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1 | |
A tentative explanation or prediction about some phenomenon is called a ____. |
| | A) | theory |
| | B) | thesis |
| | C) | hypothesis |
| | D) | variable |
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2 | |
Theories are ____. |
| | A) | tentative explanations or predictions about some phenomenon |
| | B) | formal statements that explain how and why events are related |
| | C) | characteristics that vary |
| | D) | definitions of variables in terms that they are produced or measured |
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3 | |
One of the problems with after-the-fact or "hindsight" explanations is that ____. |
| | A) | there are many ways of explaining past events and there is usually no way to know which of these ways is correct |
| | B) | they fail to provide a foundation on which further scientific study can occur |
| | C) | they are usually too theoretically complex and sophisticated |
| | D) | they overemphasize the importance of external validity |
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4 | |
Bored with a life of fighting supercriminals and trying to stay resistant to the charms of Lois Lane, Superman tries to find a way to occupy his time. Deciding to study superhuman powers, he defines such powers as being "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." Superman has created a(n) ____ of the variable. |
| | A) | hypothesis |
| | B) | self-report measure |
| | C) | physiological measure |
| | D) | operational definition |
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5 | |
A researcher is interested in studying factors that influence interpersonal attraction. In a study designed to explore this variable, the researcher uses a very attractive person for an assistant. Interpersonal attraction is then assessed by whether or not the people participating in the study call up the attractive assistant to ask the person on a date. In this example, calling up the attractive assistant represents a(n) ____ of interpersonal attraction. |
| | A) | correlational study |
| | B) | hypothesis |
| | C) | case study |
| | D) | operational definition |
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6 | |
A social psychologist is interested in studying aggression in sports fans. He goes to various sporting events and keeps track of the number of aggressive acts that occur between fans using a well-defined coding system. This psychologist is using ____ to measure behavior. |
| | A) | self-report measures |
| | B) | physiological measures |
| | C) | behavioral observations |
| | D) | reports by others |
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7 | |
Trying to determine why young women are motivated to excel in athletics, a research psychologist studies Serena Williams in an in-depth analysis. This psychologist is using the ____ method of study. |
| | A) | correlational |
| | B) | experimental |
| | C) | archival |
| | D) | case study |
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8 | |
In order to learn about the social behavior of children, a developmental psychologist goes to an elementary school, finds a seat near one of the windows in a classroom, and watches the children playing on the playground outside during recess. This psychologist is engaged in ____. |
| | A) | naturalistic observation |
| | B) | correlational research |
| | C) | a case study |
| | D) | experimental research |
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9 | |
Putting his research plan to work, Superman decides to study Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and Spiderman, and apply his results to all superheroes. In this case "all superheroes" is how Superman is defining his ____. |
| | A) | sample |
| | B) | random sample |
| | C) | representative sample |
| | D) | population |
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10 | |
Batman, Robin, Aquaman, and Spiderman make up Superman's ____ in this case. |
| | A) | sample |
| | B) | random sample |
| | C) | representative sample |
| | D) | population |
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11 | |
Dr. Jonas is interested in conducting a survey of all the college students at her university. She is careful when conducting her research to make sure that each student on campus has an equal chance of participating in her survey. To create her survey sample, Dr. Jonas is using random ___. |
| | A) | sampling |
| | B) | assignment |
| | C) | preference |
| | D) | appointment |
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12 | |
The use of a ____ sample best establishes ____ validity. |
| | A) | non-random; internal |
| | B) | representative; external |
| | C) | representative; internal |
| | D) | non-random; external |
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13 | |
When it is not clear whether variable X caused variable Y or vice-versa, there is a(n) ____. |
| | A) | demand characteristic |
| | B) | bidirectional causality problem |
| | C) | third-variable problem |
| | D) | experimenter expectancy effect |
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14 | |
Dr. Klein has heard that people tend to become more politically conservative as they get older and decides to conduct a study to see if this is true. She conducts a telephone survey in which she asks participants how old they are and their political identification. She then uses statistics to see if there is a relationship between age and political identification. The design that best describes Dr. Klein's research is ____. |
| | A) | experimental research |
| | B) | correlational research |
| | C) | naturalistic observation |
| | D) | behavioral observation |
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15 | |
Dr. Gonzalez has just completed a correlational study where he found a strong association between parental expectations and child academic achievement. In other words, children who perform well in school tend to have parents who have high expectations for their children. However, Dr. Gonzalez can't tell which variable causes the other. It may be that high expectations cause children to perform better but it may be that children who perform better in school cause their parents to have higher expectations. This particular problem is known as ____. |
| | A) | the bidirectional causality problem |
| | B) | the third variable problem |
| | C) | poor external validity |
| | D) | the experimenter expectancy effect |
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16 | |
After years of experience, super researcher Dr. Yo G. Bayer finds that the more food from stolen picnic baskets in Jellystone Park bears eat, the sicker they get. Dr. Bayer has observed a ______ relationship between the variables. |
| | A) | negative correlational |
| | B) | positive correlational |
| | C) | zero correlational |
| | D) | cause-and-effect |
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17 | |
A "Survivor" contestant notices that the more worms a member caught for his or her tribe to eat, the fewer votes to be voted off the island he or she received in Tribal Council. This contestant is has observed a _____ relationship between the variables. |
| | A) | negative correlational |
| | B) | positive correlational |
| | C) | zero correlational |
