Question 1

Which of the following locations would not be considered for a naturalistic observation?

Accepted Answer

A child study lab at the university may involve unnatural stimuli or controlled environments, which would not be considered a natural setting for observation. The other options involve settings where individuals naturally behave and interact.

Question 2

Prior to applying to college,Andrea is told she will have to take the ACT exam.This situation provides an example of how psychologists answer application problems using

Accepted Answer

Standardized testing is used to measure a person's abilities or knowledge in a consistent and objective manner. The ACT is a standardized test commonly used for college admissions, so this situation provides an example of how psychologists use standardized testing to answer application problems.

Question 3

___________________________ are commercially prepared tests that assess children's performance in different domains.These tests often allow a child's performance to be compared with those of other children at the same age,in many cases on the national level.

Accepted Answer

Standardized tests are specifically designed and calibrated to be administered and scored in a consistent and predetermined manner. They are widely used in educational settings to assess students' knowledge and skills, and to compare their performance to that of their peers. Physical development tests assess only one domain (physical development), while chapter tests in classroom textbooks assess only specific content areas, and not performance across multiple domains. Therefore, the best answer is A) Standardized tests.

Question 4

The main difference between a questionnaire and an interview is that the questionnaire requires subjects to

Accepted Answer

A questionnaire typically consists of a set of predetermined questions that subjects answer by recording their responses themselves, while an interview involves a researcher asking questions and recording the subject's answers. Therefore, choice B, "record their own answers," is the best answer.

Question 5

What is the purpose of correlational research?

Accepted Answer

The purpose of correlational research is to describe the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables or events. It does not aim to determine causation, compare individual responses to groups, or compare groups from different cultures or regions.

Question 6

Measuring ____________________ can provide information about many aspects of a person's emotional and physical state,such as stress levels and pubertal changes.

Accepted Answer

Hormones are chemical messengers produced by glands in the body that regulate many processes, including growth and development, metabolism, and mood. Hormonal changes can provide valuable information about a person's emotional and physical state, such as increases in stress hormones or changes in sex hormones during puberty. Weight and digestion can also provide valuable health information, but may not be as directly related to emotional and physical state as hormones. Facial expressions can provide clues about a person's emotional state, but may not be as reliable as hormonal measurements.

Question 7

Why does the text favor an eclectic approach?

Accepted Answer

The text favors an eclectic approach because it recognizes and utilizes the strengths of different approaches, rather than relying on one single approach. It is not necessarily the simplest or newest approach.

Question 8

To determine why Jeffrey Dahmer became a mass murderer,a researcher spent a great deal of time talking with both Dahmer and people who knew him both as a child and as an adult.The personal in-depth approach the researcher used is called a(n)

Accepted Answer

A case study involves in-depth research and analysis of a single individual, utilizing various sources of information, including interviews with the individual and people who know them. This approach was used in the example given to understand the specific case of Jeffrey Dahmer.

Question 9

A child-care director is trying to find out information about the parents in her center.She decides to have them fill out surveys.What method of research is this approach?

Accepted Answer

The approach of having parents fill out surveys is a form of descriptive research, which seeks to gather information about the characteristics of a group or population. It does not involve manipulating variables or testing hypotheses, which are key features of experimental or correlational research. Observational research involves directly observing the behavior of individuals in their natural setting, which is not the approach being used here. Therefore, the best choice is C.

Question 10

Since Jerome has always been the center of attention in his family,he has some difficulty in his preschool because he insists on total attention from his peers and teachers.According to Bronfenbrenner,Jerome's developmental problems are taking place in the

Accepted Answer

The answer of Since Jerome has always been the center...

Question 11

The fact that growing up in Australia has influenced Matilda's life provides an example of the impact of the ____________ on human development.

Accepted Answer

The macrosystem refers to the broader cultural context and societal values that influence development. Growing up in Australia would be considered part of the macrosystem as it shapes Matilda's experiences and perspectives. The chronosystem refers to the historical time period in which development occurs and would not be relevant in this scenario. The exosystem refers to the external settings that indirectly influence development, such as the parent's workplace, and would not fully capture the impact of growing up in a particular country. The microsystem involves the immediate environment in which an individual interacts, such as family, peers, and school, and while growing up in Australia could be considered a part of Matilda's microsystem, it does not fully capture the broader influences of the macrosystem.

