Chapter 2: Research Methods Multiple Choice Questions 1. What is one take-home message from the discussion of autism and facilitated communication? A. The scientific method is not an effective means for finding solutions for persons who live with autism and other psychological disorders. B. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, some people won't abandon their erroneous beliefs. C. Autistic children want to communicate with their parents but need someone to facilitate the process. D. Psychological research is dangerous because it allows anyone to find support for any idea or opinion. Answer: B 2. The discussion on the topic of facilitated communication demonstrated the importance of A. parsimonious theories. B. developing falsifiable hypotheses. C. replication of earlier research findings. D. ruling out rival hypotheses. Answer: D 3. The general finding that a person’s ideas and cognitions can influence their movements is called A. the ideomotor effect. B. cognitive behaviourism. C. facilitated communication. D. the motivation-action effect. Answer: A 4. Sahar attended a workshop on how crystals have healing power, can eliminate “blood sludge”, and cure mental illness. The workshop facilitator presented clinical observations of several patients to demonstrate the effectiveness of crystals. What should Sahar keep in mind as she evaluates the information she learned in this workshop? A. In the absence of systematic research, clinical observations are not sufficient evidence for their effectiveness. B. Clinical observations are a powerful source of evidence and demonstrate treatment effectiveness. C. Patient’s own reports that crystals cured their cancer or depression provide empirical evidence of their effectiveness. D. The workshop facilitator appears to be a credible source so his claims must be true. Answer: A 5. What is the surgical procedure that severs fibres connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus? A. Frontalization. B. The Moniz procedure. C. Prefrontal lobotomy. D. Electroconvulsive therapy. Answer: C 6. Once controlled research studies were conducted on the effectiveness of prefrontal lobotomies, they were discovered to be A. universally effective. B. sometimes effective, sometimes not. C. virtually useless. D. slightly effective. Answer: C 7. When a psychologist is discussing a heuristic, he or she is referring to A. biased information processing strategies. B. mental techniques to improve memory recall. C. mental techniques to increase deliberation in our decision making. D. mental decision-making strategies. Answer: D 8. _______________ are a great way, in the case of real-world or social processes, to save time and effort at the expense of some accuracy. A. Statistics B. Prototypes C. Algorithms D. Heuristics Answer: D 9. Dr. Fortner is discussing cognitive psychology with his introductory psychology class and says that we act as cognitive misers when making judgments about others or making decisions. What does Dr. Fortner mean with this statement? A. We will use heuristics only as long as they give us the correct answer. B. We value accuracy in our judgments and decisions. C. We value simplicity in understanding our social world. D. We are frequently incorrect in our judgments and decision making. Answer: C 10. A key idea that emerged from Kahneman and Tversky's research is that people often behave A. irrationally. B. in an unbiased fashion. C. rationally. D. logically and reasonably. Answer: A 11. In 2002, Daniel Kahneman was the first Ph.D. psychologist awarded the Nobel Prize for his role in pioneering the study of _______________. A. heuristics B. the hindsight bias C. the confirmation bias D. base rates Answer: A 12. When we use the _______________ heuristic, we compare a particular person and their behaviour to some model or prototype. A. attitude B. simulation C. availability D. representativeness Answer: D 13. If we know that Ashley is 25 years old, outspoken on environmental and human rights issues, and presently on her way to an anti-nuclear weapons demonstration, we might come to the quick conclusion that she is also a feminist, because is many ways she shares similar interests. This mental shortcut demonstrates the A. attitude heuristic. B. simulation heuristic. C. availability heuristic. D. representativeness heuristic. Answer: D 14. Judith is a third year undergraduate student, who lists her interests as computer, gaming, programming, and helping others. Based on this description, you might assume that Judith is more likely to be a computer science major than a psychology major. Your judgment is likely based on the _______________ heuristic, but might be wrong due to the _______________. A. availability; base rate fallacy B. representative; overconfidence bias C. availability; overconfidence bias D. representative; base rate fallacy Answer: D 15. One reason that we are susceptible to the representativeness heuristic is that we A. mistake confidence for certainty. B. are fooled by information that comes to our mind most easily. C. fail to consider how probable an outcome is within the general population. D. overestimate our cognitive abilities and processes. Answer: C 16. If we know that Ashley (a 25-year-old outspoken nuclear-weapons protester) is a feminist, we are likely to also guess she is a lawyer rather than a bank teller. However this ignores _______________ because there are many more female bank tellers in the population. A. prior personal information B. personality factors C. the base rates D. Ashley’s relative education Answer: C 17. By ignoring base-rate information, the representative heuristic suggests that we prefer A. inferential information over statistical information. B. descriptive information over inferential information. C. descriptive information over statistical information. D. statistical information over descriptive information. Answer: C 18. If you polled some friends about the number of murders in Edmonton and other friends about the number of murders in the province of Alberta, you'd likely find that the average number of murders estimated for Edmonton is more than for the entire province. This impossible finding is best explained by the A. representativeness heuristic. B. availability heuristic. C. hindsight bias. D. confirmation bias. Answer: B 19. People are more likely to fear AIDS than heart disease, even though heart disease is far more common. This example is created because of the A. representativeness heuristic. B. availability heuristic. C. hindsight bias. D. confirmation bias. Answer: B 20. People are more likely to fear motor vehicle accidents than digestive cancer, even though digestive cancer is almost twice as common. This error is produced because of the A. representativeness heuristic. B. availability heuristic. C. hindsight bias. D. confirmation bias. Answer: B 21. If a person makes a judgment based on how easy it is for an instance to come to mind, he or she may fall victim to the A. belief perseverance effect. B. representativeness heuristic. C. hindsight bias. D. availability heuristic. Answer: D 22. Amanda asks a group of research participants to estimate the number of deaths each year due to homicide and diabetes. She finds that higher numbers report homicide, because they are more vivid examples, though over twice as many die from complications related to diabetes. This is one example of the dangers of the _______________ in our judgments and decision making A. representativeness heuristic B. hindsight bias C. availability heuristic D. confirmation bias Answer: C 23. The _______________ bias refers to our tendency to overestimate our ability to predict known outcomes, whereas the _______________ bias reflects the overestimation of our ability to make correct predictions. A. hindsight; representative B. hindsight; overconfidence C. overconfidence; representative D. overconfidence; hindsight Answer: B 24. The tendency to overestimate how well we could have successfully forecast known outcomes is called the A. confirmation bias. B. hindsight bias. C. representativeness heuristic. D. availability heuristic. Answer: B 25. Following Stephen Harper’s defeat of the NDP candidate Jack Layton, many people looked back over the NDP campaign and claimed they knew all along that Layton would lose. This example illustrates the A. confirmation bias. B. hindsight bias. C. representativeness heuristic. D. availability heuristic. Answer: B 26. Days following the championship football game, many “arm-chair quarterbacks” explain how they knew all along that the losing team would not be victorious. This example illustrates A. confirmation bias. B. hindsight bias. C. the representativeness heuristic. D. the availability heuristic. Answer: B 27. The tendency to overestimate our ability to make correct predictions is called A. confirmation bias. B. hindsight bias. C. the representativeness heuristic. D. overconfidence. Answer: D 28. When Lonnie and Burt were married, their friends were unsure of whether the marriage would last or end in divorce. However, after the two divorced, many of their friends commented to each other about how certain they had been that things would not work out from the beginning. This is an example of the A. confirmation bias. B. hindsight bias. C. representativeness heuristic. D. availability heuristic. Answer: B 29. Jerome was uncertain of the correctness of his answers to many of the questions on his General Psychology exam. After seeing his score, an A, he subsequently told his friends about how he knew he aced the exam. This demonstrates the influence of _______________ on our judgments. A. the hindsight bias B. belief perseverance C. confirmation bias D. the availability heuristic Answer: A 30. People's tendency to be more certain about the correctness of their beliefs than their actual level of accuracy in their beliefs is what psychologists call A. the representativeness heuristic. B. the confirmation bias. C. the availability heuristic. D. overconfidence. Answer: D 31. Each year, psychics make predictions about events they believe will occur, though few of these events ever do. Psychics are quite certain of their claims despite their frequent, later inaccuracy. This finding would be consistent with the psychological phenomenon known as A. the hindsight bias. B. the availability heuristic. C. the confirmation bias. D. the overconfidence effect. Answer: D 32. An important danger of the heuristics and cognitive biases discussed in Chapter 2 is that they lead us A. to become anxious or depressed about our place in the world. B. to doubt our intuition and gut feelings in important real-life circumstances. C. to believe in observations about our world that are not true. D. to underestimate our general levels of cognitive abilities and skills. Answer: C 33. When a researcher tests his or her hypothesis, he