Exam 2: How Psychologists Do Research

Psychologists typically consider a result to be significant if it would be expected to occur by chance _______________ times in 100 repetitions of the study.

In a laboratory, smokers are asked to drive using a computerized driving simulator and cover the maximum distance possible, while avoiding rear-end collisions. Some volunteers are given a real cigarette to smoke immediately before the test. Others smoke a fake cigarette without nicotine. The number of collisions the two groups make is to be compared. The control group in this scenario consists of:

Dr. Alvarez is conducting research comparing the child-rearing styles of mothers in rural China to the child-rearing styles of mother in Papua, New Guinea. It is most likely that she is engaged in:

A researcher studies the history of a suicide bomber who attempted to blow up a police station. The researcher's goal is to understand the events and personality traits that led the person to become a bomber. This type of research is called a(n):

Unintended changes in subjects' behaviour due to cues inadvertently given by the experimenter in an experimental study are called:

After their marriage, Patrick and Mary Anne agreed to participate in a research project that investigated differences in the level of marital satisfaction over time. Every five years they had to complete a survey that indicated their marital satisfaction. Patrick and Mary Anne are participants in a:

A(n) _______________ study is a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two phenomena.

Experiments are more valuable than other research methods because:

To test whether people in bars drink more when they are in groups than when they are alone, researchers visited all the pubs in a city. They ordered beers and recorded observations on napkins and pieces of newspaper. Why did they keep their identities in disguise?

_______________ gather information by asking people directly about their experiences, attitudes, or opinions.

People who participate in research studies must participate voluntarily and must know enough about the study to make an intelligent decision about participating. This concept is known as:

Assessment instruments that are designed to tap unconscious feelings or motives are called:

Which of the following are a type of inferential statistic?

Apparent associations between two things that are not really related are called _______________ correlations.

A psychological test is said to have content validity if:

Two sets of observations assessing shoe size and IQ are compared. Which of the following is the most likely outcome?

A statement that attempts to predict or account for a set of phenomena is called a(n) _______________.

When the relationship between age and mental abilities is studied through cross-sectional methods, the results often conflict with the findings from longitudinal studies. Explain the basic procedures in each type of study and then discuss why the two methods sometimes yield different results.

Ideally, in an experimental situation, everything is held constant except for the _______________, which is manipulated by the researchers.

Which of the following statements is true about correlation?