Quiz 1 Flashcards
Consider the following statement, “If negative emotions cause aggression, and if frustration induces negative emotion, then frustration must cause aggression.” Which one of the following ways of knowing does this statement illustrate?
Select one:
a. science
b. authority
c. common sense
d. logic
d. logic
Determinism is the doctrine that all events:
Select one:
a. are caused.
b. take place in recurring patterns.
c. have an existence outside the mind.
d. can be understood.
a. are caused.
A __________ describes events that occur with great regularity.
Select one:
a. theory
b. law
c. construct
d. generalization
b. law
Consider the following research title: “Sexually coercive behaviour of college males as a function of masculinity and attitudes toward women’s rights.” In this study, the dependent variable is:
Select one:
a. sexually coercive behaviour.
b. masculinity.
c. attitudes toward women’s rights.
d. not stated in the title.
a. sexually coercive behaviour.
Which one of the following is an example of a nominal level of measurement?
Select one:
a. reaction time of an adult male measured before and after drinking an ounce of alcohol
b. a high school senior’s first, second, and third choice of college to attend
c. classification of psychiatric patients as either “neurotic” or “psychotic”
d. estimating the number of red blood cells in a laboratory sample
c. classification of psychiatric patients as either “neurotic” or “psychotic”
An experiment in which the independent variable really caused the change in the dependent variable is said to be high in __________ validity.
Select one:
a. internal
b. external
c. construct
d. criterion
a. internal
Which of the following potential threats to internal validity is a researcher concerned about when she asks, “Have research participants with extreme scores on the variable of interest been pre-selected for the study”?
Select one:
a. testing effect
b. maturation
c. subject selection
d. regression effect
d. regression effect
A between-subjects experiment is one in which each subject:
Select one:
a. experiences all conditions.
b. serves as his or her own control.
c. experiences only one of the conditions.
d. experiences all conditions and serves as his or her own control.
c. experiences only one of the conditions.
When an experimenter knows what the results of an experiment “should” be, it is possible for the results to be unintentionally influenced. This is an example of:
Select one:
a. evaluation apprehension.
b. role demands.
c. experimenter bias.
d. selection bias.
c. experimenter bias.
What is the main purpose of matching?
Select one:
a. to reduce initial differences between the experimental and control groups on the dependent variable
b. to reduce the amount of variability among subjects within each treatment group
c. to control for order effects
d. to control for sequence effects
a. to reduce initial differences between the experimental and control groups on the dependent variable
Define the concepts of internal validity and external validity. Discuss why increasing one type tends to decrease the other type. (3 points)
Internal validity is the degree to which you can observe a causal relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable
for example: I hypothesize that water will make my sugar cube melt. Introducing water is an independent variable in the sugar cube’s environment. If the sugar cube melts when it comes into contact with the water then the theory has strong internal validity
External validity is the degree to which the experiment will generalize outside of the testing situation.
For example, I have a choir setup for Parkinson’s patients. My aim is to help them speak more clearly. I hypothesize that singing will help them. They sing and are able to articulate the lyrics well in the songs. However, after the choir sessions end, the patient’s report that they could not communicate with their spouses effectively at home. This experiment has low external validity, as the cause-effect relationship observed in the singing sessions did not generalize to other contexts.
If an experiment aims to achieve internal validity, it will often times need to be very specific. As such the chances of it generalizing go down.
This last example of the choir and Parkinson’s patients shows how a very specific parameter to test a hypothesis failed to generalize because it did not account for variables outside the experimental situation. There is a specific way of organizing the vocal chords for singing lyrics. This goal was achieved, though when speaking conversationally in a more generalized sense, the vocal chords and emotional energy required to speak clearly was not improved.
An educator wanted to test the effects of class period duration on learning of junior-high students. To keep work at a manageable level, the educator decided to change morning class period duration from 45 to 90 minutes so that material that was previously covered in 20 weeks was now covered in 10 weeks. No change was introduced to the afternoon class periods. In other words, the total amount of class time on any subject remained unchanged. When the experiment was over, the students were given tests on the morning and the afternoon material. Test scores for the morning material were much higher than the scores on the afternoon material. Thus, the educator concluded that longer class period enhanced learning in the classroom. Do you agree or disagree with this conclusion? In either case, tell why. (3 points)
One advantage of this study is that it uses a within subject design. This is favorable because we are using the same participants to test whether or not there is an effect of longer or shorter class times on the outcome. This will eliminate any confounding variables such as variance in IQ among a different groups. One can say that the control condition is the afternoon session and the experiment condition occurs during morning sessions. This lends plausibility to the conclusion that longer class times leads to better performance.
However, there are major confounding variables that are not accounted for:
1) The time of day that the sessions occur at. The longer session is in the morning. People tend to be clearer at the start of the day than at the end of the day, so it is conceivable that the higher scores were due to this variable. Perhaps the teacher should have structured the experiment so that the two different session lengths (45/90 min) occurred at the same time of day. (alternate subjects on alternating days so that an equal amount of 45 and 90 min classes happened in morning and afternoon)
2) Another confounding variable is the subject matter studied. Perhaps the morning subject happened to be a subject that the students usually do better on. Did the teacher look at the students’ past records on class average in specific subjects? He may have been teaching advanced calculus in the afternoon and music in the morning, which would have favored better grades in the morning regardless of length of class time.
I cannot agree with the teacher’s conclusion, as there are at least 2 confounding variables which skew the results.