or she is often hoping to gather information that is consistent with a particular theory. What, more specifically, allows a researcher to say that he or she has “proven” a theory? A. A researcher is never able to say that he or she has “proven” a theory. B. Anytime a hypothesis confirms one theory and simultaneously disconfirms at least one other theory, a theory has been “proven.” C. Anytime a hypothesis is confirmed, a theory is automatically “proven.” D. Anytime a hypothesis confirms one theory and simultaneously disconfirms all other known theories, a theory has been “proven.” Answer: A 34. Which of the following statements regarding the scientific method is correct? A. There is no single scientific method. B. There is a single scientific method. C. There are two scientific methods: one for hard/natural sciences, and one for soft/social sciences. D. There are multiple scientific methods. Answer: A 35. Which research design provides existence proofs? A. Correlational design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Naturalistic observation design Answer: C 36. Suppose you seat yourself in a cafeteria to count up which checkout line will students prefer: the one staffed by a visible minority or the other line. This is an example of which research design? A. Correlational design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Naturalistic observation design Answer: D 37. A group of student researchers divide up the different times and buildings on their campus to attempt to determine when people will hold a door open for another person. These student researchers are most likely to use which research method design when conducting their study? A. Correlational design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Naturalistic observation design Answer: D 38. If you sat in a public place, and assessed the relative attractiveness of the couples who walk by to see if their attraction levels matched or differed, this would illustrate which research design? A. Correlational design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Naturalistic observation design Answer: D 39. The extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings is called A. face validity. B. construct validity. C. external validity. D. internal validity. Answer: C 40. This research design examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period. A. Case study B. Correlation C. Experiment D. Naturalistic observation Answer: A 41. The extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study is called A. face validity B. construct validity C. external validity D. internal validity Answer: D 42. Shannon is interested in studying the vocalizations that a rare breed of squirrels makes when predators are nearby. She tags a small group of these squirrels and records the sounds that they make. What type of research method is Shannon using? A. Naturalistic observation B. Case study C. Correlation D. Experiment Answer: A 43. The ability of researchers to draw cause-and-effect inferences from naturalistic observation studies is limited because of A. high external validity. B. high internal validity. C. low internal validity. D. low external validity. Answer: C 44. A student researcher wishes to maximize the external validity of his or her research design. What research method should you recommend to him or her? A. Correlational design B. Naturalistic observational design C. Experimental design D. Case study design Answer: B 45. A researcher is interested in determining how frequently bullying behaviour occurs in real-life settings. This researcher would best be advised to use the A. experimental design. B. case study design. C. correlational design. D. naturalistic observation design. Answer: D 46. Case studies can be helpful in providing _______________, or demonstrations that a given psychological phenomenon can occur. A. construct validity B. internal validity C. existence proofs D. external validity Answer: C 47. This research design involves an extremely deep and detailed information gathering from a single individual over a long period of time. A. Naturalistic observation design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Correlational design Answer: C 48. Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget devised complex models of cognitive development in children based on studies of his grandchildren. Which design would be best suited to Piaget’s goal? A. Naturalistic observation design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Correlational design Answer: C 49. It may be difficult to test hypotheses in the area of dissociative identity (multiple personality) disorder, because it is an especially rare disorder. Which research design would be most useful in these circumstances? A. Naturalistic observation design B. Experimental design C. Case study design D. Correlational design Answer: C 50. The study of rare or unusual phenomenon is most easily done through the use of the _______________ design. A. case study B. observational C. experimental D. correlational Answer: A 51. While valuable for studying rare phenomenon, case studies tend to be _______________ in external validity and _______________ in internal validity. A. low; high B. high; low C. low; low D. high; high Answer: C 52. Dr. Didus has diagnosed a patient with dissociative identity disorder (DID), a very rare type of dissociative disorder. He observes the behaviour of his patient and her alter personalities, and discovers that every time he asks her about sexual experiences, an alter that is a male takes over as the dominant personality. Based on his case study, what can Dr. Didus conclude about DID in general? A. Patients with DID cannot cope with discussing uncomfortable experiences. B. Sexual experiences are linked with the presence of alter experiences. C. Opposite gender personalities take over to protect the host personality when talking about sex. D. No conclusions can be drawn about DID without systematic research on this population. Answer: D 53. It would be least advisable to attempt to apply the results gathered from a(n) _______________ design to a larger population of interest. A. experimental design B. observational design C. correlational design D. case study design Answer: D 54. Sandra has completed an online survey about sexual experiences, and minimized the extent to which she engages in risky and/or unprotected sex. Her responses reflect what type of response set? A. Malingering B. Base rate fallacy C. Hindsight bias D. Positive impression management Answer: D 55. A _______________ refers to a tendency to distort answers to self-report questionnaires, often in a socially desirable direction. A. placebo effect B. halo effect C. hindsight bias D. response set Answer: D 56. Grace claims that she has been severely traumatized by a minor accident she witnessed while at work, and is suing her employers for financial compensation. Her employers think she is not as traumatized as she claims, and ask her to see a psychologist to assess her symptoms. On psychological testing, Grace is likely to engage in _______________. A. positive impression management B. the horns effect C. the placebo effect D. malingering Answer: D 57. If you are interested in examining the relationship between the number of class days missed and one's subsequent semester grade point average, you would be best served to use a(n) _______________ to study this question. A. experimental design B. naturalistic observation design C. case study design D. correlational design Answer: D 58. Which of the following correlations represents the weakest degree of relation between two variables? A. Daily calcium intake and bone mass density, r = +.11 B. Number of cigarettes smoked per day and incidence of lung cancer, r = +.39 C. Degree of exposure to lead and IQ scores in children, r = -.12 D. Hours of exposure to media violence and aggressive behaviour, r = +.31 Answer: A 59. Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest degree of relation between two variables? A. +.43 B. –.47 C. –.25 D. +.19 Answer: B 60. Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest degree of relation between two variables? A. +.51 B. –.67 C. –.46 D. +.09 Answer: B 61. If there is no discernible relationship between scores on students' homework assignments and their exam scores in an introductory biology class, we would say that a(n) _______________ correlation exists. A. negative B. positive C. zero D. inverse Answer: C 62. Suppose that researchers find no relationship between your likelihood of getting cancer and your neighbourhood’s proximity to power lines. This would be an example of a(n) _______________ correlation. A. negative B. positive C. zero D. inverse Answer: C 63. Suppose researchers found no link between autism and immunizations. This would be an example of a(n) _______________ correlation. A. negative B. positive C. zero D. inverse Answer: C 64. Shoe size is _______________ associated or correlated with psychology exam scores. A. negatively B. positively C. not at all D. inversely Answer: C 65. As the average daily temperature in Brandon, Manitoba, decreases the number of persons who are observed wearing sweaters in the workplace increases. This is an example of a _______________ correlation. A. positive B. zero C. negative D. causal Answer: C 66. Sasha read about a study in the newspaper that reported a relationship between schizophrenia and crime. What type of research design is most likely to have been used in this study? A. Naturalistic observation B. Case study design C. Correlational design D. Experimental design Answer: C 67. Depression is _______________ correlated with fatigue and sadness, and _______________ correlated with spending a lot of time in social situations. A. negatively; positively B. negatively; inversely C. positively; negatively D. positively; positively Answer: C 68. As the number of losses by the Edmonton Oiler’s hockey team increase, the number of fans decrease. This is an example of a _______________ correlation. A. positive B. negative C. zero D. causal Answer: B 69. A fictional study revealed that there is a negative correlation between exam grades and the average number of glasses of beer (r = -.52), wine (r = -.63), coolers (r = -.46), or hard alcohol (r = -.59) consumed each night. Which of these alcoholic beverages shows the strongest association with poor exam performance? A. Coolers B. Hard alcohol C. Beer D. Wine Answer: D 70. A graph that can be used to represent the pattern of relationship between scores from two variables is called a A. frequency polygon. B. histogram. C. bar graph. D. scatterplot. Answer: D 71. Jaime knows that the correlation between prolonged alcohol abuse and liver damage is very strong, but argues that this relationship is unlikely to apply to him because both his grandparents and parents drank heavily