Question 12

The _______________________ is the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course,as well as sociohistorical circumstances.

Accepted Answer

The term "chronosystem" refers to the temporal dimension of human development, including historic time and life transitions. This includes changes that occur over an individual's lifespan (e.g. puberty, retirement), as well as changes in the broader sociohistorical context (e.g. wars, technological advances). The other choices (exosystem, macrosystem, and microsystem) refer to other levels in Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.

Question 13

Lana,who is the mayor of Lockport,decides that the city library is too expensive to maintain so she sells it to a private company that charges children $.50 to check out a book.This ecological change in the community involves the

Accepted Answer

The exosystem involves external environmental settings that indirectly affect a person. In this case, the decision made by the mayor, an external authority, impacts the community and its access to the library, thus affecting the children's experience indirectly.

Question 14

What is the purpose of experimental research?

Accepted Answer

Experimental research is designed to determine the cause-and-effect relationship between two variables, in this case, the cause of a behavior. By manipulating one variable and observing the effect on another, researchers can determine if one variable causes changes in another.

Question 15

An advantage of laboratory observation over naturalistic observation is that when observations are made in the lab,researchers can

Accepted Answer

Laboratory observation allows researchers to control factors that might influence behavior. This increases the ability to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables. In naturalistic observation, control over these factors is more difficult to achieve, making it harder to establish causality.

Question 16

Scientific observation requires that

Accepted Answer

All of the given options are essential for scientific observation. The observer needs to know what they are looking for to ensure their observations are relevant to the hypothesis they are testing. Remaining unbiased is important to prevent the observer's personal opinions from influencing the results. Recording and categorizing the observations are necessary to analyze the data and draw conclusions from it. Therefore, all three options are crucial for scientific observation.

Question 17

In order to assess the brain and spinal cord (the central nervous system)with a psychophysiological measure,which of the following can be used?

Accepted Answer

Both neuroimaging and electroencephalograph techniques can be used to assess the central nervous system. Neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) measure cerebral blood flow and metabolic activity, while electroencephalograph (EEG) measures electrical activity in the brain. Both of these measures provide valuable information about brain function and can be used to diagnose neurological disorders or assess brain activity during cognitive tasks.

Question 18

To determine the effects of a new memory-enhancing pill,a researcher randomly assigns 30 women to one of two conditions.In the first condition,each subject is given a pill and then told to try to memorize a list of 20 nonsense words.In the second condition,subjects are simply asked to try to memorize the word list.Results indicated that subjects who received the pill got an average of 12 items correct,whereas the no-pill group recalled only 6 items.In this experiment,the independent variable is the

Accepted Answer

The independent variable is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher in order to see if it has an effect on the dependent variable. In this case, the independent variable is whether or not the subjects received the pill. The dependent variable is the number of words recalled. The sex of the subjects and the use of nonsense words are not manipulated in this experiment, and therefore are not independent variables.

Question 19

A local school board wants to know whether parents approve of teachers using physical punishment to control children.The most efficient way to answer this issue would be to

Accepted Answer

The most efficient way to gather opinions from a large number of parents would be to develop and distribute a questionnaire. This method allows for easy data collection and can reach a larger audience than other methods, such as observation-based techniques or laboratory-based experiments. A cross-cultural study would not be necessary in this case as the issue pertains specifically to the local school board.

Question 20

Casual watching is very different than observation as used in scientific studies.A major difference is that scientific observation is

Accepted Answer

Scientific observation is highly systematic, involving careful planning, attention to detail, and consistency in how data is collected and recorded. Casual watching, on the other hand, is often done without any specific goal or plan in mind, and may not involve any kind of rigorous methodology or reliability checks. B and C are not necessarily true for all scientific observations, and D is not a valid option as at least one of the choices must be correct.

Quiz 1: Introduction