Exam 2: The Research Enterprise in Psychology

A researcher who is conducting an opinion survey asks viewers who are watching a political debate to dial a 1-800 number and record their opinion to the "question of the day." In this case the researcher is likely to have

The various methods and procedures used in conducting psychological research and evaluating the research of other psychologists are consistent with which unifying theme in psychology?

Manipulating a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observing the changes in a second variable defines

The research method that is often used to obtain information concerning individuals' behaviors,attitudes,and/or opinions is the

When research results are said to be statistically significant it means that

The primary reason for the ethical dilemmas psychologists encounter regarding the use of deception in research reflects concerns

When variability in a data set is large,the standard deviation will be ____; when variability is small,the standard deviation will be ____.

Hypotheses are typically expressed as

The two major advantages of the scientific method are its ____________________,or the fact that it requires that people specify exactly what they are talking about and its intolerance of error.

Which of the following statements is MOST accurate concerning the results of the research study by Rosenthal and Fode described in the text book?

If a college professor surveyed his students about their attitudes concerning the social security system and concluded that young adults doubt that they will ever receive social security benefits,his conclusion would be flawed because

Most psychological journal articles include an abstract,an introduction,methods,results and discussion section and a list of bibliographic references.

According to APA ethical guidelines,psychological studies may not rely on the use of deception unless the subject's privacy could be compromised.

A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables is a(n)

The goals of the scientific enterprise in psychology are to describe,understand,predict and control behavior.

The group of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study is known as the ____________________.

A group of researchers wants to determine if people are more likely to follow directions if the person giving the directions is in a uniform.Half the participants are directed to a parking spot by a uniformed security guard,the other half are directed to a parking spot by an individual wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt.In this study,the dependent variable would be

Suppose researchers find a negative relationship between alcohol consumption and the number of correct responses on a skills test: the more alcohol consumed the lower the score.Which of the following fictitious statistics could possibly represent that correlation?

In experimental research,the variable that the researcher measures because it is thought to be affected by the manipulation of another variable is the

Operational definitions are most closely associated with which major advantage of the scientific approach?