throughout their life and never suffered from any liver problems. What is the problem with Jaime’s reasoning? A. He is using anecdotes to refute correlational evidence. B. He has not tested his ideas using a scientific method. C. He is a drinker himself and suffers from the confirmation bias. D. He believes that he is the exception because psychology is a science of exceptions. Answer: A 72. According to your text, many people believe that there are strong correlations between the full moon and strange behaviour, such as violent crime, suicides, psychiatric admissions, and births (otherwise known as the lunar lunacy effect). This is an example of A. a positive correlation. B. a negative correlation. C. a zero correlation. D. an illusory correlation. Answer: D 73. Superstitions are often based on A. case studies. B. anecdotal evidence. C. illusory correlations. D. experimental data. Answer: C 74. For many years, newspapers often mentioned the race of criminal suspects who were NOT white in articles detailing crimes. This often led people who were not obviously biased or prejudiced to conclude that more non-whites committed crimes than whites. This is one example of A. the representativeness heuristic. B. illusory correlation. C. the confirmation bias. D. the hindsight bias. Answer: B 75. There is an illusory correlation between joint pain and rainy weather. According to the Great Fourfold Table of Life, which of the following experiences do we pay too much attention to? A. Instances where it is raining and there is joint pain. B. Instances where it is raining and there is no joint pain. C. Instances where it is not raining and there is joint pain. D. Instances where it is not raining and there is no joint pain. Answer: A 76. Using the Great Fourfold Table of Life, we tend to fall prey to believing in illusory correlations because of both the A. representativeness heuristic and confirmation bias. B. base rate fallacy and fallacy of positive instances. C. disconfirming bias and availability heuristic. D. availability heuristic and fallacy of positive instances. Answer: D 77. Correlational research designs are NOT appropriate for purposes of A. causation. B. prediction. C. description. D. association Answer: A 78. A news article reports a negative correlation between brain size and self-esteem, which leads some people to conclude that larger brains lead to lower self-esteem. The main problem with this conclusion is that A. the relationship between brain size and self-esteem may be due to a third variable, such as alcohol use. B. causal inferences can only be made for really strong correlations. C. this relationship is an illusory correlation. D. the directionality of the relationship is unclear. Answer: A 79. Correlations allow researchers to make _______________ about the world, whereas observational and case studies allow us to _______________ phenomenon. A. causal inferences; predictions B. predictions; describe C. descriptions; predict D. causal inferences; describe Answer: B 80. Dr. Trawma wants to study whether psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, or systematic desensitization is better at reducing his patients’ anxiety due to post- traumatic stress disorder. The dependent variable in this study is A. post-traumatic stress disorder. B. the type of therapy. C. the patients’ levels of anxiety. D. systematic desensitization. Answer: C 81. Any difference between experimental and control groups other than the independent variable is called a _______________ variable. A. dependent B. confounding C. placebo D. nocebo Answer: B 82. Besides random assignment, what other component is necessary for a study to be considered an experiment? A. The presence of dependent variables B. Manipulation of an independent variable C. Random selection of participants D. Cause and effect relationships Answer: B 83. The only research design that allows one to make cause-and-effect inferences is the _______________ design. A. naturalistic observation B. case study C. experimental D. correlational Answer: C 84. A key aspect of an experiment that is missing in other research designs is A. description of the phenomena of interest. B. random assignment. C. explanation of why a relationship exists. D. prediction of the effects of differences in variable on another. Answer: B 85. A researcher wants to see whether she can make the typical administrative assistant job more motivating at Acme, Inc. To experimentally investigate this possibility, she randomly assigns administrative assistants to one of the following conditions: doing the job as it has always been done, having a computer performance monitoring device installed, receiving feedback about their performance on a weekly basis, or being given a say in how one's workload is structured and done. Which of the preceding conditions is an example of a control group? A. Doing the job as it has always been done B. Receiving feedback on a weekly basis C. Having a computer performance monitoring device installed D. Being given a say in how one's workload is structured and done Answer: A 86. The group that receives the manipulation is called the A. experimental group. B. dependent group. C. independent group. D. control group. Answer: A 87. The variable that an experimenter assesses or measures is called the A. dependent variable. B. independent variable. C. confounding variable. D. causal variable. Answer: A 88. An administrator believes that the placement of motivational posters on the walls in classrooms of academic buildings will lead to increased grade-point averages at his school. To test his theory, he randomly assigns certain classrooms to have the posters while others do not within one of the academic buildings. None of the remaining four buildings on campus have any posters placed in their classrooms. What is the independent variable in this study? A. Classroom wall hangings B. Gender of the student C. Academic college D. Grade-point average Answer: A 89. Medical researchers want to determine if hypnosis is better at pain control than either a sugar pill (placebo) or motivating instructions. The researcher randomly assigns participants to the three groups, and determines how long they can keep their hands in a bowl of ice water. What is the manipulated variable? A. Hypnosis B. Instructions C. Sugar pill D. Pain control group Answer: D 90. Suppose a researcher wants to determine if the size of the observing crowd to some emergency situation is relevant to whether the victim will receive help. The researcher randomly assigns participants to one of three groups: no other bystanders, one other bystander, or four other bystanders. When an emergency is then staged, the researcher measures how long it takes the participant to help the victim. In this study, what is the independent variable? A. Number of bystanders B. The group with four other bystanders C. The group with one other bystander D. The group with no other bystanders Answer: A 91. Suppose a researcher wants to see if those students who highlight their textbook as they read will perform better on the psychology midterm compared to those students who do not highlight. What is the dependent variable? A. Psychology midterm score B. Highlighting of text C. No highlighting of text D. Grade-point average Answer: A 92. A medical doctor believes that the presence of aromatherapy will reduce the anxiety of first-time mothers-to-be during labour and will increase their reported satisfaction with their care at his hospital. He randomly assigns mothers to give birth in a room either with or without aromatherapy. What is the independent variable in this example? A. Room environment B. Number of previous birthing experiences C. Anxiety level during labour D. Satisfaction with hospital care Answer: A 93. In an experiment, a researcher wants to avoid the presence of A. confounding variables. B. dependent variables. C. random assignment. D. independent variables. Answer: A 94. Suppose children watch an adult display physical violence towards a blown-up clown doll in a room full of toys, followed by either a stern scolding or praise by another adult. The child is then left in the room of toys, and the researchers watch to see if the child models any of the aggressive behaviour. Children who witnessed the scolded adult don’t act aggressively, either because they did not learn the aggressive behaviour, or they learned that aggressive behaviour is punished. What is the confounding variable? A. Modelled behaviour vs. blocked learning B. Aggressive behaviour C. Whether the model was praised or punished D. Time left among the toys Answer: A 95. Suppose children watch an adult display physical violence towards a blown-up clown doll in a room full of toys, followed by either a stern scolding or praise by another adult. The child is then left in the room of toys, and the researchers watch to see if the child models any of the aggressive behaviour. Children who witnessed the scolded adult don’t act aggressively, either because they did not learn the aggressive behaviour, or they learned that aggressive behaviour is punished. What is the independent variable? A. Modelled behaviour vs. blocked learning B. Aggressive behaviour C. Whether the model was praised or punished D. Time left among the toys Answer: C 96. Suppose children watch an adult display physical violence towards a blown-up clown doll in a room full of toys, followed by either a stern scolding or praise by another adult. The child is then left in the room of toys, and the researchers watch to see if the child models any of the aggressive behaviour. Children who witnessed the scolded adult don’t act aggressively, either because they did not learn the aggressive behaviour, or they learned that aggressive behaviour is punished. What is the dependent variable? A. Modelled behaviour vs. blocked learning B. Aggressive behaviour C. Whether the model was praised or punished D. Time left among the toys. Answer: B 97. Tanya is a therapist who sells subliminal message tapes to help people stop smoking. She designs a study where one group gets the subliminal messages on their tapes and the other group does not. She finds that both groups had about an equal success rate in quitting smoking after treatment. Which of the following explains her results? A. Nocebo effect B. Placebo effect C. Confounding variables D. Experimenter expectancy effect Answer: B 98. One difficulty in conducting medical research is that participants often assume that any treatment will be effective in alleviating their symptoms. Therefore, a researcher has to design an experiment that measures the influence of A. the nocebo effect. B. the file drawer problem. C. the placebo effect. D. medical confounds. Answer: C 99. The placebo and Rosenthal effects are examples of _______________ in experimental research. A. dependent variables