Exam 4: Research Methods

Your friend was the recipient of a nine-month research grant.Based on her interests,she can choose one of the four areas of concentration.She has always wanted to work with street youth.Based on this fact,what prevention strategy will she most likely choose?

In an attempt to compare treatment strategies in various psychiatric settings,researchers are evaluating the psychiatric patients' levels of depression every four months for four years in three different hospitals.What type of research are they applying?

What are cohort effects?

At this point,the human genome project has been successful in producing which of the following?

Dr.Ishmael wants to use a case study design.Which of the following is a possible problem her chosen method?

While studying the impact of nutrition on intelligence,a researcher gives one group of rats a vitamin-rich diet while the other rat group eats Big Macs.While observing the rats run a complicated maze,the researcher notes that the vitamin-enhanced rats' maze is more brightly lit than the Big Mac rats' maze.What is the difference in lighting in this study?

A researcher examines the effects of violent media on aggressive behaviour in a lab setting.The experimental group views a violent video clip,and the control group views a nonviolent video clip.This method is used instead of asking participants to monitor their naturally occurring TV viewing to reduce the possibility of confounds,such as variations in the level and amount of aggressive images they watch.In doing so,the researcher will increase the internal validity of her study,but which of the following does she risk reducing?

What is one reason why cross-sectional studies are more common than longitudinal studies?

What is the purpose of random assignment?

A researcher studying a family with a history of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)records data for each person in the family with OCD and for those who have been diagnosed with OCD in the past.The researcher is interested in whether family members with OCD share any other inherited characteristics.What type of research is being conducted?

While trying to discover the nature of the relationship between stress and blood pressure,a researcher asks participants to complete a difficult task.The researcher monitors the participants' blood pressure while exposing some participants to noisy distractions and other participants to a quiet environment.What type of research study is this?

Define the term "hypothesis" and create two different testable hypotheses regarding possible causes of depression.

Describe how genetic linkage studies are conducted and how these studies may help identify the specific locations of genes influencing a particular form of psychopathology.

Describe the case study as a research method.Explain several advantages and disadvantages of the case study as a research method.

Consider the correlation between the amount of time university students study and their heights in centimetres.What kind of correlation is this?

A researcher has found that the more hours students spend socializing,the lower their exam scores tend to be.What do the findings of this study illustrate?

Your friend Sally has trouble making commitments in relationships,and you believe that this is because Sally's parents had a bitter divorce when she was young.What is exemplified by your belief that a child who lives through a bitter parental divorce will have trouble making commitments in relationships as an adult?

One of the major problems with the case study method is that it is too easy to make false conclusions based on which of the following?

In the early 20th century,many people displayed symptoms of a disorder similar to organic psychosis.Most of these people were also poor,which led to speculation about class inferiority.Goldberger found correlations between the disorder and diet,and identified the cause of the disorder as a deficiency of the B vitamin niacin.What was this research study an early example of?

A researcher is studying how people of different ages tend to experience anxiety.The researcher interviews anxious adolescents,young adults,individuals in their 30s and 50s,and those over 70.What do the individuals in each age group represent?