Exam 6: Research Validity

Which of the following is a way to increase the external validity of a study?

Dr. Jones is conducting some research on two college campuses involving food allergies. At one campus educational information on the diagnosis of food allergies is disseminated Campus A) while it is not distributed at the other campus Campus B). Dr. Jones measures through random email surveys, students' knowledge of food allergies. During the week she is disseminating the information at Campus A the student newspaper also runs a story about students with food allergies which is not part of Dr. Jones' program. If the student newspaper article influences students' knowledge of food allergies, what potential confounding variable is at work in this example?

What is an important way to help insure that one's experimental sample of participants is adequately representative of the population from which it is drawn?

Sanjay is studying whether his racism awareness program increases people's awareness of issues of race and ethnicity in his city. On Monday, he gives an attitude survey to his participants to gauge their awareness. On Tuesday through Thursday, he puts them through his program. On Wednesday, a local predominantly black church is firebombed and the KKK claims responsibility. On Friday, Sanjay gives his awareness survey again and finds awareness of racial issues has increased dramatically. This example illustrates the possibility of ______ as a plausible rival hypothesis.

When the results of a study can be generalized across variations in the treatment we have

When the results of a study can be generalized across settings, situations, and environmental conditions, the study has

Failure to identify interactive effects of independent variables can result in

Which of the following is NOT an example of psychosocial experimenter attributes?

Issues regarding external validity can be partitioned into several categories. Which of the following is NOT one of those categories?

Although most research is done in the laboratory setting, eventually we would want to know that laboratory results are applicable in a real world setting. This is an issue of

Which of the following might contain a serious threat to the external validity of a study?

Using operational definitions to define research participants, the experimental setting, the independent or dependent variable is important for which type of validity?

"External validity" of an experiment refers to the extent to which

Dr. Tubs developed a 7-step treatment plan for weight loss. Because of the success of this treatment plan it became a standard part of the education of all graduate clinical psychology students. However, many of these students, after completing their education and setting up their own private practice, modified this treatment plan as they continued to treat obese individuals. Although the 7-step treatment plan was slightly modified in many ways by many different clinical psychologists, it was still very effective for weight loss. This treatment plan

Which of the following is an example of an "experimenter-expectancy effect?"

The quality of an experiment is judged by its internal validity. When we say that an experiment is internally valid, it means that

In the context of extraneous variables, "history" refers to

While studying the effects of overcrowding on aggressive behavior in elephants, Dr. Webster made sure to have his research assistants gather data before, during and after the breeding season. Her concern was probably due to

Which of the following may compromise the statistical conclusion validity of an experiment?

Dr. Ferenz, an older male psychologist, conducts extensive interviews with rape victims. From these interviews he finds that the rape victims display little about the traumatic effects of this crime. However, Dr. Martinez, a middle-aged female psychologist, replicates his study and finds a rich portrait of the after-effects of rape. Why would the results of these two studies differ so widely?