B. independent variables C. false variables D. confounding variables Answer: D 100. Harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm refers to the A. expectancy effect B. hindsight effect C. placebo effect D. nocebo effect Answer: D 101. In order to avoid the _______________, experiments should be conducted in a double-blind fashion. A. Rosenthal effect B. hindsight effect C. placebo effect D. nocebo effect Answer: A 102. The _______________ refers to the phenomenon in which researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study. A. nocebo effect B. placebo effect C. hindsight effect D. experimenter expectancy effect Answer: D 103. How does conducting a double-blind study attempt to remedy the experimenter expectancy effect? A. The experimenter and the participant both know what condition the participant is assigned to. B. The experimenter does not know but the participant does know what condition the participant is assigned to. C. The experimenter knows but the participant does not know what condition the participant is assigned to. D. Neither the experimenter nor the participant knows what condition the participant is assigned to. Answer: D 104. Keeping both the participants and researchers unaware of the constituent groups (experimental or control) utilizes what research technique? A. Hindsight B. Single-blind C. Nocebo D. Double-blind Answer: D 105. Why are experimenter expectancy effects so troublesome in an experimental design? A. They allow researchers to confirm hypotheses even when those hypotheses are incorrect. B. They interfere with a researcher's ability to say that the only possible cause for the observed differences was the manipulation of the independent variable. C. Both A and B are correct. D. Neither A nor B is correct. Answer: C 106. Samantha signs up for a psychology experiment, and is told that the study involves people’s study habits by themselves or in groups. She is assigned to an individual study room, and given a packet of materials to study. She also notices that she can hear music through speakers in the room, and wonders whether the experiment is really about whether music distracts people while they are studying. She decides to try even harder to study the material she was given and ignore the music. This example best demonstrates the concept of A. the Rosenthal effect. B. demand characteristics. C. experimenter expectancy effects. D. the placebo effect. Answer: B 107. _______________ represent(s) cues that participants pick up from the study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researcher’s hypothesis. A. Cueing effects B. Participant observation C. Unobtrusive observation D. Demand characteristics Answer: D 108. To avoid demand characteristics, researchers frequently use _______________ to keep their participants unaware of the purpose of the experiment. A. random selection B. placebos C. double-blind designs D. deception Answer: D 109. Suppose a researcher invites an individual participant to a sleep laboratory, but he refuses to fall asleep. Hours go by and the researcher cannot understand why the participant won’t sleep. In the morning, a very tired participant asks if the real purpose of the study was to observe his reaction to having a rat in the bed with him. That the participant purposefully stayed awake thinking this was the nature of the study demonstrates A. demand characteristics. B. participant observation. C. overt observation. D. covert observation. Answer: A 110. Dr. Jonas is conducting a survey on teenage abortions, and advertises for participants in local newspapers and teen magazines. He finds that 90% of teens report they don’t regret their decision to have an abortion and appear to be mentally healthy following the procedure. What is the main overarching difficulty with the conclusions from his study? A. There was no random selection so the respondents may not represent the population. B. Teenagers have a greater tendency to be untruthful on surveys relative to adults. C. It was likely the teenagers were trying to make themselves appear better than they were. D. There are no major flaws with this study. Answer: A 111. Which of the following is correct in distinguishing between random selection and random assignment? A. Both random selection and random assignment are used to obtain a random sample of participants that is drawn from the larger population. B. Random assignment is where every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate, and random selection is where every person in the sample has an equal chance of being selected for the experimental or control conditions. C. Random selection concerns how we initially choose participants, whereas random assignment is how we assign chosen participants into groups. D. Random assignment concerns how we initially choose participants, whereas random selection is how we assign chosen participants into groups. Answer: C 112. The most important factor to ensure that one's results apply to other people in other settings is to use A. random sampling. B. extremely large sample sizes. C. extremely small sample sizes. D. random assignment. Answer: A 113. The extent to which different people who conduct an interview, or make behavioural observations, agree on the characteristics they are measuring refers to A. consistency. B. objectivity. C. interrater validity. D. interrater reliability. Answer: D 114. By taking a person’s temperature several times, you gain confidence that the multiple measurements of temperature are correct. Another term for “confidence” in this situation is A. reliability B. validity C. objectivity D. subjectivity Answer: A 115. The large difference in the percentages of women who admitted to extramarital affairs in the Hite Report on Love versus a Harris organization pool was most likely due to A. the use of covert versus participant observation. B. the method of sampling used in each study. C. demand characteristics. D. how the questions were worded in each study. Answer: B 116. _______________ represents a procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate. A. Random sampling B. Random selection C. Demand characteristics D. Hawthorne sampling Answer: B 117. Dr. Peese is conducting research concerning content differences between truthful and false allegations of trauma. She has three research assistants who help her code each allegation using content analysis procedures. In order to assure that the coding is consistent, Dr. Peese compares the scores from each of the coders to see how closely they are correlated. In this example, Dr. Peese is assessing A. test-retest reliability. B. internal validity. C. interrater reliability. D. construct validity. Answer: C 118. The most important characteristic for a psychological measure to have is A. reliability. B. objectivity. C. readability. D. validity. Answer: D 119. According to your text, the polygraph test (also referred to as the lie detector) is criticized because of its lack of A. test-retest reliability. B. interrater reliability C. placebo effects. D. validity. Answer: D 120. Dr. Nick Riviera measures his students’ knowledge on the topic of memory by giving them three different quizzes over the course of 3 weeks (1 per week). He is hoping to show that student scores are largely the same from week to week. He is trying to establish the _______________ of his quiz. A. reliability B. validity C. objectivity D. subjectivity Answer: A 121. Our tendency to make ourselves look better than we actually are, either for job interviews or Facebook pages, is called A. positive self-image. B. positive impression management. C. self-report bias. D. leniency effect. Answer: B 122. Because respondents are not always honest in their answers, researchers may elect against using A. behavioural measures. B. self-report measures. C. observational measures. D. correlational measures. Answer: B 123. The major advantage of self-report measures, like surveys, is that they A. help establish causality. B. are extremely reliable and valid. C. are unaffected by the wording or phrasing of the questions. D. are easy to administer. Answer: D 124. Our tendency to make ourselves look psychologically disturbed with the aim to achieve clear-cut personal goals, like faking a mental illness, is called A. negative self-image. B. malingering. C. self-report bias. D. leniency effect. Answer: B 125. Which of the following is not a drawback of collecting rating data? A. Leniency effect B. Impression management C. Horns effect D. Halo effect Answer: B 126. Roy has taken time off his job in a sandwich factory due to psychological reasons, and is trying to claim workers compensation to cover his expenses. He claims that he has developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of witnessing a co- worker severely cut themselves on a meat slicer, but he really just wants a break from working and has not been traumatized. Roy is likely to engage in _______________ to make himself appear like he is more psychologically disturbed that he really is. A. the halo effect B. positive impression management C. malingering D. the horns effect Answer: C 127. A key disadvantage to self-report measures is that A. they are less effective than experiments in accurately predicting peoples' behaviour. B. respondents are not always honest in their answers. C. observing behaviour leads to changes in behaviour. D. demand characteristics can bias participants’ answers. Answer: B 128. Which of the following statements is an example of the horns effect? A. Sandra gives Nicole a good performance evaluation at work because they are friends. B. Jason believes that overweight people also are lazy, selfish, and unmotivated. C. Cynthia rates herself very positively on a test assessing personality characteristics. D. Wade exaggerates his “bad boy” image on a survey of life experiences. Answer: B 129. A group of students watch a videotape of two managers interacting with their subordinates at a customer service desk in a department store. Students see one of the managers’ act in a friendly and respectful manner toward all of the employees. The other manager is less friendly but still respectful toward the employees. What concept would explain the more positive ratings on other dimensions for the friendly manager as compared to the less friendly manager? A. The Rosenthal effect B. The horns effect C. The halo effect D. The leniency effect Answer: C 130. Telling research participants what is involved in a study before asking them to participate is called A. informed consent. B. anonymity. C. confidentiality. D. ethics. Answer: A 131. Which ethical requirement of research was not present in the Tuskegee experiment, where nearly 400 African-American men were exposed to syphilis and denied treatment for its symptoms? A. Informed consent B. Anonymity C. Confidentiality D. All of the above