Q&A Hero

Q: For a class research project, students conceal themselves in bathroom stalls in order to observe conversational behavior of individuals at sinks in the washroom. They count the number of words spoken by women and men in their respective washrooms. The most important ethical issue in this research is A. debriefing. B. informed consent. C. privacy. D. deception.

Q: A student conducted a research project in which fake smoke entered the waiting area used by participants. This procedure was used to create a stressful situation and the student then tested participants' performance on complex reasoning tasks. One student waiting in a wheelchair experienced a panic attack when the smoke appeared. After this incident, the IRB stopped the research. This example demonstrates that A. IRBs can be unreasonable. B. characteristics of individuals must be considered when determining risk. C. the deception was described fully during the informed consent procedure. D. this research should have been conducted online.

Q: When the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater than those encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine tests, we say that the risk is A. minor risk. B. daily risk. C. static risk. D. minimal risk.

Q: Participants in a study described as investigating "aspects of intelligence and social awareness" completed "intelligence problems" in small groups. Without their knowledge, half of the students were given easy problems, and half were given difficult problems. The students with easy problems finished easily in the allotted time, while the remaining students struggled. After the intelligence problems, the investigators asked students to complete social comparison measures (i.e., how they rate themselves compared to others). Participants in this study A. experienced minimal risk, because students take tests as part of their everyday life. B. were "at risk," because of the deception. C. did not face social risk because they were anonymous. D. did not require debriefing because the investigator described the purpose of the study.

Q: Researchers must use special safeguards to protect human participants when A. more than minimal risk is present. B. informed consent is not required. C. behavior is observed in the public domain. D. anonymous questionnaires are used.

Q: When there is no way to connect a research participant's responses with that participant's identifying information (e.g., name, identification number), the responses are said to be A. confidential. B. consensual. C. anonymous. D. minimal.

Q: Researchers can avoid potential social injury or risk for participants in their research project if the researchers A. avoid using deception in their research. B. ensure the internal consistency of their study. C. obtain informed consent from each participant. D. protect the confidentiality of participants' responses.

Q: Failure to protect the confidentiality of a participant's responses may increase the risk in a research study by increasing the possibility of A. physical injury. B. psychological injury. C. social injury. D. performance injury.

Q: Describe how the APA ethical standards for research with animals involve both the use and the care of animals.

Q: (p. 66, 69, 78) Identify three risks associated with Internet research and the procedures researchers might follow to lessen the each risk.

Q: (p. 75, 84) Describe the benefit and two major risks associated with the original obedience experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram, then identify three of the recent adaptations made by Jerry Burger in his replication of the obedience studies.

Q: The ethical standards of the APA's ethics code A. are general ethical principles that researchers apply to their own research situation. B. include clear rules for how research should be conducted in specific situations. C. provide a set of specific rules for how to solve ethical dilemmas in psychological research. D. provide principles for conducting research that are never contradictory.

Q: Ethical issues associated with Internet (online) research A. are not subject to the APA Code of Ethics. B. are not as serious as those associated with in-person research because Internet research is more anonymous. C. include informed consent, debriefing, and confidentiality. D. all of these

Q: Ethical problems can best be avoided by careful planning and by consulting appropriate individuals A. prior to beginning the research. B. after testing several participants. C. after the research has been completed. D. after concerns about research are raised in the media.

Q: If a psychology student wants to do research involving human participants, which of the following has the ultimate authority to approve, disapprove, or require modifications prior to the approval of the student's research? A. the department chairperson B. the university's Institutional Review Board (IRB) C. the university's IACUC D. the faculty sponsor of the research

Q: If you want to conduct research at your college or university, you should inquire about the appropriate procedure for institutional review of your research A. before starting your research project. B. before you have completed your research project. C. at any time during your research project. D. no earlier than when you submit your findings for your degree requirements.

Q: The risk/benefit ratio that is used in ethical decision making represents A. a mathematical ratio with calculable components. B. an objective, rule-based evaluation of risks and benefits. C. a definitive basis for making ethical decisions. D. a subjective evaluation of risks and benefits.

Q: Which of the following represents the basic question addressed by the risk/benefit ratio? A. Are the risks in a study greater than minimal risk? B. Will the researcher's reputation be enhanced or hurt by the study's findings? C. Are the benefits (to individual participants and society) of a study greater than the risks? D. Are the benefits gained by individuals greater than the risks posed to society?

Q: Greater risk in a research study is acceptable when A. clear and immediate benefits to the participants are expected. B. the research has obvious scientific and social value. C. valid and interpretable results will be produced. D. all of these

Q: Which of the following is one type of risk that contributes to the determination of the risk/benefit ratio? A. economic risk B. social risk C. failure risk D. media risk

Q: Distinguish between the three types of injury as sources of risk in psychological research: physical, psychological, and social injury.

