Research in Action
Dr. Chen is studying how neurons fire in the brain, with no immediate practical application in mind. What type of research is she conducting?
What is basic research?
Professor Garcia develops a new teaching method and tests its effectiveness in improving student grades. What kind of research is this?
What is applied research?
Emma needs to find peer-reviewed articles on childhood obesity for her term paper. Which resource should she use?
What is an academic database like PsycARTICLE?
Mark is reading a psychology article that cites many other studies. Where in the article can he find these referenced studies?
What is the references section?
In a study on the effect of caffeine on memory .
What is the IV & DV?
IV: Amount of caffeine given to participants
DV: memory
Chen's study on workplace stress uses a questionnaire that doesn't actually measure stress, but rather job satisfaction. What type of validity is compromised?
What is construct validity?
Sarah notices her friends who meditate seem less stressed. She designs a study to test this observation. What role is Sarah taking on?
What is being a producer of research?
Professor Taylor believes her new teaching method is superior. She designs a study to test it but doesn't include a control group. What scientific principle is she violating?
What is the need for comparison or control groups in experiments?
Dr. Lee wants to quickly understand the main findings of a research paper without reading the entire article. Which section should she focus on?
What is the abstract?
Sarah is writing a paper on a controversial topic in psychology. Her professor warns her to be cautious about the sources she cites. What criterion should Sarah prioritize when selecting sources?
What is peer-review status?
rofessor Taylor wants to ensure that differences in test performance are due to her new teaching method, not pre-existing student abilities. What should she do?
What is randomly assign students to different teaching method groups?
Sarah conducts a study on exam performance using only students from her small liberal arts college. What type of validity might be limited?
What is external validity?
Lisa hypothesizes that eating chocolate improves mood. She surveys people about their chocolate consumption and mood. What crucial aspect is missing from Lisa's approach?
What is establishing causation (she's only establishing correlation)?
A team of researchers can't agree on how to measure "creativity" in their study. What research concept are they struggling with?
What is operational definition?
Dr. Lee's research shows that as hours of sleep decrease, stress levels increase. What type of association is this?
What is a negative association?
Emma is confused by conflicting findings in individual studies about the effectiveness of a new therapy. What type of article might help her understand the overall trend?
What is a meta-analysis?
In Dr. Kang's experiment on emotion and memory, this factor makes the study an experiment rather than another type of research.
What is the manipulation of a variable (emotional content of words)?
Emma's research on decision-making uses a very small sample size, making it difficult to detect real effects. What type of validity is compromised?
What is statistical validity?
Professor Brown's theory about social media and loneliness isn't fully supported by his data. What should he consider doing?
What is amending or refining his theory?
Emma believes video games cause aggression. She only pays attention to news stories that support this belief. What bias is Emma demonstrating?
What is confirmation bias?
Sarah finds an article claiming a new supplement cures depression overnight. The journal isn't listed in academic databases and charges authors to publish. What might this journal be?
What is a predatory journal?
Dr. Patel wants to ensure his research idea hasn't been done before. Which section of existing papers should he carefully examine?
What is the future research or limitations section?
When Jenny reads about a study linking sexism and racism, the researchers' understanding of "perceived prejudiced attitudes" represents this type of definition.
What is a conceptual definition?
In a study on prejudice, participants' self-reported race on a questionnaire would be considered this type of variable.
What is a measured variable?
Dr. Patel's research on memory shows different results for morning and evening tests. What should he consider in future studies?
What is controlling for time of day as a variable?
Jake reads that meditation reduces stress. He tries it for a week and feels less stressed. His friend Alex participates in a controlled study on meditation and stress. Whose evidence is more convincing and why?
What is Alex's, because it comes from a controlled scientific study rather than personal experience?
A news article states "Coffee Drinking Causes Increased Alertness, Study Shows." For this to be true, what must the researchers have done?
What is conducted an experiment with manipulation of coffee consumption?
Dr. Patel's study finds that meditation improves focus, but can't rule out that people who choose to meditate might naturally have better focus. What research concept is at issue here?
What is the third-variable problem?
When Mrs. Raynor calculates that 12.4% of students have concerning behaviors, with a range from 10.2% to 14.6%, this range represents the study's ______.
What is the confidence interval?
Professor Nguyen's experiment on learning strategies doesn't control for participants' prior knowledge of the subject. What threat to validity does this pose?
What is a threat to internal validity?
Tom believes his lucky socks help him ace exams because he wore them for his last three tests and got A's. What cognitive bias is Tom exhibiting?
What is the availability heuristic?
Robert Merton identified these four scientific norms as crucial for the progress of science. Name three of them and provide a brief example of each in action.
What are universalism (e.g., evaluating claims based on merit, not source), communalism (e.g., sharing data openly), disinterestedness (e.g., avoiding personal bias in research), and organized skepticism (e.g., peer review process)
In a study on exam performance, students are randomly assigned to either study with lo-fi music or in silence. Their exam scores are then compared. This design allows researchers to conclude that any difference in scores is caused by the study condition.
What is the IV & DV? - What about this allows you to make a causal claim?
What are the independent variable (study condition: lo-fi music or silence), the dependent variable (exam scores), and experimental design allowing for causal inferences?
A study measures "job satisfaction" using a single question: "How happy are you at work?" Critique the construct validity of this measure and suggest a more comprehensive approach.
What is: Single-item measures often lack construct validity for complex concepts. A better approach would be using a multi-item scale that assesses various aspects of job satisfaction, such as pay, work environment, relationships with colleagues, and personal fulfillment.
Dr. Larson wants to study the impact of social media use on teenage self-esteem. Provide a conceptual definition and an operational definition for "social media use."
Conceptual definition: The extent to which an individual engages with and uses social media platforms for communication, content sharing, and information gathering.
Operational definition: The average number of hours per day spent on social media apps as recorded by a smartphone tracking app over a two-week period.
Dr. Larson plans to conduct this study with students from a single high school and use the results to make claims about all teenagers. Identify and explain which type of validity is most at risk in this scenario, and suggest one way to improve it.
To improve external validity, Dr. Larson could expand the study to include multiple high schools from different geographic areas and socioeconomic backgrounds, creating a more representative sample of the teenage population.