Answer: A 132. What is the purpose of an institutional review board? A. To hinder the research process by placing unnecessary hurdles in the way of researchers. B. To help protect the rights and dignity of the research participants. C. To encourage the use of deception in medical and psychological research with humans. D. To help protect the university from lawsuits from unhappy research participants. Answer: B 133. The use of deception is justified by ethics review boards in all of the following circumstances except when A. researchers could not have performed the study without deception. B. the research does not involve a medical or therapeutic intervention. C. participants might not agree to participate unless deception is used. D. the use of deception does not negatively impact the rights of the participant. Answer: C 134. Following the completion of a study, researchers use a process called _______________ to inform their participants what the study was about and explain the hypotheses in nontechnical language. A. informed consent B. debriefing C. experimenter expectancy D. ethical review Answer: B 135. Psychological researchers must often carefully weigh the potential scientific benefits of their research against A. insurance costs. B. the potential danger to participants. C. long-term goals of society. D. short-term goals of society. Answer: B 136. Which of the following is not a criticism that animal rights activists have about conducting animal research? A. Animal studies have limited external validity. B. The benefits of animal research do not outweigh the costs of harming animals. C. Ethical review is substandard and is not concerned with treating animals humanely. D. Animal research should not be used to answer questions concerning human functioning. Answer: C 137. What is the authors’ position on the use of animal research in psychology? A. All animal research must be ended as soon as is possible. B. It is more desirable to harm animals than to harm humans in the research process. C. Results from animal research cannot inform us of how the same phenomenon occur with humans. D. Animal research provides important insights but also comes with costs in terms of death and suffering of these subjects. Answer: D 138. The application of mathematics to describing and analyzing data is called A. statistics. B. significance. C. central tendency. D. dispersion. Answer: A 139. A university president asks her psychology department chair if the university has more male or more female undergraduate psychology majors. What measure of central tendency is she asking about? A. Range B. Mode C. Median D. Mean Answer: B 140. A British literature instructor examines the number of class periods his students have missed by mid-terms and has the following data: 1, 0, 10, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 5, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1. What is the median for this data set? A. 2.5 B. 0 C. 1.68 D. 1 Answer: D 141. A British literature instructor examines the number of class periods his students have missed by mid-terms and has the following data: 1, 0, 10, 0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 5, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 1. What is the mode for this data set? A. 2.5 B. 0 C. 10 D. 1 Answer: B 142. Which measure of central tendency is used when you are asked what is the most number of cigarettes you smoke in a day? A. Range B. Mean C. Mode D. Median Answer: C 143. Measures of _______________ reflect how loosely or tightly bunched scores are in a distribution, whereas measures of _______________ reflect where the group of scores tends to cluster. A. mode; mean B. central tendency; median C. variability; central tendency D. central tendency; mean Answer: C 144. Which measure of central tendency is used when asking about national income levels, wherein 50% of the population makes more than this amount and 50% of the population makes less? A. Range B. Mean C. Mode D. Median Answer: D 145. When a distribution is skewed, which of the following descriptive statistics would offer the best measure of central tendency? A. mean B. median C. standard deviation D. range Answer: B 146. The _______________ reflects the middle score in a data set, whereas the _______________ reflects the most frequent score. A. mean; mode B. mode; median C. mean; median D. median; mode Answer: D 147. In which situation would presenting the mean as one's measure of central tendency be least accurate? A. When the distribution is normally distributed B. When the distribution is positively skewed C. When the distribution is negatively skewed D. Whenever either B or C is true Answer: D 148. Suppose in a classroom of students you hear a few watches chime at the top of the hour, then more watches chime, then few again. Not one match chimed with any other, but likely the most chimes occurred at the true top of the hour. What could you say about the distribution of watch chimes in the classroom? A. The distribution is normally distributed. B. The distribution is positively skewed. C. The distribution is negatively skewed. D. The distribution is inversely skewed. Answer: A 149. Suppose in your kitchen you watch the popcorn kernels pop in the popper. A few kernels pop early, a few kernels pop late, but most pop in between. What could you say about the distribution of kernel popping? A. The distribution is normally distributed. B. The distribution is positively skewed. C. The distribution is negatively skewed. D. The distribution is inversely skewed. Answer: A 150. Suppose in a classroom of students some arrive early to class, but most students arrive just moments before class begins, and no one comes in after class has started. What could you say about the distribution of student arrival to class? A. The distribution is normally distributed. B. The distribution is positively skewed. C. The distribution is negatively skewed. D. The distribution is inversely skewed. Answer: C 151. Suppose at the movie theatre you observe that a few patrons arrive early, but most arrive just moments before the movie begins, and no one arrives late. What could you say about the distribution of patron arrivals at the theatre? A. The distribution is normally distributed. B. The distribution is positively skewed. C. The distribution is negatively skewed. D. The distribution is inversely skewed. Answer: C 152. Most people in general are quite happy, but there are some instances of mild depression, fewer cases are moderate depression, and even fewer cases of severe depression. What could you say about the distribution of depression in the general population? A. The distribution is normally distributed. B. The distribution is positively skewed. C. The distribution is negatively skewed. D. The distribution is inversely skewed. Answer: B 153. Which measure of central tendency uses all the available data? A. Mean B. Median C. Mode D. Standard deviation Answer: A 154. If I wanted to determine, on average, how far apart any one score is from another, I should use a measure of A. central tendency. B. correlation. C. statistical significance. D. variability. Answer: D 155. Which measure of dispersion uses all the available data? A. Mean B. Median C. Range D. Standard deviation Answer: D 156. This simplest measure of variability is the A. standard deviation. B. range. C. mode. D. mean. Answer: B 157. Which measure of variability uses only two data points? A. Standard deviation B. Range C. Variance D. Median Answer: B 158. Which descriptive statistic is least likely to be influenced by the presence of skewness? A. Standard deviation B. Mean C. Median D. Range Answer: C 159. This mathematical method allows researchers to determine whether they can generalize findings from a sample to the full population. A. Standard deviation B. Descriptive statistics C. Inferential statistics D. Differential statistics Answer: C 160. A researcher wishes to generalize his findings beyond the people at the organization he is studying in Alberta. He wants to attempt to show that the findings apply to all people who work in a similar type of organization throughout Canada. He should use _______________ to analyze his data. A. inferential statistics B. correlational statistics C. logical statistics D. descriptive statistics Answer: A 161. Increasing the sample size in a research study increases the chance of finding results that are _______________ significant but not necessarily _______________ significant. A. practically; statistically B. statistically; practically C. descriptively; inferentially D. inferentially; descriptively Answer: B 162. Dr. Loggins conducts a study examining the relationship between shoe size and scores on a math aptitude test in a sample of 15,000 young adults. He finds a significant negative correlation (r = -.06) between these two variables. What should he conclude from his data? A. The smaller a person’s feet, the better their math scores. B. He found a statistically significant result that he can generalize to the population. C. The practical significance of this finding is limited. D. His results will allow him to reliably predict math scores from foot size. Answer: C 163. In sciences and social sciences, another term for real-world importance is A. practical significance. B. statistical significance. C. inferential significance. D. differential significance. Answer: A 164. The term statistical significance implies that the results are A. not likely due to chance. B. valid. C. extremely meaningful. D. important. Answer: A 165. A therapist wishes to show that his new therapy is a marked improvement over the current best available therapy. To do so he examines the number of participants who improved with each. A total of 125 participants received his treatment (and 100 of them improved). A total of 80 participants received the alternative treatment (and 64 of them improved). What should the therapist conclude? A. His treatment is superior because it included 125 people as opposed to 80. B. His treatment is superior to the alternative because 100 is greater than 64. C. His treatment is no better than the alternative because the percentages are the same. D. His treatment is inferior because the percentages are the same. Answer: C 166. The peer review process is designed to A. make researchers feel bad when their article is not published. B. identify flaws in a research study's methods, findings, and conclusions. C. block alternative therapies from being made available to the general public. D. place obstacles in front of people whose theories differ from mainstream science. Answer: B 167. The purpose of a peer reviewer is to act as A. critical thinker. B. scientific gatekeeper. C. a hurdle. D. an obstacle. Answer: A 168. Pretend that you are a peer reviewer for a study on exposure therapy and arachnophobia (fear of spiders). The