Q: Identify the conditions under which participants are considered to be "at risk."

Q: Describe how the use of deception can be justified on methodological grounds and describe the conditions under which the use of deception is always unethical.

Q: Identify two ways in which debriefing benefits the participant and one way in which it benefits the researcher.

Q: A theory that predicts children will develop abstract reasoning by age 12 is more ________ than a theory that predicts the development of abstract reasoning by ages 12 to 20. A. general B. precise C. hypothetical D. parsimonious

Q: When constructing and evaluating a theory, scientists follow a guideline that places a premium on identifying the simplest of alternative explanations of a phenomenon. This guideline is called the A. test of empirical verification. B. law of least error. C. precision of prediction. D. rule of parsimony.

Q: The most rigorous test of a scientific theory involves A. precision of prediction. B. generalization. C. falsification. D. the rule of parsimony.

Q: A researcher conducted two experiments to test a theory. One experiment was designed to confirm a hypothesis of the theory and the second experiment was designed to falsify the hypothesis. From the perspective of theory construction and testing, A. the theory is precise and parsimonious. B. the theory is neither precise nor parsimonious. C. the first experiment is more informative. D. the second experiment is more informative.

Q: Which of the following statements about research in psychology is true? A. All research in psychology involves experiments. B. Psychologists view basic research and applied research as complementary. C. Researchers observe correlations between variables to make causal inferences about behavior. D. all of these

Q: A(n) __________ is a logically organized set of propositions that serves to define events, describe relationships among events, and explain the occurrence of events. A. theory B. intervening variable C. hypothesis D. causal inference

Q: The major function of a theory in psychology is to A. organize empirical knowledge and guide research. B. derive explanations that are independent of the results of experiments. C. formulate definitive explanations for empirical findings. D. develop quantitative and qualitative predictions for the results of future experiments.

Q: Theorists propose _______ variables to connect independent and dependent variables and explain why these variables are connected. A. hypothetical B. operational C. confounding D. intervening

Q: A researcher manipulates the amount of time participants view a list of words (1 vs. 4 minutes), and measures the number of words the participants are able to write down 10 minutes later. The researcher suggests that in-between the presentation time and the later recall of the words, the words are in participants' memory. The construct of "memory" in this example represents A. an operational definition. B. an intervening variable. C. the researcher's independent variable. D. the researcher's dependent variable.

Q: Of the following, the best description of "intervening variables" in psychology is that A. there are very few intervening variables in psychology. B. they are obstacles in successful theory construction and testing. C. they are constructs that unite a wide variety of apparently dissimilar variables. D. they rarely are of use when psychologists try to explain why variables are related.

Q: (p. 50, 53) The greater the scope of a theory, the more complex it is likely to be. Complexity is A. a serious obstacle to testing a theory. B. a necessary characteristic of psychological theories given the nature and range of phenomena psychologists try to understand. C. (A) and (B) D. none of these

Q: A researcher wanted to compare the relative effectiveness of two techniques for reducing anxiety: a drug and a relaxation exercise. The researcher gave the experimental group both the drug and the relaxation exercise. The control group was given neither the drug nor the exercise. The difference between the drug and the relaxation exercise cannot be compared in this experiment because the experiment involves a A. redundant relationship. B. correlation. C. causal inference. D. confounding.

Q: A researcher is interested in testing the effectiveness of using "clickers" for question-and-answer sessions during lectures. He asks students in the morning section of his course to use clickers to respond to in-class questions. Students in the afternoon section write answers to questions in their notebook. He compares the students' average test performance for the two sections. The researcher will not be able to interpret the results because his study is flawed due to A. his limited ability to generalize his results to other students and courses. B. the confounding of class section (morning, afternoon) and response method (clicker, notebook). C. his failure to manipulate an independent variable. D. the correlation between response method (clicker, notebook) and test performance.

Q: When scientists conduct research they seek to A. use only real-world settings. B. use only laboratory settings. C. describe the findings only for people and circumstances who participated in their study. D. generalize their findings beyond the people and circumstances used in their study.

Q: Research that is conducted with the goals of understanding phenomena and testing a theory is referred to as __________ research. A. correlational B. applied C. basic D. idiographic

Q: The widespread application of psychological principles in our everyday life is possible because of ___________ in the past. A. basic research B. time-order relationships C. parsimony D. intervening variables

Q: Researchers have shown that teacher evaluations based on brief viewings of videotapes made by students who were not enrolled in a course correlate well with end-of-the-semester teacher evaluations made by students enrolled in the class. The researchers suggest that the relationship occurs because people can make relatively accurate judgments of affective behavior (e.g., likableness) very quickly because doing so is adaptive. Based on the correlational evidence alone, the researchers' explanation for their findings can best be considered A. speculative. B. qualitative. C. a causal inference. D. a confirmed hypothesis.

