Exam 1: What Is Psychology

A statistical measure of the relationship between two variables is the definition of

Which school of thought in psychology emphasized the purpose of behavior?

The president of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA)is concerned after reading that during puberty children have increased needs for sleep.She wants to find out if other parents of middle-school children would support a later starting time for school.At one of the Tuesday night meetings,she conducts a survey of the PTA members in order to address this question.When she asks those parents in support of the change to raise their hands,she discovers that 85 percent of the parents support a later starting time.What information has she gained by conducting this survey? What shortcomings exist in her survey?

Compare the advantages and the disadvantages of conducting a naturalistic observation versus a laboratory observation.Describe a topic that you believe would be more effectively studied by a laboratory observation than by a naturalistic experiment.

Dr.Mannisto is a behaviorist who is studying the causes of excessive violence among some hockey players.She is likely to consider whether

Mark has a strong desire to quit smoking.A psychologist from the biological perspective would try to help by

Dr.Littman-Smith is conducting research in Kenya in order to determine the ways that mothers and their toddlers interact throughout the day.It is most likely that she is engaged in

When someone does research and questions whether the sources of information are reliable before making an important decision,that person is following the critical thinking rule to

The question "Why is this the way it is?" illustrates which of the following critical thinking guidelines?

Why can it be difficult to interpret a correlation between two variables?

In order to be useful,a test must be reliable,that is,it must

A hypothesis is an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified set of phenomena and their interrelationships.

An advantage of observational studies is that

What type of study design prevents experimenter effects and how does it accomplish this?

Experiments are more valuable than other research methods because

In an experiment that tests the effects of exposure to violent television on aggressive behavior,30 participants view violent programming for 2 hours.Thirty additional participants view nonviolent programming for 2 hours.All participants are then given an aggression questionnaire to complete.Individuals who viewed nonviolent television are part of the

A statistician adds all of the test scores for a group of participants and then divides the sum by the number of participants.The result of his calculation is the ____________ of the test scores.

The group of mental health professionals who earn either a Ph.D. ,Ed.D. ,or a Psy.D.and then diagnose and treat mild and severe mental and emotional problems are called

Distinguish between basic and applied psychology.

A research hypothesis proposes that consuming low-carbohydrate diets results in increased weight loss.One group of people follows a low-carb diet for three weeks,while a second group follows a high-carb diet containing the same number of calories for three weeks.The average number of pounds lost per person is compared.What is the dependent variable?