researcher chooses a group of patients who he thinks can handle the treatment (administered by a colleague), and has another group of patients as a control that he talks to about their fears weekly. He reports that following exposure therapy, those in the experimental group showed less fear of spiders than those in the control group. As a reviewer, what is the hidden flaw with this study that limits its claims? A. The researcher has not controlled for the placebo effect. B. There is no random assignment so it is not an experiment. C. The study has no dependent variable. D. The researcher has not controlled for the experimenter expectancy effect. Answer: B 169. The general public is often misled by discussions of research in the media because A. most reporters are lazy and attempting to do as little as possible in their jobs. B. most reporters are actively working to bias the public against scientific research. C. most reporters are not trained in understanding research or how to accurately communicate about it. D. most reporters are not fair and balanced in their reporting of the facts. Answer: C 170. Which of the following factors should not be strongly considered when evaluating the legitimacy of psychological reports in the media? A. The source of the claim. B. The reputation of the researcher. C. Sharpening. D. Levelling. Answer: B 171. Imagine you are doing a project for class on evaluating the effectiveness of different treatments for anxiety disorders. You begin your project by searching for resources on the internet. Which of the following sources should not be considered a source of credible information? A. Canadian Psychological Association website B. Link to a meta-analysis on anxiety treatments C. Madame Chloe’s ICureScaredPeople.Com D. An article in Scientific American magazine Answer: C 172. A major limitation in reading about the results of psychological research in the newspaper is that A. reporters provide too much detailed information about the research study that the general public cannot comprehend in their articles. B. reporters create controversy where none exists by treating scientific evidence and dissenter's biased opinions as equally compelling. C. reporters are so well trained to discuss research that they cannot easily communicate about it with the average lay person. D. reporters do not know how to identify experts to interview for many of their stories and end up unintentionally misleading the public. Answer: B 173. A key factor to consider when reading about the results of a study on the Internet, in a newspaper, or in a news magazine is to A. determine how well it fits with what others have told you in the past. B. rely on your common sense or “gut” intuition. C. consider the source of the information. D. None of the above Answer: C 174. _______________ occurs when you read about a psychological study in the newspaper, and notice that the report tends to minimize the central purpose of the study. A. Sharpening B. Source discrediting C. Levelling D. Balancing Answer: C 175. _______________ occurs when you read about a psychological study in the newspaper, and notice that the gist or central message of a study seems to be exaggerated. A. Sharpening B. Source discrediting C. Levelling D. Balancing Answer: A 176. If you were to read about a psychological study in each of the following magazines, in which source should you place more confidence that the study was presented accurately? A. Scientific American Mind B. Vogue C. National Enquirer D. People Answer: A 177. Perceptions of events outside the known channels of sensation are referred to as A. revelations. B. intuitions. C. extrasensory perceptions. D. transverse readings. Answer: C 178. One of the strongest critics to psychic abilities is _____________, who has offered a $1 million reward to any successful demonstration under controlled conditions. A. Paul Ganzfeld B. James Van Praagh C. James Randi D. Sylvia Browne Answer: C 179. From 1972 to 1995, the US government invested $20 million in the Stargate program to study the ability of A. psychics to locate missing persons. B. Polish immigrants to locate nuclear facilities in other countries. C. Russian immigrants to read minds. D. remote viewers to acquire useful military information through clairvoyance. Answer: D 180. The media tries to balance its coverage of controversial topics to avoid _______________, the appearance of a scientific controversy where none exists. A. media bullying B. canalization C. pseudoscience D. pseudosymmetry Answer: D 181. _______________ occurs when the media presents balanced coverage on a topic (e.g., ESP) that is superficial and makes it seem like there is a scientific controversy where none exists. A. Pseudoscience B. Pseudosymmetry C. The Ganzfeld technique D. Positive impression management Answer: B 182. J.B. Rhine at Duke University in the 1930s began to study extrasensory abilities using _______________ cards, consisting of five unique symbols (wavy lines, a star, a circle, a plus, and a square). A. Ganzfeld B. Geller C. Randi D. Zener Answer: D 183. Although J. B. Rhine’s Zener card studies produced curious findings, the main problem involved A. no prior hypothesis. B. a lack of peer review. C. falsifiability. D. replication. Answer: D 184. The results from J. B. Rhine’s studies using Zener cards at Duke University in the 1930s were challenged because subjects could A. guess the card based on the behaviour of the card reader. B. guess the order of the cards over time. C. see the card in a reflection off Rhine’s spectacles. D. see through the cards since they were so worn down. Answer: D 185. Researchers will likely use a _______________ to reduce background noise and increase the sensitively to ESP signals, transmitted by a sender. A. Honorton experiment B. Geller design C. Rhine design D. Ganzfeld experiment Answer: D 186. Using a _______________, Bem and Honorton provided convincing evidence for ESP. These conclusions were later overturned by Milton and Wiseman using the same technique, saying the Ganzfeld effects were small and largely at chance levels. A. case study approach B. correlational design C. experimental design D. meta-analysis Answer: D 187. When proponents of parapsychology don’t find the results they are seeking, they argue negative findings are due to all of the following except A. the psi missing effect. B. the experimenter effect. C. the horns effect. D. the decline effect. Answer: C 188. Which of the following fallacies was cited as the most likely reason that people continue to believe in ESP? A. Gambler’s fallacy B. Base-rate fallacy C. Fallacy of negative instances D. Fallacy of positive instances Answer: D 189. Mentalists who specialize in psychological magic may offer clients a _____________, which refers to the art of persuading someone you’ve just met that you know all about them. A. karmic reading B. cosmic forecast C. spiritual prediction D. cold reading Answer: D 190. Which of the following is not a trick that makes psychic claims seem more believable? A. Lack of attention to failed psychic predictions. B. Use of cold reading techniques. C. Citing research conducted using scientific methods. D. Use of multiple end points. Answer: C 191. An example of the sleight of tongue technique used in cold reading is a statement such as _______________. A. “You’ve recently been struggling with some tough decisions in life.” B. “I’m sensing that someone with the letter M or N has been important in your life lately.” C. “Has your father been ill? What about your mother? Hmm I sense that someone in your family is ill or concerned about getting ill.” D. “I believe you have a piece of clothing, like an old dress or blouse, that you haven’t worn in years but have kept for sentimental value.” Answer: C 192. An example of the use of population stereotypes in cold reading is a statement such as _______________. A. “You’ve recently been struggling with some tough decisions in life.” B. “I’m sensing that someone with the letter M or N has been important in your life lately.” C. “Has your father been ill? What about your mother? Hmm I sense that someone in your family is ill or concerned about getting ill.” D. “I believe you have a piece of clothing, like an old dress or blouse, that you haven’t worn in years but have kept for sentimental value.” Answer: D 193. An example of the stock spiel technique used in cold reading is a statement such as A. “You’ve recently been struggling with some tough decisions in life.” B. “I’m sensing that someone with the letter M or N has been important in your life lately.” C. “Has your father been ill? What about your mother? Hmm I sense that someone in your family is ill or concerned about getting ill.” D. “I believe you have a piece of clothing, like an old dress or blouse, that you haven’t worn in years but have kept for sentimental value.” Answer: A Fill in the Blank Questions 1. The view of humans as cognitive processors who are lazy, looking to make judgments quickly, and without much effort is known as the _______________ perspective. Answer: cognitive miser 2. The more easily an image of a horrific event comes to mind, like a major airline crash or a bloody images from a school shooting, the more often we assume it occurs. In reality, however, each of these are relatively rare, infrequent events. We have fallen victim to the ____________ Answer: availability heuristic. 3. When asked to estimate how many classes we'll skip during the current semester, we are more likely to have higher levels of the certainty of our answers as compared to our actual accuracy. This is known as _______________. Answer: overconfidence (or the overconfidence effect or overconfidence phenomenon). 4. If a researcher investigated the topic of aggression by simply recording instances of aggression on a school playground, in a place of business, in a nightclub, and in many other everyday settings, he or she would be using the research design of _______________. Answer: naturalistic observation. 5. The degree of statistical association between two variables is the focus of _______________ designs. Answer: correlational 6. According to the authors, many examples of superstitious behaviour are the result of ____________ Answer: illusory correlation. 7. The major advantage of a correlational design over a naturalistic observation or a case study design is that a correlational design allows us to make predictions _______________. Answer: (or make predictions about future events or describe and make predictions about behaviour). 