
meta-analysis
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 & Neale (1984). If Gilbert wanted to repeat the study, which section would he consult to find the details of the study’s design?
Method
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?
Although your experience with one exam is an exception, the research findings explain a certain proportion of the many possible cases.
Which of the following is NOT a reason why basing one’s conclusions on research is superior to basing one’s conclusions on intuition?
Intuition is always wrong.
The Research vs. Your Intuition — Intuition might lead you to a conclusion that is incorrect, but intuition isn’t always wrong.
Carolyn sometimes taps on the basketball before shooting a free throw. She has noticed the times when she taps and makes the free throw more than she notices the times she makes the free throw without tapping the ball. Carolyn is experiencing the __________.
present/present bias
Even when people are aware that people generally think in a biased way, they tend to think that they are unlikely to fall prey to those biases. This kind of bias is called ___________.
Bias Blind Spot
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 conducted 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, men and women performed similarly. However, in the stressed condition, the number of decision tasks performed by men increased while the number performed by women decreased. In this study, the number of decision tasks performed is best described as which of the following?
Measured Variable
Professor Lee is curious if there is any pattern to who earns extra credit in her course. She examines this question by graphing a scatterplot 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?
Negative
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 sample for the researcher to have used?
a cross-section of American drivers representing men and women; people from the city, suburbs, and farms; of all ages
For an association claim, you should interrogate all of the following validities EXCEPT __________.
Internal
There is a negative association between exercise and obesity. Which of the following would a researcher need to demonstrate in order to make the claim that a lack of exercise causes obesity?
The lack of exercise came before the obesity.
A recent headline read, “School Lunches Make Kids Fat.” The article cited a study comparing children at two schools. The school with the lower obesity rate had few children who ate school lunches (lunch provided by the school). The other school had a greater percentage of obese children and most of these children ate school lunches. No mention was made that many of the children who eat school lunches are low-income children who receive free lunches. Poverty is a major factor in obesity. Which validity is threatened by the potential confound, poverty?
Internal Validity
Phuong is conducting an experiment on proofreading. All participants are asked 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?
Type of proofreading and number of errors found
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 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. Which of the following is the independent variable in this study?
The Type of word list
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?
Internal Validity of the the study
Which of the following claims is an association claim?
- Depression in the elderly may predict dementia.
- Tanning changes the brain.
- A thoughtful gift makes the giver feel closer to the recipient.
- Teenage pot smoking affects intelligence.
Depression in the elderly may predict dementia.
What kind of a claim is the following headline making? “Former NFLers at Higher Risk for Brain, Mood Problems.”
Association claim
Which of the following questions addresses construct validity?
How well has the researcher measured or manipulated the variables in the study?