Exam 6: Surveys and Observations: Describing What People Do

Dr.Leman is interested in using a survey to study people's experiences with natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy and the tornadoes that hit Joplin, Missouri, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.Provide one reason why a survey is a good method to study this topic and one reason that a survey may not be a good method.

Dr.Jewell is interested in measuring people's attitudes toward proposed tax cuts.One of his items reads, "People who support cutting taxes are not well informed about how the government works." What is the problem with this question?

How do reverse-worded items address shortcuts?

Which of the following is true when asking people questions about themselves?

Which of the following is a poll likely to measure?

Which of the following is a unique threat to construct validity found only in behavioral observation?

Which of the following questions is most likely to result in a socially desirable answer?

Why would behavioral observation be a good research method for studying a high-frequency behavior (e.g., number of words spoken in a day or number of steps taken in a week)?

RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr.Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr.Ewell is concerned that the children will behave differently because of the presence of research assistants.Which of the following could he do to address this concern?

Observer bias relates mainly to , whereas observer effects stem from

In his measure of "need for cognition" (the degree to which people like thinking and problem-solving), Dr.Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: "I have never not enjoyed thinking." What is the problem with this question?

Julian creates a survey asking participants first to report how happy they are in their marriage and then second to report how happy they are in their life.His advisor, Dr.Fuentes, recommends that he create a second version of the survey that reverses the order of these questions.Why is Julian's advisor recommending this?

RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr.Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr.Ewell decides to collect his data at a neighborhood park.He has his two research assistants pose as a married couple having a picnic.While having their picnic, they take detailed records of the sharing behavior of the children and note whether the pairs are same sex or opposite sex.This technique is known as:

A question that leads people to answer in a particular way is known as a(n):

What is an advantage of open-ended questions? What is a disadvantage?

There are several ways to decrease socially desirable responding.Choose one of these and explain why it decreases this response tendency.

A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were "bloomers" and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year.In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class.At the end of the year, the "bloomers" showed more gains in IQ than the other students.It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the "bloomers" in special ways.This is an example of which of the following?

Masked, or blind, study designs are designed to deal with:

Dr.Gore is conducting a survey examining people's opinions toward funding for collegiate athletics on his campus.He notices that several participants agree with all 12 questions.This could be an example of all of the following EXCEPT:

RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr.Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Imagine that Dr.Ewell wants to videotape the children interacting in the park.Which of the following is true?