8. Causal inferences are only possible with a(n) _______________ design. Answer: experimental 9. The ability to state that differences in the conditions of the independent variable led to the observed differences in the dependent variable is lessened when a _______________ variable is present in one's research design. Answer: confounding 10. One important limitation of the experimental design is that when research participants know what condition they have been assigned to, this knowledge, rather than the independent variable, may be the cause of the differences observed in the dependent variable. This is known as the _______________ effect. Answer: placebo (nocebo is also correct) 11. When neither the experimenter nor the participant have any knowledge of the experimental condition to which the participant has been assigned, we say that this is a _______________ study. Answer: double-blind 12. During the 1950s, several researchers joined a Doomsday cult to observe what happened when the leader's predictions failed to occur. This is an example of _______________. Answer: participant observation. 13. A sociologist, in an effort to better understand today's college student, enrolled in classes at another university and posed as a student as she gathered evidence on academic and social habits. This is an example of _______________. Answer: participant observation. 14. _______________ is the most important part of ensuring the generalizability of one's results to the general population. Answer: Random selection (or Random sampling) 15. Dr. Barrios is examining the relationship between student scores on a practice test in his senior-level class with their actual performance, with different questions, on his first exam. If there is consistency or stability in these scores, Dr. Barrios would be able to say that _______________ exists. Answer: reliability 16. An important concern in research is that people will respond in a manner that conveys a specific impression rather than in a way that reflects his or her true behaviour. When people do this to make themselves appear more skilled than they really are, they are engaging in the response set of ____________ Answer: positive impression management. 17. If a professor gave an exam and the entire class scored within the C range, this would be similar to the rating error known as _______________. Answer: error of central tendency (or central tendency error). 18. In most experimental and correlational studies, the researcher is required to obtain the participant's _______________. Answer: informed consent. 19. Dr. Friesz asks his research assistant to gather information on how his data are clustering together on the variable, average daily temperature for December. He is asking for a measure of _______________. Answer: central tendency. 20. If a statistician asks you, his assistant, to calculate the middle score from a data set, he is asking you to determine the value of the ____________ Answer: median. 21. The preferred measure of dispersion in descriptive statistics is the ____________ Answer: standard deviation. 22. The goal of inferential statistics is to _______________ our results to other similar samples. Answer: apply or generalize 23. Before one's research is published in a scientific journal, it must be evaluated in terms of its accuracy and contribution to the field. This evaluation is referred to as _______________. Answer: peer review. 24. Jay is writing an article for the school newspaper about student attendance. His main point is that during the final semester of one's senior year, a student is more likely to miss school. Data obtained from his principal indicate that on any given day 17% of the senior class is absent (compared to 12% of juniors, and 13% and 16% of sophomores and freshmen). His headline reads “Senioritis: A Real Phenomenon.” He has engaged in use of the misleading tool of _______________. Answer: levelling. Critical Thinking Questions 1. Describe how the use of research designs protects us from heuristics and cognitive biases. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following information for full credit. • Student should mention that research requires that we make our predictions beforehand so that the hindsight bias does not lead us to exaggerate our abilities to correctly understand a complex world. • The research studies use techniques that focus on recording or gathering information so that our intuitions are not allowed to bias the results (such as avoiding availability and representativeness heuristics). • Designs themselves have limitations so that further research is needed to establish the reliability and validity of our findings. Research designs provide a structured and systematic approach to investigating phenomena. This structure helps researchers avoid relying solely on intuition or initial impressions (heuristics) by outlining clear steps for gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data. 2. Use your knowledge of the case study and naturalistic observation to show why they are better devices for identifying important topics for further study rather than being designs that allow for theory building and testing. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following for full credit. • Both are examples of descriptive research designs (identifying and organizing information about general patterns of behaviours) rather than examples of either predictive (i.e., correlational design) or causal (i.e., experimental design) designs. • Both lack important elements of more complex designs that allow theory testing (lack of controls, inability in most cases to separate elements to allow greater understanding of what is necessary and what is not for a behaviour to occur, studying a few people that may not be representative of larger population). • Direct interaction by researcher with people may strongly influence the data they provide to us (which is often minimized by other methods). Case studies and naturalistic observation excel in identifying important topics for further study because they offer rich, context-specific insights into complex phenomena. However, their strengths lie more in generating hypotheses rather than rigorous testing of theories due to their qualitative and exploratory nature. 3. Discuss why researchers need to be familiar with both descriptive and inferential statistics. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following ideas for full credit. • Student needs to mention that each gives a different kind of information because each has differing goals (organization and summarization for descriptive and generalization for inferential). • Techniques in each can be misused in different ways to make effects appear that really are not accurate or appropriate. • Often both are used in conjunction by the researcher rather than being two types that are chosen between (e.g., using the means of the groups to help see the statistically significant group differences). Researchers need to be familiar with both descriptive and inferential statistics to effectively analyze and interpret data. Descriptive statistics summarize and present data in a meaningful way, providing initial insights. Inferential statistics, on the other hand, enable researchers to make inferences and generalizations about populations based on sample data, thereby supporting the validity and reliability of their findings Essay Questions 1. Identify and describe the four main heuristics and biases that can lead us to errors in thinking, and provide an example of each. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit. 1. Representativeness heuristic: judging the probability of an event by its superficial similarity to a prototype (e.g., thinking Roger is a computer science major because of his characteristics). 2. Availability heuristic: estimate the likelihood of an occurrence based on how easily it comes to mind (e.g., number of calories in beer versus dry-roasted peanuts—beer comes to mind first so judge these to be more). 3. Hindsight bias: overestimate how well we could have successfully forecast known outcomes (e.g., I knew it all along effect, predicting terrorist attacks). 4. Overconfidence bias: overestimate our ability to make correct predictions (e.g., which city is farther north—Edmonton, Winnipeg, or Saskatoon and asking for confidence ratings). 1. Availability heuristic: Judging the likelihood of an event based on how easily examples come to mind (e.g., overestimating crime rates after watching news reports). 2. Representativeness heuristic: Making judgments about probability based on how similar something is to a typical example (e.g., assuming someone who likes poetry is a literature professor rather than a truck driver). 3. Anchoring and adjustment bias: Relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered (the anchor) when making decisions, even if it's irrelevant (e.g., setting a price based on an initial, arbitrary suggestion). 4. Confirmation bias: Seeking and interpreting information in ways that confirm pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses (e.g., selectively recalling evidence that supports a political viewpoint). 2. Why is it necessary for psychologists to have so many different research designs to study human behaviour? Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit. • Each research design has its own important limitations. Students should identify at least two examples from two different designs to earn full credit. • The goals of research differ (some focus on description, others on predictions, and others on establishing causation). • If different methods produce similar results, this increases our confidence in our understanding of a particular phenomenon (idea of convergence). Psychologists require a variety of research designs to capture the complexity and diversity of human behavior. Different designs, such as experiments, case studies, surveys, and longitudinal studies, allow researchers to investigate various aspects of behavior, such as causality, development over time, individual differences, and real-world contexts. Each design offers unique strengths in addressing specific research questions and hypotheses, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of human behavior across different contexts and conditions. 3. Discuss how the concept of the illusory correlation would explain a friend's complaint that his fraternity/her sorority (or other student group) is always being displayed in a negative light by the campus newspaper while other groups are not treated the same. Answer: Answers will vary but should include the following to earn full credit. • Student should define or describe what the illusory correlation is in his or her answer (either directly or demonstrate an understanding indirectly). • The student should discuss the general ideas associated with the Great Fourfold Table of Life from page 76. More specifically, he or she should focus on the fact that the student—in the question—is focusing on instances where negative portrayal of the fraternity/sorority are occurring but is neglecting stories about the fraternity/sorority that are positive or have no evaluative component. Likewise the student—in the question—is also ignoring when other groups are discussed negatively or other negative stories that are irrelevant to friend's group are published. The concept of illusory correlation suggests that people perceive a relationship between two variables that does not actually exist. In this case, if a friend feels their fraternity or sorority is frequently portrayed negatively in the campus newspaper while other groups are not, they may perceive a biased pattern where none exists. This perception could stem from selective attention to negative instances or incidents involving their group, leading to an exaggerated belief of consistent negative portrayal. 