Exam 2: D: Research Methods

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

Although J.B.Rhine's Zener card studies produced curious findings,the main problem involved

Suppose a researcher wants to determine if the size of the observing crowd to some emergency situation is relevant to whether the victim will receive help.The researcher randomly assigns participants to one of three groups: no other bystanders,one other bystander,or four other bystanders.When an emergency is then staged,the researcher measures how long it takes the participant to help the victim.In this study,what is the independent variable?

Which of the following factors should not be strongly considered when evaluating the legitimacy of psychological reports in the media?

As the number of losses by the Edmonton Oilers hockey team increase,the number of fans decrease.This is an example of a __________ correlation.

Which of the following is not a drawback of collecting rating data?

A researcher wants to see whether she can make the typical administrative assistant job more motivating at Acme,Inc.To experimentally investigate this possibility,she randomly assigns administrative assistants to one of the following conditions: doing the job as it has always been done,having a computer performance monitoring device installed,receiving feedback about their performance on a weekly basis,or being given a say in how one's workload is structured and done.Which of the preceding conditions is an example of a control group?

Suppose a researcher invites an individual participant to a sleep laboratory,but he refuses to fall asleep.Hours go by and the researcher cannot understand why the participant won't sleep.In the morning,a very tired participant asks if the real purpose of the study was to observe his reaction to having a rat in the bed with him.That the participant purposefully stayed awake thinking this was the nature of the study demonstrates

Which of the following is not a criticism that animal rights activists have about conducting animal research?

The variable that an experimenter assesses or measures is called the

Any difference between experimental and control groups other than the independent variable is called a __________ variable.

What is the purpose of an institutional review board?

Dr.Trawma wants to study whether psychotherapy,cognitive-behavioural therapy,or systematic desensitization is better at reducing his patients' anxiety due to post-traumatic stress disorder.The dependent variable in this study is

In order to assess chronic worrying,a researcher examines the number of times a participant reports worrying for more than one hour a day for three weeks in a row.This evaluation of worrying is an example of

When a distribution is skewed,which of the following descriptive statistics would offer the best measure of central tendency?

Suppose children watch an adult display physical violence toward a blown-up clown doll in a room full of toys,followed by either a stern scolding or praise by another adult.The child is then left in the room of toys,and the researchers watch to see if the child models any of the aggressive behaviour.Children who witnessed the scolded adult don't act aggressively,either because they did not learn the aggressive behaviour or they learned that aggressive behaviour is punished.What is the independent variable?

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

When a researcher tests his or her hypothesis,he or she is often hoping to gather information that is consistent with a particular theory.What,more specifically,allows a researcher to say that he or she has "proven" a theory?

The __________ reflects the middle score in a data set,whereas the __________ reflects the most frequent score.

A student researcher wishes to maximize the external validity of his or her research design.What research method should you recommend to him or her?