Deck 6: Causation and Experimentation

Question 1

______ research can be a very effective tool for exploring the context in which causal effects occur.

A) Idiographic
B) Nonexperimental
C) Nonequivalent
D) Spurious

Answer 1

B

Question 2

______ designs use nonrandomized control groups designated after the fact.

A) Nonequivalent control group
B) Before-and-after
C) Ex post facto control group
D) True experimental

Answer 2

C

Question 3

To examine whether prison classification actually affects inmate behavior, Bench and Allen (2003) conducted a(n) ______.

A) true experiment
B) quasi-experiment
C) field experiment
D) ex post facto control group design

Answer 3

A

Question 4

When relationships among variables differ across geographic units such as counties, researchers say there is a(n) ______.

A) contextual effect
B) mechanism effect
C) association
D) time order

Question 5

______ design has a pretest and posttest but no comparison group.

A) Nonequivalent control group
B) Before-and-after
C) Ex post facto control group
D) True experimental

Question 6

An explanation for some characteristic, attitude, or behavior of groups, individuals, or other entities (such as families, organizations, or cities) or for events is ______.

A) the effect
B) the cause
C) spurious
D) a control

Question 7

A nomothetic causal explanation is one involving the belief that variation in an independent variable will be followed by ______, when all other things are equal.

A) variation in the independent variable
B) a counterfactual display
C) nonspuriousness
D) variation in the dependent variable

Question 8

In this type of quasi-experimental design, experimental and comparison groups are designated before treatment occurs but are not created by random assignment.

A) nonequivalent control group designs
B) before-and-after designs
C) ex post facto control group designs
D) true experimental designs

Question 9

A discernable means of creating a connection between variables is a(n) ______.

A) association
B) mechanism
C) context
D) spuriousness

Question 10

Simply because there is an association between two variables does not mean that one caused the other to do something is an example of the adage ______.

A) causation does not prove correlation
B) correlation does not prove causation
C) correlation does not prove nonspuriousness
D) causation proves correlation

Question 11

______ is a relationship between two variables that is not due to variation in a third variable

A) Causality
B) Nomothetic
C) Nonspuriousness
D) Idiographic

Question 12

A relationship between two variables that is due to variation in a third variable is ______.

A) correlational
B) contextually driven
C) nonspurious
D) spurious

Question 13

In Bushman's experiments on media violence and aggression, undergraduate psychology students were recruited to ______.

A) watch a 15-minute videotape in a screening room, one student at a time
B) listen to a 15-minute tape in an office, one student at a time
C) watch a 30-minute videotape in a screening room, along with other students
D) watch 30 minutes of a preselected violent television show

Question 14

When we ensure that the variation in the independent variable came before variation in the dependent variable, we have the criterion for proper

A) context
B) association
C) time ordering
D) spuriousness

Question 15

The Latin term meaning "all other things being equal" is ______.

A) nomothetic
B) nonspurious
C) ceteris paribus
D) idiographic

Question 16

Variation in one variable is related to variation in another variable is known as ______.

A) time ordering
B) nonspuriousness
C) mechanism
D) association

Question 17

When random assignment is not possible, a(n) ______ control group design is often used.

A) nonequivalent
B) ex post facto
C) nonspurious
D) before-and-after

Question 18

To determine whether community resource centers were more effective in reducing recidivism than traditional parole, Hyatt and Ostermann (2019) conducted a(n) ______ control group experiment.

A) ex post facto
B) nonspurious
C) idiographic
D) nonequivalent

Question 19

The concrete individual sequence of events, thoughts or actions that result in a particular outcome for a particular individual is a(n) ______.

A) qualitative effectivity
B) idiographic causal explanation
C) nomothetic causal explanation
D) ingrained causal effect

Question 20

A technique used in nonexperimental research to reduce the risk of spuriousness is ______ control.

A) repetitive cross-sectional
B) time order
C) statistical
D) event-based design

Question 21

In an experiment, the group of subjects that does not receive the treatment or experimental manipulation is the ______ group.

