Unit 8 (notes) Flashcards
Which of the following is an advantage of the single-participant method?
a. These designs are a source of ideas and hypotheses about behaviour.
b. They are a source of definitive evidence in support of theoretical assumptions.
c. These designs provide limited opportunity for clinical innovation.
d. All of the above are advantages.
a
The most serious disadvantage of single-participant research in terms of internal validity issues is:
a. the possible problem of observer bias affecting the interpretation of the outcome.
b. the difficulty of making a causal inference.
c. the limited nature of self-reports.
d. the generalization from the individual to the population.
b
Which type of bias potentially exists in a case study approach?
a. memory problems and exaggerations of the participant
b. observer bias
c. Type I error bias
d. both a and b
e. both b and c
d
A clinical psychologist cringes at the thought of withholding a potentially beneficial treatment to the control group designed by her statistician. This ___________ problem may be solved by __________________
a. statistical; increasing the number of subjects
b. ethical; using many single-participant designs
c. practical; using each participant as their own control
d. methodological; more sophisticated statistic techniques
c
Which of the following is not a practical reason for using a single-participant design?
a. The treatment is involved and extensive.
b. The nature of the research question involved the use of a between groups design.
c. The person demonstrates an extremely rare ability.
d. All of the above are practical reasons for using a single-participant design.
d
Single-participant designs must include all of the following except:
a. a stage during which treatment is withdrawn.
b. clear operational definitions of the dependent and independent variables.
c. establishment of a base rate of responding.
d. introduction of some treatment program following establishment of the baseline.
a
Compared to an ABA design, an ABAB design:
a. includes a withdrawal of treatment procedure.
b. is not as common.
c. tests the effectiveness of the treatment more effectively.
d. includes two periods where treatment does not occur.
c
Which of the following single-participant designs contains an interaction condition?
a. A–B
b. A–B–A–B
c. A–B–A–B–BC–B–BC d. A–B–A–B–AC–B–AC
c
Psychologists often have difficulty controlling extraneous variables when they use single- participant methodology. This lesser degree of control makes it:
a. difficult to develop predictions of behaviour.
b. difficult to develop descriptions of behaviour.
c. difficult to develop cause-and-effect conclusions regarding behaviour.
d. difficult to develop alternative explanations of behaviour.
c
A limitation of single-participant designs is that they do not provide easy information regarding:
a. the main effect of a variable.
b. the success of a clinical treatment.
c. interactions between independent variables.
d. All of the above are correct.
c
A potent “extraneous” variable in any single-participant design is:
a. time.
b. baseline reversal.
c. attention.
d. number of baseline trials.
c
A baseline provides information about:
a. what the dependent variable is like when treatment is not provided.
b. the likelihood the behaviour will change with treatment.
c. the personality of the participant.
d. all of the above
a
Another name for the ABAB design is:
a. across-subjects design.
b. multiple-treatment design.
c. across-behaviour design.
d. reversal design.
d
What do each of the multiple baselines in the multiple-baseline single-participant experiment represent?
a. an additional participant
b. redundant sources of external validity
c. built in replications of the study
d. more baseline measures
c
If you were to give someone one piece of advice regarding the design of a single-participant study, what would that piece of advice be?
a. Don’t use one! If you can, use a between groups design.
b. Only manipulate one variable at a time.
c. Try to obtain a highly variable pattern of responding when generating the baseline.
d. Make sure your single-participant is unique.
b
