Research Methods

1. Research Methods Semester 1 Final review

2. Question 1 • “Monday morning quarterbacks” rarely act surprised about the outcome of weekend football games. Their tendency to believe they knew how the game would turn out is explained by • Overconfidence • Hindsight bias • Intuition • Illusory correlation • Random sampling

3. Question 2 • Which of the following demonstrates the need for a psychological science? • Psychology’s methods are unlike those of any other science. • Psychological experiments are less valuable without psychological science. • Intuition and common sense are not always correct. • Intuition can never be right unless applied scientifically. • Psychological science can be used to answer fundamental questions about religion.

4. Question 3 Of the following research methods, which can best establish a cause and effect relationship? • Naturalistic observation • A survey • A test • A case study • An experiment

5. Question 4 • Questions 4-6 refer to the following study: A student hypothesizes that high school students consuming different flavors of a drink before a spelling test will perform differently. A study to test the hypothesis finds that with a bitter drink, performance is best 6 hours after drinking it, whereas with sweet water, performance is better one hour after drinking it. Which of the following are independent variables? • Test scores and high school students • Test scores and time of consumption • Flavor of drink and time consumption • Flavor of drink and high school students • Flavor of drink and test scores

6. Question 5 • Which of the following is the dependent variable? • Flavor of drink • Participants’ spelling test scores • Participants’ ages • Time the drink was consumed • Number of drinks consumed

7. Question 6 • An interaction between variables complicates the researcher’s explanation of findings. Which of the following are most likely involved in this interaction? • Test scores and high school students • Test scores and time of consumption • Flavor of drink and time of consumption • Flavor of drink and high school students • Flavor of drink and test scores

8. Question 7 • A researcher conducts an experiment to test the claim that new drug Y is more effective that standard drug X in inhibiting arousal. The researcher randomly assigns participants to receive Drug Y or drug X and subsequently measures arousal. In this experiment, participants receiving drug Y constitute the • Dependent variable • Confounding variable • Experimental group • Control group • Placebo

9. Question 8 A market researcher is interested in ascertaining which of two possible packages is more likely to entice buyers to purchase a new brand of chocolate-chip cookie. In this study, which of the following pairs represents the independent and dependent variables, respectively? • Another brand of cookie; the new brand of cookie • The new brand of cookie; another brand of cookie • The new brand of cookie; the two types of packaging • Total sales for each of the packages; the different types of packages • The different types of packages; total sales for each of the packages

10. Question 9 • Psychologists generally prefer the experimental method to other research methods because • Experiments are more likely to support psychologists’ hypotheses • Experiments can show cause-effect relationships • It is easier to obtain a random sample for an experiment • Double-blind designs are unnecessary in an experiment • Experiments are more likely to result in statistically significant findings

11. Question 10 • Theoretically, random assignment should eliminate • Sampling error • The need to use statistics • Concerns over validity • Many confounding variables • The need for a representative sample

12. Question 11 • Researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. The researchers would be justified in concluding that • Earning good grades causes people to sleep more • Sleeping more causes students to perform better in school • Students who earn good grades tend to sleep more than students who do not • More sleep has a beneficial impact on students’ grades • Sleep deprivation has no impact on school performance

13. Question 12 • Synthesthesia is a phenomenon that has been estimated to occur in only a few people in a million. Because of its rarity, researchers are more likely to choose which research method to study it? • Naturalistic observation • Correlational research • Survey research • Case study • Experimental research

14. Question 13 • Sandy scores a perfect 100 on a test that everyone else fails. If we were to graph this distribution, it would be • Symmetrical • Normal • Positively skewed • Negatively skewed • A straight line

15. Question 14 • What is the median of the following distribution: 6, 2, 9, 4, 7, 3? • 4 • 5 • 5.5 • 6 • 6.5

16. Question 15 • Karthik and Sue are lab partners’ assigned to research who is friendlier, girls or boys. After conversing with their first 10 participants, they find that their friendliness ratings often differ. With which of the following should they be the most concerned? • Reliability • Confounding variables • Ethics • Validity • Assignment

17. Question 16 • Which procedure can reduce problems associated with the use of deception by a researcher? • Debriefing • Random sampling • Random assignment • Using only single-blind studies • Using only double-blind studies

18. Question 17 • The psychology aptitude test was administered to incoming college psychology majors. Their scores were later compared to their performance in the introductory psychology course, and high scores on the test were related to high grades in the course. Therefore, the test had • Adequate standardization • Internal consistency • Face validity • Predictive validity • Content validity

19. Question 18 • A teacher finds the distribution of scores on a final exam to be positively skewed with low variability. On the basis of this information, the teacher would be most justified in concluding that • A small number of students in the class did poorly on the exam • The students in her classroom have a very wide range of intellectual abilities • The exam was too difficult • The exam is not a reliable assessment tool • Most of her students are of above average ability

20. Question 19 • Which of the following is a measure of central tendency that is most influenced by extreme scores? • Median • Standard deviation • Mean • Analysis of variance • Mode

21. Question 20 • Dr. Lewis decided to study the television viewing habits of her students and therefore demanded that they complete and return a survey regarding their viewing habits. Which of the following ethical principles was clearly violated in this study? • The right to have copy of the results • The right to have a copy of the survey • The right to be protected from unnecessary risk of harm • The right to refuse to participate in the study • The right to be informed of deception.

22. Question 21 • Which of the following set of scores has the greatest standard deviation? • 5, 7, 9, 12 • 2, 7, 9, 22 • 25, 27, 29, 32 • 50, 51, 52, 53 • 100, 101, 101, 102, 103