PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
A student wants to know why she becomes nervous before every test. A psychologist examines how her thoughts and expectations about the test influence her nervousness.
What is the cognitive perspective?
A psychologist watches students in the cafeteria without interfering or telling them how to behave. What research method is being used?
What is naturalistic observation?
Researchers investigate whether the amount of sleep students get affects their reaction time. What is the number of hours of sleep is this variable.
What is the independent variable (IV)?
Before participating in a study, participants are told what they will be asked to do and any reasonably foreseeable risks.
What is informed consent?
As the number of hours students spend exercising increases, their reported self-esteem also increases. What type of correlation is this?
What is a positive correlation?
A psychologist explains a student's aggressive behavior by examining how the behavior has been reinforced by attention from peers.
What is the behavioral perspective?
A researcher asks 500 teenagers how many hours they spend on social media each day and how many hours they sleep.
What is a survey?
Researchers investigate whether the amount of sleep students get affects their reaction time. Researchers measure how quickly students respond to a flashing light. This is the:
What is the dependent variable (DV)?
A participant decides halfway through a study that she no longer wants to participate. She is allowed to leave without penalty. What ethical principle is being demonstrated?
What is the right to withdraw/voluntary participation?
As adolescents spend more time on social media at night, their total sleep duration decreases.
What is a negative correlation?
A researcher argues that humans developed a tendency to cooperate because cooperation increased the chances of survival and reproduction among early humans.
What is the evolutionary perspective?
A psychologist studies one student with an extremely unusual memory ability in great detail.
What is a case study?
A researcher defines "studying with background music" as listening to instrumental music through headphones at 60–70 decibels for 30 minutes. This is an example of:
What is an operational definition?
A researcher does not reveal participants' names when publishing the results.
What is confidentiality/privacy?
A study finds that students who sleep longer tend to earn higher grades. A researcher concludes, "Getting more sleep causes higher grades." What is wrong with this conclusion?
What is correlation does not establish causation?
A teenager frequently becomes angry but doesn't understand why. A psychologist suggests that unresolved childhood experiences and unconscious conflicts may be contributing to the behavior.
What is the psychodynamic perspective?
Researchers randomly assign students to either study with music or study in silence. Afterwards, they compare their test scores.
What is an experiment?
A study examines whether drinking water improves test performance. However, students who drink water also happen to have slept significantly more the night before. Sleep could be considered a:
What is a confounding variable?
A study temporarily deceives participants about the true purpose of the experiment. Afterwards, the researchers explain the real purpose and reveal the deception.
What is debriefing?
Researchers discover that students who spend more time studying have higher test scores. Another researcher suggests that students who are naturally more motivated may both study more and score higher.
What concept is the second researcher describing?
What is a third-variable/confounding explanation?
A psychologist studying test anxiety examines the student's brain activity, thought patterns, family expectations, and relationships with classmates. What approach is being used?
What is the biopsychosocial approach/model?
A researcher wants to determine whether a new study technique actually causes students to perform better. Which type of research provides the strongest evidence for a cause-and-effect relationship?
What is experimental research?
A researcher wants to test whether phone visibility affects concentration. Students are randomly assigned to either keep their phones on their desks or place them in another room. They then complete the same attention task. Identify both the independent and dependent variables.
What are phone visibility as the IV and performance on the attention task as the DV?
A psychologist randomly selects 100 students from the entire school so that every student has an equal chance of being selected. What concept is being demonstrated, and why is it useful?
What is random sampling, and it helps produce a sample that is more representative of the population and improves generalizability?
A study finds that students who sleep more tend to earn higher grades. Give three possible explanations for this correlation.
What is