Exam 2: Research Methods

Sarah, a graduate student in psychology, just heard about a five-year-old child who has already learned calculus. She is thinking about doing an in-depth study of the child for her dissertation. Sarah is considering which research method?

Professor Wagner is explaining to his subjects the purpose behind the experiment they just participated in, along with a general description of the results. He is engaging in what aspect of a research study?

Eila is participating in a psychological experiment for one of the graduate students at her university. She is pretty confident that she knows the true intent of the study and is trying to answer the questions accordingly. A common pitfall in experiments, Eila is falling prey to

A mental shortcut that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world is called a

________ studies allow us to make predictions about one variable based on the knowledge of another.

How does conducting a double-blind study attempt to remedy the experimenter expectancy effect?

The "file drawer problem" refers to when

The application of mathematics to describe and analyse data is known as

If a researcher investigated the topic of aggression by simply recording instances of aggression on a school playground, in a place of business, in a nightclub, and in many other everyday settings, he or she would be using the research design of ________.

What is the authors' position on the use of animal research in psychology?

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest degree of relation between two variables?

Many advertising campaigns rely on statistics as a means to persuade people towards their point of view-be it to buy a new product, elect a given politician, or to increase market dominance. Why should consumers be wary of statistics used in advertising campaigns?

A major limitation in reading about the results of psychological research in the newspaper is that

________ is a phenomenon in which researchers' hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study.

A medical doctor believes that the presence of aromatherapy will reduce the anxiety of first-time mothers-to-be during labour and will increase their reported satisfaction with their care at his hospital. He randomly assigns mothers to give birth in a room either with or without aromatherapy. What is the independent variable in this example?

According to your authors, laboratory research generalises

Dr Stanhope is trying to determine which type of correlation is represented on his scatterplot, in which nearly all of his data are clustered along a diagonal line running from higher numbers on the left down to lower numbers on the right. Which type of correlation is represented by this pattern?

Students of psychology are often frustrated because there are very few, if any, clear-cut answers to many of their questions. What is the primary limiting factor in obtaining first-hand knowledge of questions such as the long-term effects of child abuse or the effects of smoking marijuana on a pregnancy?

The most important factor to ensure that one's results apply to other people in other settings is to use

The study of rare or unusual phenomena is most easily done through the use of the ________ design.