A) experimental
B) control
C) spurious
D) correlational

Question 22

Association is not a sufficient criterion on its own for establishing a causal effect.

Question 23

Sample generalizability exists when ______.

A) data for a study are collected at one time only
B) data for a study are collected at two or more points in time
C) a conclusion based on a sample, or subset, of a larger population holds true for that population
D) a conclusion based on the population is found to be true

Question 24

Endogenous change occurs when ______.

A) the groups can differ over time because of differential attrition
B) natural developments in the subjects, independent of the experimental treatment, account for some or all of the observed change
C) subjects who are chosen for a study because of their extreme scores on the dependent variable become less extreme on the posttest due
D) something other than the treatment influences outcome scores

Question 25

Random assignment (randomization) helps ensure that the research subjects are representative of some larger population.

Question 26

In a ______ design, a comparison group is predetermined to be comparable to the treatment group in critical ways, but subjects are not randomly assigned to groups.

A) True experimental
B) Field experimental
C) Before-and-after
D) Quasi-experimental

Question 27

The simplest type of before-and-after design is the ______.

A) fixed-sample panel design (panel study)
B) time series design (repeated measures panel design)
C) ex post facto control group design
D) quasi-experimental design

Question 28

The common feature of before-and-after designs is the ______.

A) presence of a comparison group
B) absence of a comparison group
C) time series panel design
D) random assignment into groups

Question 29

When a true experimental design is not feasible, researchers may instead use a quasi-experimental design, including ______ designs.

A) equivalent control group
B) before only
C) ex post facto control group
D) survey

Question 30

When the comparison group is in some way affected by, or affects, the treatment group, this has occurred ______.

A) regression effect
B) endogenous change
C) regression effect
D) contamination

Question 31

One innovative field experiment was conducted by Pager (2007) to determine the effects of incarceration on the likelihood of ______.

A) obtaining employment
B) recidivism
C) being disrespectful to authority
D) drug abuse

Question 32

An idiographic explanation also may be termed an individualist or a historicist explanation.

Question 33

A study in which data are collected at only one point is time is a ______.

A) Solomon four-group design
B) cross-sectional study
C) longitudinal study
D) Hawthorne study

Question 34

Carrington and Schulenberg's (2008) study of the effect of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) of 2002 in Canada on police discretion with apprehended young offenders illustrates a(n) ______ design.

A) true experimental
B) ex post facto
C) time series
D) control group

Question 35

A type of contamination in experimental and quasi-experimental designs that occurs when control group members are aware that they are being denied some advantage and increase their efforts by way of compensation is ______.

A) regression effect
B) endogenous effect
C) compensatory rivalry (John Henry effect)
D) treatment misidentification

Question 36

If researchers were evaluating the effectiveness of a mandatory arrest policy in decreasing incidents of intimate partner assault and an event such as the murder trial of O. J. Simpson occurred during the experiment, which of the following might also be said to have an effect on the subjects' outcome scores?

A) exogenous change
B) regression effect
C) external events (history effect)
D) John Henry effect

Question 37

The random assignment of subjects to experimental and comparison groups is not the same as random sampling of individuals from some larger population.

Question 38

When subjects experience a treatment that wasn't intended by the researcher is known as ______.

A) treatment misidentification
B) self-fulfilling prophecy
C) the John Henry effect
D) contamination

Question 39

Matching is another procedure that can be used as a substitute for randomization.

Question 40

A source of internal (causal) invalidity occurring when the characteristics of experimental and comparison group subjects differ in any way that influences the outcome is ______.

A) selection bias
B) endogenous change
C) exogenous change
D) regression effect

Question 41

Selection bias is when subjects develop or change during the experiment as part of an ongoing process independent of the experimental treatment.

Question 42

Field experiments conducted to evaluate social programs can also involve issues of informed consent.

