Exam 1: The Mission and the Method

When a researcher conducts an experiment, and is fairly certain that changes in the independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable, that experiment is said to be high in ____________________.

When people work on a task jointly with someone else (e.g., putting together a large bookcase), each person tends to put in less effort than he or she would if working alone.

Social psychologists are generally similar to Freudian psychoanalysts in that they both ____.

Dr. Zink and Dr. Vasquez are designing a new study. They have come up with a good hypothesis for the study, but they are having trouble thinking of operational definitions for their variables. In other words, they are concerned that their research might be low in ____.

Explain the difference between applied and basic research.

If you conduct a study and predict that excessive computer use causes social awkwardness, then social awkwardness is the ____________________ variable.

Replication is essential to the self-correcting nature of science.

The construct "need for cognition" is a measure of how much a person likes to think deeply, evaluate arguments, and analyze ideas. Let us assume that the "need for cognition" is also thought to be characterized by unsociability. The construct "love for connection" is a measure of how much a person values the friendship of others. The "love for connection" is also thought to be characterized by sociability. A study finding that "need for cognition" is NOT related to "love for connection" MOST illustrates ____ validity.

The scientific method consists of approximately ____ basic steps.

Kiki is participating in a study in which she completes a self-report of how much she identifies with conservative versus liberal political groups. One of the measures says "I am a true Reaganite" and another says "I am a hippie at heart." Kiki must rate her level of agreement with each statement. As she fills out the report, she thinks, "These statements are really effective in capturing whether I am right- or left-leaning." The fact that Kiki has this thought suggests that the measure has ____ validity.

Based on early research by Norman Triplett with racing cyclists, we should expect that people who exercise on rowing machines at gyms are more likely to ____ than people who exercise on the same machines in the privacy of their homes.

Dr. Hon is a researcher who studies methods for increasing condom usage among sexually active teens. Dr. Hon would probably be BEST described as a(n) ____.

Dr. Shar wants to test her theory that people feel less stressed after exercising. She measures students' stress levels and then has them perform 30 minutes of moderate exercise on a treadmill. After the treadmill segment, she measures their stress levels again. This is an example of a(n) ____ design.

You want to ask your friend Maya to help you with your sorority's float for the competition in the homecoming parade next week. Maya is extremely reliable and trustworthy, but she is totally swamped with her internship and upcoming midterm exams. You decide not to ask her since she might be too busy to follow through. According to Kurt Lewin's analysis of human behavior, knowing that Maya is reliable is an example of "____" information, and knowing she is busy is an example of "____" information.

Consider the following study: Participants either perform a complex task in front of others or a simple task alone. The experimenter plans to examine the effects of task complexity and the presence of others on performance. This study is confounded.

Mariah wants to study the effects of arousal and cost on helping behavior. She has two experimental conditions of high versus low arousal, and combines that with two experimental conditions with high and low cost of helping. This creates four possible conditions: high arousal/high cost, high arousal/low cost, low arousal/high cost, and low arousal/low cost. She then measures which condition results in the highest rate of helping behavior. Mariah has employed ____.

Dr. Taylor is conducting a study to test the effect of a new drug on people's ability to concentrate at work. His research sample consists of 100 US adults. During a 14-week period, half of the sample is administered the drug and the other half is administered a placebo, and participants' concentration abilities are continually tracked. In the context of this study, if Dr. Taylor uses random assignment, it means that ____.

Suppose that a researcher decided to study everyday altruism towards men versus towards women by leaving (fake) fully addressed college applications in airport lobbies (identical except with male versus female applicant names), and then tracking the number of people who send in the application. What kind of study of this?

Dr. Gem studies individual differences in introversion (a trait similar to shyness). Dr. Gem is MOST likely a _____ psychologist.

In which of the following situations would Igor be MOST likely to experience reactance?