Q: The research goal of "prediction" is most associated with _________ research, and the research goal of "explanation" is most associated with _________ research. A. applied; basic B. correlational; experimental C. multimethod; single method D. nomothetic; idiographic

Q: Researchers demonstrated a relationship between the extent to which people in large cities help strangers and the degree of cultural embeddedness in the city (i.e., concern for family and in-group members). As cultural embeddedness increased, people were less likely to help strangers. This relationship indicates that A. concern for family and in-group members causes people to avoid helping strangers. B. helping strangers causes a decrease in cultural embeddedness. C. both (A) and (B) neither (A) nor (B)

Q: Psychologists use ____________ to identify the causes of a phenomenon. A. correlations B. quantitative research C. controlled experiments D. operational definitions

Q: A(n) ____________ is a statement about the cause of an event or behavior. A. experiment B. causal inference C. construct D. correlation

Q: Which of the following is not one of the conditions for making a causal inference? A. covariation of events B. a time-order relationship C. confounding of variables D. elimination of plausible alternative causes

Q: When two potentially effective independent variables are allowed to covary simultaneously, a __________ has occurred. A. confounding B. correlation C. dependency D. causal inference

Q: A correlational study is uniquely useful for meeting which of the following goals of the scientific method? A. description B. prediction C. explanation D. application

Q: A correlation exists when A. two hypotheses are shown to support the same theory. B. two independent variables are confounded. C. two measures of the same people, events, or things vary together. D. a measurement is both reliable and valid.

Q: Research has indicated that amount of undergraduate research activity predicts measures of later success in the profession of psychology. For this prediction to be possible, undergraduate research activity and later success must be A. circular. B. qualitative. C. causal. D. correlated.

Q: Correlations are valuable because they allow psychologists to A. create change in people's lives. B. make predictions based on the way two variables covary. C. describe, predict, and understand the causes of psychological phenomena. D. all of these

Q: When researchers observe a correlation between two variables, such as between the amount of time spent studying and test scores, they know that A. the first variable causes the second variable. B. the second variable causes the first variable. C. both (A) and (B) neither (A) nor (B)

Q: Which of the following statements best describes the relationship between correlation and causation? A. Correlation does not imply causation. B. Correlation directly implies a causal inference. C. Correlation and causation refer to the same thing. D. Correlation is confounded with causation.

Q: Which of the following characterizes the majority of the research conducted in psychology? A. quantitative research using the nomothetic approach B. quantitative research using the idiographic approach C. qualitative research using the nomothetic approach D. qualitative research using the idiographic approach

Q: When research consists of verbal summaries of "naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural settings" the research is A. more likely to be qualitative research than quantitative research. B. more likely to be quantitative research than qualitative research. C. equally likely to be qualitative or quantitative research. D. unlikely to be either qualitative or quantitative research.

Q: Researchers interviewed 29 youth (ages 17-24) who live on the streets of Toronto about their experiences with suicide. When the researchers read transcripts of the interviews, they noticed themes of isolation and rejection. This is an example of ____________ research. A. idiographic B. correlational C. qualitative D. explanatory

Q: When an 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.

Q: Four goals of research in psychology are A. reliability, validity, experimentation, and theory construction. B. description, prediction, explanation, and application. C. description, correlation, experimentation, and theory construction. D. observation, measurement, causal inference, and explanation.

Q: The criteria used to classify and define mental disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders represent an illustration of which of the following goals of the scientific method? A. description B. prediction C. explanation D. therapy

Q: Using the nomothetic approach, psychologists seek to A. describe one individual's behavior in relation to his or her environment. B. create change in an individual's life. C. eliminate confoundings in their experiments. D. establish general laws of behavior that apply to a diverse population.

Q: The nomothetic approach in psychology (or in any science) is intended to establish broad generalizations and universal "laws." When using the nomothetic approach researchers are likely to make A. many observations of one individual. B. observations of many individuals and focus on extreme scores. C. observations of many individuals and focus on the average (typical) score. D. few observations of a few individuals and focus on the scores that occur most often.