Question 43

Time Series designs include several pretest and posttest observations, allowing the researcher to study the process by which an intervention has an impact over time.

Question 44

In longitudinal research designs, data are collected at one point in time.

Question 45

The difficulty of establishing nonspuriousness does not rule out using nonexperimental data to evaluate causal hypotheses.

Question 46

The Hawthorne effect is named after a famous productivity experiment outside Chicago. Workers were moved to a special room for a study of the effects of lighting intensity and other work conditions on their productivity. After this move, the workers began to increase their output no matter what change was made in their working conditions, even when the conditions became worse. The researchers concluded that the workers felt they should work harder because they were part of a special experiment.

Question 47

If researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of a mandatory arrest policy in decreasing incidents of intimate partner assault and a high profile murder trial involving intimate partners is taking place at the same time, it may compromise the results.

Question 48

The regression effect is a source of causal invalidity that occurs when subjects who are chosen for a study because of their extreme scores on the dependent variable become less extreme on the posttest due to natural cyclical or episodic change in the variable.

Question 49

Quasi-experimental designs are considered quasi-experimental because subjects are not randomly assigned to the comparison and experimental groups.

Question 50

A true experiment is an experimental study conducted in a real-world setting.

Question 51

Experimental and comparison groups in ex post facto control group designs are created by random assignment.

Question 52

A problem with tracking people in research for several years is that it is extremely expensive.

Question 53

The Solomon four-group design is a version of a quasi-experiment.

Question 54

Testing, maturation, and regression effects are generally a problem in true experiments.

Question 55

When comparison group members become aware that they are being denied some advantage, they may increase their efforts to compensate, creating a problem called the Sam Johnson effect.

Question 56

The only way to reduce the placebo effect in social science research is to treat the comparison group with something similar.

Question 57

Subjects who can be recruited for a laboratory experiment, randomly assigned to a group, and kept under carefully controlled conditions for the study's duration are a representative sample of any large population of interest.

Question 58

Lo, Kim, and Cheng (2008) did cross-sectional research in order to determine if certain offenders were more likely to repeat the same crimes or commit different crimes.

Question 59

Carrington and Schulenberg's (2008) study of the effect of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) of 2002 in Canada on police discretion with apprehended young offenders illustrates a cross-sectional design.

Question 60

True experiments are particularly well suited to producing valid conclusions about generalizability.

Question 61

We talked about fixed-sample panel designs above when we highlighted quasi-experimental designs. What is a fixed-sample panel design? What is the process for conducting fixed-sample panel designs? Why are they better than other designs?

Question 62

When random assignment is not possible, a nonequivalent control group design is often used. In this type of quasi-experimental design, a comparison group is selected to be as comparable as possible to the treatment group. Describe the nonequivalent control group design and the two selection methods which can be used.

Question 63

How do researchers use statistical control to determine factors most important when predicting a dependent variable like recidivism?

Question 64

What are the criteria for establishing a nomothetic causal explanation?

Question 65

Why are panel designs better than repeated cross-sectional design for testing causal hypotheses? What challenges do they have?

Question 66

When testing a hypothesis with a true experimental design isn't feasible, what design might they use? As part of your answer, define quasi-experimental design and describe the two major types.

Question 67

Explain the meaning of the expression, "correlation does not prove causation."

Question 68

Name and describe the threats to internal validity in experiments.

Question 69

What is treatment misidentification? What are the three sources, as described in your text?

Question 70

Describe the innovative field experiment conducted by Pager in 2007. What was the research question? Why was it important? What did they find?

Question 71

What is an event-based design? Describe who could be included in a study.

Question 72

What is an idiographic causal ratinal ? What do these types of ratinals focus on? Provide an example.

Question 73

What are the three features that true experiments have which allow researchers to show causality?

Question 74

What is meant by "selective distribution of benefits"? Is it ethical? Why?

Question 75

What is an idiographic causal explanation?

Question 76

Endogenous change includes three specific threats to internal validity. Name and describe them.