4. Illustrate why being an informed consumer about research, research designs, and statistics will be helpful in identifying incorrect statements about research in the media and on the Internet. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain at least four of the following, and include the first idea, for full credit. • Student should mention that understanding research designs will aid in identifying when statements of cause and effect are appropriate and when they are not. (Need to give supportive evidence for this and all statements to see that they truly demonstrate an understanding of each idea.) • One will recognize misleading or inaccurate statistical statements. • One will recognize when headlines are inaccurate summaries of the research results. • One will recognize when reporters or writers have used sharpening or levelling. • One will consider the source and whether the story coverage is balanced or whether it muddies the discussion. Being informed about research, designs, and statistics allows one to critically evaluate media and internet claims. Understanding these concepts helps identify incorrect statements by assessing whether studies were appropriately designed, if statistical analyses were valid, and if conclusions are supported by evidence. This knowledge empowers individuals to discern between reliable research findings and misleading or misrepresented information. 5. Identify and describe two pitfalls in experimental design, what the implications are for interpreting the results of a study and how these pitfalls can be avoided. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit (any two of the following). Placebo effect: improvement resulting from expectations (can overcome this by using single-blind procedures), implications are that improvements may not be stemming from the “treatment” per se Nocebo effect: harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm (also overcome using single-blind procedures), people can subjectively experience pain if they believe they may be hurt Experimenter expectancy effect: researchers predictions unintentionally bias the outcome of a study (can be overcome by double-blind procedures), the experimenter can sometimes give away cues without knowing it that influence the participants behaviours Demand characteristics: cues that participants pick up from an experiment that allow them to guess what the hypothesis of a study does (can be overcome by double-blind procedures) Two pitfalls in experimental design include: 1. Selection bias: When participants are not randomly assigned to groups, leading to non-representative samples. This can skew results and compromise the generalizability of findings. To avoid, use random assignment to ensure each participant has an equal chance of being in any experimental group. 2. Demand characteristics: When participants alter their behavior based on perceived expectations of the study, rather than their true behavior. This can distort results and invalidate conclusions. Avoid by using double-blind procedures where both participants and experimenters are unaware of the study's hypotheses and conditions. 6. Describe the roles of research ethics boards and statements of informed consent within the human research process. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following for full credit. • Research ethics boards (REBs) review all research carefully with an eye toward protecting participants against abuses. REBs consist of faculty members with expertise in research and ethics, as well as community members who are not involved in research or with the institution performing and reviewing the research. • The informed consent ensures that participants understand what is being asked of them and what will be involved in their experience. Participants must be given enough information to make a decision to voluntarily participate in the research. If they are misled during the research, the missing information must be explained during a debriefing Research ethics boards (REBs) review and oversee studies to ensure they adhere to ethical standards, protecting participants' rights and well-being. Statements of informed consent inform participants about the study's purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits, ensuring they voluntarily agree to participate with a full understanding of what it entails. Both mechanisms ensure ethical conduct and safeguard participant autonomy and safety. 7. Explain why no single measure of central tendency and measure of dispersion exists that a researcher can use every single time. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following information for full credit. • Sometimes one measure is more appropriate than another. For example, the mean is distorted by the presence of outliers in a skewed distribution, so a researcher would be advised to report the median instead. • It depends what information a researcher wants to highlight. For example, if a researcher wants to identify what was the most frequently endorsed option for a question, he or she would choose the mode. If he or she wants to report about how the scores were represented over all the possible answers he or she would report the mean. • Some people may wish to know the typical difference between scores and thus choose standard deviation while others would look at the amount of difference from the most extreme scores and choose the range. • A researcher cannot just report central tendency or just dispersion because it tells only part of the whole, either where scores are located (central tendency) or how much difference between scores is present (dispersion). No single measure of central tendency (e.g., mean, median, mode) or measure of dispersion (e.g., range, standard deviation) is universally applicable because different types of data distributions require different approaches for accurate representation. For example, skewed data may better be described by the median and interquartile range, while symmetrical distributions may be adequately summarized by the mean and standard deviation. Choosing the appropriate measures depends on the data's distributional characteristics and research objectives. 8. Compare and contrast the differences between a correlational and experimental design. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit. Correlation: measures 2 variables that often can’t be manipulated; examines relationships (positive or negative) between variables and the strength of those associations; cannot make causal conclusions but can test preliminary ideas Experiment: uses dependent (measured) and independent (manipulated) variables; examines cause-and-effect relationships; permits causal conclusions; requires random assignment and manipulation of IV Correlational designs examine the relationship between variables without manipulation, focusing on assessing how variables co-vary naturally. Experimental designs, on the other hand, involve manipulating variables to determine causation and allow researchers to control variables and establish causal relationships. While correlational designs identify associations, they cannot infer causation due to potential confounding variables, whereas experimental designs aim to establish cause-and-effect relationships through controlled manipulation and random assignment. 9. Distinguish between the different types of reliability and validity, and what are the main differences between them. Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit. Reliability: consistency of measurement (subtypes test-retest: scores over a period of time; interrater: scores/coding done by raters on the same data are related) Validity: measuring what you are claiming to measure (related to internal and external validity) Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of a measurement tool or procedure. Types include test-retest reliability (consistency of results over time), inter-rater reliability (consistency among different raters), and internal consistency reliability (consistency within a measurement tool). Validity, on the other hand, concerns the accuracy and appropriateness of a measurement in relation to the construct being measured. Types include content validity (extent to which a measure represents all facets of a construct), criterion validity (relationship with other measures or outcomes), and construct validity (extent to which a measure accurately represents an underlying theoretical construct). While reliability focuses on consistency, validity assesses whether a measure truly measures what it intends to measure. 10. Your friend Sasha has approached you because she just read an article in the Paranormal Enquirer magazine that described a research finding that introverts are more likely to have extrasensory perception (ESP). What tips would you recommend to your friend in evaluating the legitimacy of this claim? Answer: Answers will vary but should contain the following points for full credit. 1. Consider the source of the claim (and explain) 2. Be aware of excessive sharpening (exaggeration of gist/central message) or levelling (minimise less central details of a study) 3. Don’t be misled by seemingly balanced coverage of a story I would recommend Sasha to consider the following tips: 1. Source credibility: Evaluate the credibility of the Paranormal Enquirer magazine as a source of scientific information. 2. Research methodology: Look for details on how the study was conducted—was it based on a robust experimental design or anecdotal evidence? 3. Peer-reviewed sources: Encourage Sasha to seek similar findings in peer-reviewed journals where research undergoes rigorous scrutiny. 4. Scientific consensus: Check if the claim aligns with established scientific consensus on ESP and personality traits. These steps can help Sasha assess the reliability and validity of the claim before accepting it as scientifically credible. Test Bank for Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven J. Lynn, Laura L. Namy, Nancy J. Woolf, Kenneth M. Cramer, Rodney Schmaltz 9780205896110, 9780133793048, 9780133870282
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