| | D) | cause-and-effect |
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18 | |
For psychologists, the most direct method for testing cause-and-effect relationships is ____. |
| | A) | correlational studies |
| | B) | archival studies |
| | C) | surveys |
| | D) | experiments |
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19 | |
In its simplest form, an experiment has three essential characteristics. All of the following are characteristics of experiments except ____. |
| | A) | an experimental manipulation of an independent variable |
| | B) | an experimental manipulation of a dependent variable |
| | C) | a measurement of a dependent variable |
| | D) | attempts to control for extraneous factors |
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20 | |
Dr. Weiss wants to look at the impact of failure on self-esteem. Dr. Weiss designs an experiment in which half of the participants are led to believe they have failed on an ambiguous task, while the other half of the participants are told they have succeeded. Dr. Weiss then has the people in his study complete a questionnaire measuring self-esteem, and looks to see if there are any differences between the success and failure groups. In this example, self-esteem would be considered the ____ variable. |
| | A) | dependent |
| | B) | independent |
| | C) | placebo |
| | D) | confounding |
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21 | |
Evil arch-criminal Lex Luthor, having discovered that kryptonite destroys Superman's powers, wonders if the substance will also cripple other superheroes. He thus assigns one group of superheroes to an experimental group, feeding them kryptonite soup, and assigns another group to a control condition that gets chicken soup. In this case, the type of soup is the ____. |
| | A) | dependent variable |
| | B) | placebo |
| | C) | independent variable |
| | D) | correlational variable |
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22 | |
A clinical psychologist has developed a new form of psychotherapy to treat a particular personality disorder. In order to test its effectiveness, a group of people with the personality disorder is selected to receive the therapy for 8 weeks. A second group of people with the disorder is also created but this group receives no therapy at all. At the end of the 8 weeks, the mental health of the people in both groups is assessed to evaluate the new psychotherapy. In this study, the people who did not receive any therapy would be in the ____ group. |
| | A) | experimental |
| | B) | control |
| | C) | random |
| | D) | sample |
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23 | |
Bored with life on Gilligan's island, the Professor decides to design an experiment in which the population is affluent middle-aged castaways on tropical islands. However, Mr. and Mrs. Howell refuse to participate. As a result, the Professor has to abandon his experiment because without them he does not have access to participants that would constitute a ____ sample. |
| | A) | random |
| | B) | confounding |
| | C) | representative |
| | D) | correlational |
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24 | |
In survey research, random ____ is typically used to ensure that a sample is representative. |
| | A) | sampling |
| | B) | assignment |
| | C) | appointment |
| | D) | expectancy |
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25 | |
In experiments, random ____, in which each participant has an equal chance of being in a given experimental (or control) group, is used to balance differences between participants across groups. |
| | A) | sampling |
| | B) | constancy |
| | C) | assignment |
| | D) | correlation |
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26 | |
Dr. McGovern is interested in interpersonal attraction and the factors that affect it. She designs a study where she looks at the effect of similarity and social warmth on interpersonal attraction. Participants in her study meet a target person who either is or is not similar to the participant (the similarity variable) and who is either friendly or aloof (the social warmth variable). After interacting with the target person under these conditions, participants are then asked to rate how attractive they think the target person is. In this study, similarity and social warmth are the ____ variables and interpersonal attraction is the ____ variable. |
| | A) | independent; dependent |
| | B) | dependent; independent |
| | C) | confounding; dependent |
| | D) | independent; confounding |
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27 | |
Sally has been suffering from depression and finally decides to seek help from a clinical psychologist. After a couple of months of therapy, Sally's depression starts to lift. However, her improvement really isn't due to any of the therapy she has received from her therapist but instead is a product of Sally's expectation that psychotherapy is supposed to be effective and therefore she should be getting better. This example is best considered an example of ____. |
| | A) | experimenter expectancy effects |
| | B) | the double-blind effect |
| | C) | the placebo effect |
| | D) | a study with high external validity |
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28 | |
Gavin is a dorm counselor and a believer in the "early to bed, early to rise" maxim. He predicts that the freshmen in his dorm who get up early will have better grades by the end of the year than those who sleep late. He hangs out in the hallway every morning to greet early risers. Sure enough, at the end of the year several late-sleeping freshmen are on academic probation or have dropped out, while all the early risers in Gavin's dorm have passing grades. Gavin's findings are most similar or analogous to the problem of ____. |
| | A) | demand characteristics |
| | B) | experimenter expectancy effects |
| | C) | the placebo effect |
| | D) | random sampling |
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29 | |
Bored with just encouraging Americans to have more and better sex, diminutive Dr. Ruth decides to study why so many more men than women have extramarital affairs. To study this question, she recruits Ted Kennedy, Frank Gifford, Marv Albert, and Bill Clinton for her study. However, her granting agency, worried that it is throwing its money down the proverbial rat hole, wonders why she has recruited such an unrepresentative sample of celebrities for her study. The agency is evidently worried about the _____ of Dr. Ruth's work. |
| | A) | internal validity |
| | B) | random assignment |
| | C) | experimenter expectancy effects |
| | D) | external validity |
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30 | |
Josh volunteers for a psychology experiment as part of his course requirement in Psychology 101. Before he can participate, the researcher follows informed consent procedures by giving him a full description of the procedures to be followed, ____ , and telling him that he is free to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. |
| | A) | informing him of any risks that might be involved |
| | B) | obtaining his roommate's permission |
| | C) | assessing his psychological risk |
| | D) | assessing his external validity |
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