Scientific Approach
What is the first thing to be asked to a person who claims to be a scientist before accepting what he or she has to say?
A. credentials of the individual
B. funding source of the individual
C. reputation of the institution represented by the individual
D. methods of study used by the individual
A. credentials of the individual
Sean, a psychologist, watches a group of teenagers listen to a rock band and decides to conduct a research project on the effects of music videos on children and adolescents. In this case, the initial source of idea for the research is
A. common sense.
B. past research.
C. the world around.
D. a practical problem.
C. the world around.
The agreement by a minor to participate in an experiment is formally called
A. consent.
B. child consent.
C. exempt.
D. assent.
D. assent.
Juan, a professor of psychology, is developing a measure of skills needed for successful performance at a job. Juan includes items the job supervisor feels are relevant for the job. What type of validity would this procedure best represent?
A. face validity
B. convergent validity
C. discriminant validity
D. concurrent validity
A. face validity
In an experiment that compares aggressive responses following exposure to media violence (present, absent) in television programming, "aggressive responses" is the __________ and "exposure to media violence" is the __________.
A. construct; operational definition
B. operational definition; construct
C. independent variable; dependent variable
D. dependent variable; independent variable
D. dependent variable; independent variable
Scientists often rely on intuition and assertions of authorities to
A. generate ideas for research.
B. draw conclusions about behavior.
C. set rules for evaluating and reporting information.
D. ensure that flawed research does not become part of the scientific literature.
A. generate ideas for research.
Using the Boolean operator OR when performing a search on PsycINFO will
A. include sources that contain all the search terms specified.
B. expand the search.
C. exclude sources that contain the search terms specified.
D. have no effect on the search.
B. expand the search.
In Milgram's study on obedience, informing the participants that they would participate in a study of learning and memory is an example of
A. plagiarism.
B. deception.
C. informed consent.
D. debriefing.
B. deception.
In the context of the components of a measure, a reliable measure of intelligence must contain relatively low
A. validity.
B. coefficient.
C. true score.
D. measurement error.
D. measurement error.
A researcher seeks to describe behavior at an airport security screening area during a busy holiday travel time. Because there are far too many people for the researcher to observe effectively, she should use
A. naturalistic observation.
B. situation sampling.
C. structured observation.
D. individual sampling.
D. individual sampling.
When a hypothesis is stated in such a way that the event to be explained becomes the explanation itself (e.g., the child is distractable because he has attention deficit disorder), the hypothesis is said to be
A. inadequately defined.
B. circular.
C. appealing to forces not recognized by science.
D. redundant.
B. circular.
In the context of conducting a PsycINFO search, an advantage of using the asterisk (*) is that
A. it returns a bibliography of articles.
B. it returns only the "key article" related to a topic.
C. it expands the scope of a search.
D. it includes only those articles that are relevant to the researcher conducting the research.
C. it expands the scope of a search.
In an attempt to study participants' physiological responses to visual stimuli, Kenneth measures the blood pressure and heart rate of the participants while they watch different genres of films. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regulations, this study involves ________ risk.
A. no
B. minimal
C. greater than minimal
D. maximum
B. minimal
Alfred and Frida are movie reviewers for a local newspaper. After watching the same movie, they both rate 5 stars for the movie. Based on their ratings, it can be concluded that there is
A. high test-retest reliability.
B. high interrater reliability.
C. low reactivity.
D. low convergent validity.
B. high interrater reliability.
Javier wants to know what teenagers believe is the most significant social problem faced by today's youth. Which type of question would be the most useful to Javier in this scenario?
A. closed-ended
B. double-barreled
C. open-ended
D. loaded
C. open-ended
Which of the following journal article titles is an example of a basic research study?
A. "The effect of self-awareness on a cognitive reasoning task"
B. "Buying behavior: The influence of item shelf placement in retail grocery stores"
C. "Increasing knowledge of dangers at home: A tristate area phone survey"
D. "A peer tutoring program as a method to increase cultural sensitivity"
A."The effect of self-awareness on a cognitive reasoning task"
Which of the following best represents a prediction?
A. "Female defendants are more likely to receive shorter prison sentences than male defendants."
B. "Are gender and judgments of criminal behavior related?"
C. "Do ratings of social desirability vary according to gender?"
D. "Male and female defendants involved in criminal cases are chosen as the participants of a study to determine the relationship between gender and judgments of criminal behavior."
A. "Female defendants are more likely to receive shorter prison sentences than male defendants."
Which of the following ethical principles is contradicted when deception is used in research?
A. informed consent
B. risk/benefit ratio
C. minimal risk
D. privacy
A. informed consent
When many observations of the same children in a classroom are made it is possible to determine the frequency of certain behaviors, such as how many times children speak in class. Which scale of measurement do these frequency data represent?
A. nominal
B. ordinal
C. interval
D. ratio
D. ratio
Salma studies historical data published by the United States Census Bureau to determine if there has been an increase in the population of African Americans in the United States over the last decade. This study is an example of a(n)
A. naturalistic observation study.
B. psychobiography.
C. field experiment.
D. archival research study.
D. archival research study.
The statement "The different eating habits of obese and non-obese persons are caused by physiological factors" is an example of _____ behavior.
A. predicting
B. describing
C. explaining
D. evaluating
C. explaining
Which of the following statements would be appropriate for the method section of a research report?
A. Past research shows that men generally talk more than women.
B. For men, the average time spent talking was 10.7 minutes while for women, the average was 7.4 minutes.
C. While three men and three women discussed an issue, an experimenter measured time spent talking using a stopwatch.
D. Contrary to popular belief, in groups of mixed gender, men talk more than women, interrupt more than women, and are more likely to direct discussion topics.
C. While three men and three women discussed an issue, an experimenter measured time spent talking using a stopwatch.
According to the Belmont Report, which of the following principles states that research should confer benefits and risks must be minimal?
A. the principle of respect for persons
B. the principle of beneficence
C. the principle of justice
D. the principle of common courtesy
B. the principle of beneficence
To assess the reliability of a measure, Julie administers different versions of the same test to the same individuals at two points in time. This procedure is an example of
A. test-retest reliability.
B. interrater reliability.
C. alternate forms reliability.
D. split-half reliability.
C. alternate forms reliability.
A researcher wants to gather information on citizens' reactions to the local government's decision to construct a new airport in their neighborhood. The researcher gathers groups of citizens and asks them to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed airport. This type of data gathering can be referred to as a(n) ________ approach to describing behavior.
A. intrinsic
B. quantitative
C. qualitative
D. extrinsic
C. qualitative