Q: A cross-cultural study that examined helping behaviors in 23 large cities around the world found that, in general, people in Rio de Janeiro were most helpful and people in Kuala Lampur were least helpful. From these findings, we know that A. everyone in Rio de Janeiro is more helpful than everyone in Kuala Lampur. B. there are more people in Rio de Janeiro than in Kuala Lampur. C. any one individual we choose in Rio de Janeiro will be helpful. D. none of these

Q: Research that focuses on describing the unique characteristics of individuals is referred to as the A. applied method. B. idiographic approach. C. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. D. functional approach.

Q: A researcher asks a sample of 200 individuals to complete a questionnaire. She then computes statistics to describe how individuals respond in general to the questions. This researcher's approach is A. idiographic and quantitative. B. idiographic and qualitative. C. nomothetic and quantitative. D. nomothetic and qualitative.

Q: A researcher develops a brief questionnaire measure of people's level of optimism. To determine whether his measure is a good one, he asks a sample of people to complete his questionnaire twice, separated by one month. At the second session, he also asks his participants to complete another measure of optimismone that has been an accepted measure of optimism for many years. Using this procedure, the researcher is establishing the A. independent variable of optimism. B. precision and accuracy of his measure. C. reliability and validity of his measure. D. nomothetic and idiographic features of optimism.

Q: The testable, tentative explanations scientists use to explain events are called A. confirmatory biases. B. hypotheses. C. heuristics. D. causal inferences.

Q: The idea that people purchase "green" products in order to achieve higher status by behaving altruistically is A. a hypothesis. B. a circular argument. C. reliable and valid. D. all of these

Q: What characteristic distinguishes scientific hypotheses from casual, everyday hypotheses? A. certainty B. intuitive appeal C. testability D. circularity

Q: A researcher's hypothesis predicts that people are more aggressive following exposure to media violence because they find the violence disturbing. A potential problem with this hypothesis is A. the concept "disturbing" is not adequately defined. B. it appeals to forces not recognized by science. C. it is circular: "aggression" and "disturbing" refer to the same thing. D. all of these

Q: Scientists would likely reject the hypothesis that a person was violent because the person was possessed by the Devil. Scientists reject a hypothesis like this one not because it is inherently wrong, but because the hypothesis lacks the necessary scientific characteristic of being A. complex. B. circular. C. concise. D. testable.

Q: Research suggests that when judging photos of people's faces, people demonstrate high levels of agreement regarding which faces appear trustworthy, but that these ratings don't correspond to whether the people in the photos are guilty or innocent of cheating on a test. This finding indicates that measurements can be __________, yet not ___________. A. reliable; valid B. precise; accurate C. nomothetic; idiographic D. basic; applied

Q: Reliability refers to the ________ of measurement, and validity refers to the ________ of measurement. A. calibration; trustworthiness B. accuracy; precision C. consistency; truthfulness D. testability; parsimony

Q: Suppose you come across a car accident at an intersection and observe that a small car is severely damaged and a large SUV appears to have only a headlight broken. If you describe the accident as occurring because the SUV hit the smaller car, your report likely includes A. contaminated observations. B. inferences. C. distorted behaviors. D. illusory correlations.

Q: Which of the following is an accepted check that scientists can use to determine whether a scientific report is unbiased? A. the precision of the data that are reported B. parsimony of explanation C. clear operational definitions D. agreement between observers

Q: A researcher calibrates an instrument by placing a five-pound weight on a scale to see if the scale gives a reading of 5.0 pounds. The researcher is testing the scale's A. reliability. B. validity. C. accuracy. D. correlation.

Q: A student sets a computer program to record participants' responses to materials in her experiment to the millisecond, rather than to the tenth of a second. Which characteristic of the measuring instrument is the student trying to ensure? A. accuracy B. precision C. validity D. reliability

Q: The main difference between physical measurement and psychological measurement is that physical measurement A. uses humans as the measurement instruments. B. requires multiple observers to assess agreement. C. involves dimensions with agreed-upon standards and instruments. D. is quantitative and nomothetic.

Q: When using psychological measurement of a dimension such as aggression, psychologists often base their measurements of people's aggressiveness on A. agreement among a number of observers regarding their ratings of behavior on an aggressiveness scale. B. consensus among researchers in the field of aggression as to the theoretical definition of aggression. C. consistency across operational definitions of aggression. D. availability of a precise measuring instrument, preferably based on a physiological response.

Q: A new measure of intelligence (e.g., speed of processing spatial distances) would be a valid measure of intelligence if scores on the new measure were A. unrelated to scores on other accepted measures of intelligence. B. more varied across people than scores on other accepted measures of intelligence. C. more precise than scores on other accepted measures of intelligence. D. related to scores on other accepted measures of intelligence.

Q: An individual's score on a test such as the SAT represents how that person consistently performs on such a test only if the SAT test is a _____________ measure. A. precise B. reliable C. valid D. standardized