Types of Research
Experimental Method
Statistics
Psychologists as Researchers
Issues with Research
100

This type of research can best establish a cause-and-effect relationship.

What is an experiment?

100
In an experiment to determine the effects of exercise on motivation, exercise is this.
What is the independent variable?
100
A student who obtained a percentile rank of 85 on an achievement test is best characterized as having scored higher than this many test takers.
What is higher than 85% of test takers?
100

On your white board, draw a scatterplot that best represents the relationship between study hours and test grades. (In the scatterplots below, the x-axis is hours of study and the y-axis is test grades.)

What is (see Ms. D's graph)?

100
Drawing this kind of sample of people means everyone has the same probability of being chosen for the study.
What is a random sample?
200
1953, H.M. underwent surgery to control his seizures. Doctors removed tissue from the hippocampus. As a result H.M.'s memory was severely impaired. Psychologists studied H.M.'s memory function until his death in 2008. Psychologists utilized this type of research.
What is a case study?
200
In an experiment, this is the variable being measured.
What is the dependent variable?
200
This is the median of this data set: 9, 5, 3, 7, 1, 6, 4
What is 5?
200
This study has had the most profound impact on ethical issues in psychological research.
What is Stanley Milgram’s study of obedience?
200
When conducting psychological research involving animals, the guidelines researchers must follow were set by this governing board.
What is American Psychological Association (APA)?
300
A researcher interested in investigating the attitudes or opinions of a large sample of people is most likely to use this research method.
What is a survey?
300
If the correlation between the height and math ability of children is -0.85, this would indicate this.
What is that as you get taller you math ability goes down OR as you get shorter your math ability goes up?
300
Create a 4 point data set that will likely have a large standard deviation.
What is any set of data that is greatly spread out around the mean (e.g. 1, 5, 30, 50)?
300
To ensure that other researchers can repeat their work, psychologists use these.
What are operational definitions?
300
Dr. Velazquez decided to study the video game playing habits of her students and therefore demanded that they complete and return a survey regarding their gaming habits. This ethical principle was clearly violated in this study.
What is the right to refuse to participate (leave at any time)?
400
This type of research would be used to measure the relationship between age and reaction time.
What is correlational research?
400
In order to learn about the political attitudes of all students enrolled at Western Washington University, Professor Martinez randomly selected 900 of these students to complete a questionnaire. In this instance, all the students enrolled at Western Washington University are considered to be this.
What is the population?
400
In a normal distribution of test scores, this is the percentage of scores that fall at or below the mean score.
What is 50%?
400
For an intelligence test with normally distributed scores, the mean was 70 and the standard deviation was 10. Approximately this percentage of test takers scored 60 and above.
What is 84%?
400
The mean will be higher than the median in any distribution that is this.
What is "skewed"?
500
A researcher who strongly believes that genetic influence is the major factor to human intelligence is analyzing data about identical twins that have been separated at birth and reunited in adulthood. The researcher observes many similarities in personality and habits within the twin pairs but does not notice differences within the twin pairs that might argue against the student’s belief. This student’s behavior illustrates this issue in research.
What is confirmation (experimenter) bias?
500
A test that fails to predict what it is designed to predict lacks this.
What is validity?
500
In experimental psychology, a significant difference refers to this.
What is a difference not likely due to chance?
500
If the variance of a set of scores is 25, the standard deviation will be this.
What is 5 (square root of the variance)?
500
A survey shows that students who have computers in their homes have higher GPAs than students whose homes lack computers. The researcher concludes that having computers at home improves grades. This conclusion is incorrect. Why?
What is that they inferred causation from correlation (cause and effect instead of just a relationship)?
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