Question 1

Sample is to population as

Accepted Answer

The relationship between a sample and a population can be compared to the relationship between a part and a whole. A sample is a subset of the population, just as a part is a subset of a whole.

Question 2

A psychologist has collected data on the physical agility of young adults and now wishes to collect similar responses from elderly people.The psychologist is working within a limited budget.On the basis of sampling theory,which participants should the psychologist attempt to recruit?

Accepted Answer

The best choice would be to obtain a representative sample of elderly people. This would ensure that the sample accurately reflects the characteristics of the larger population of elderly people, and would provide the most generalizable findings. Selecting only elderly acquaintances or athletic individuals may introduce biases into the sample, while selecting individuals not known to the psychologist may not guarantee a representative sample.

Question 3

Which research design uses each participant as his or her own control?

Accepted Answer

Within-subjects design uses the same participants for all conditions, allowing each participant to serve as their own control.

Question 4

A researcher assigns the first fifty people who sign up to participate in a study to the experimental condition and the next fifty to the control condition.Why would the interpretations drawn from the study be severely limited?

Accepted Answer

Without random assignment to conditions, there is a significant risk of selection bias, which can lead to differences between the groups that cannot be attributed to the independent variable being studied. Therefore, the interpretations drawn from the study would be severely limited.

Question 5

Dr.Norton is using a research technique in which neither the research participants nor the research assistants are aware of which participants receive which treatment.Which approach has Dr.Norton most likely employed?

Accepted Answer

Dr.Norton has most likely employed the double-blind control technique, since both the research participants and the research assistants are unaware of which participants receive which treatment. The double-blind control technique is used to eliminate bias in research studies, and it involves hiding information about the treatment from both the participants and the research assistants involved in the study.

Question 6

A researcher is testing if caffeine makes people more talkative.Some of the participants are given regular coffee to drink and some are given warm milk.The assistant then interviews the participants and counts the number of words each speaks during the interview.What seems to be missing from the design?

Accepted Answer

A placebo control is missing from the design to ensure that any effects observed are truly due to the caffeine in the coffee and not just due to participants thinking they consumed caffeine.

Question 7

In Robert Rosenthal's study of the effects of expectations,some students were led to believe that the rats they were training were maze-bright and other students were told that their rats were maze-dull.In reality,the rats were all the same.What did Rosenthal find in the study?

Accepted Answer

Robert Rosenthal found that the students who were led to believe that their rats were maze-bright had significantly better learning outcomes compared to the students who were told that their rats were maze-dull. This demonstrated the power of expectations and how they can influence performance, even in the absence of any actual differences between groups.

Question 8

When does a placebo effect occur?

Accepted Answer

The placebo effect occurs when participants change their behaviour because of their belief that a treatment has had an effect. This can happen even if the treatment they received is actually a placebo (e.g., a sugar pill that has no active ingredients). The belief that they have received a treatment can lead to changes in their symptoms, performance, or other outcomes that are being measured.

Question 9

In the context of conducting psychological research,what is the purpose of control procedures?

Accepted Answer

Control procedures are used to hold constant variables and conditions other than those related to the hypothesis in order to isolate the effects of the variables that are being studied. This helps to ensure that any observed effects can be attributed to the independent variable and not to other extraneous factors. The other options (A, C, and D) are not the primary purpose of control procedures in psychological research.

Question 10

In a between-subjects design,which participants are NOT exposed to the experimental treatment?

Accepted Answer

In a between-subjects design, some participants are exposed to the experimental treatment (experimental group), while others are not exposed to the treatment (control group). The control group serves as a baseline for comparison, providing a comparison point to determine the effect of the treatment. The experimental group experiences the treatment, and the results are compared to the control group. Therefore, the participants who are not exposed to the experimental treatment in a between-subjects design are the control group.

Question 11

A researcher reports to his colleagues that he belongs to a secret scientific society,where no one but the researcher will ever know about the studies the society members are doing.Which principle is being violated?

Accepted Answer

By belonging to a secret society and not allowing anyone else to know about the studies being conducted, the researcher is violating the principle of public verifiability. This principle is important in scientific research as it promotes transparency and allows for replication of studies by other researchers to verify or refute the findings. Keeping research secret goes against the principles of open science and hinders scientific progress.

Question 12

To measure the effects of task complexity on an individual's perception of time,a researcher has one group of participants do simple addition problems and another group solve complex mathematical formulas.Both groups are then asked to estimate the time elapsed since they began the task.Later,the researcher finds out that the participants given the complex task were in a room with higher noise levels than the other group.In this study,which term best describes the noise level?

Accepted Answer

The noise level is a confounding variable because it was not intentionally manipulated by the researcher but can affect the participants' perception of time, potentially compromising the validity of the study.

Question 13

A research assistant is conducting an experiment designed to assess the verbal abilities of boys and girls.In preparing for the experiment,the assistant reads a research study that found higher verbal abilities in girls than in boys.This information about gender unknowingly led the assistant to communicate to the girls in the experiment that they should do better than the boys.What term best describes this phenomenon?

Accepted Answer

The answer of A research assistant is conducting an experiment...

Question 14

What is the primary purpose of randomly assigning participants to experimental and control groups?

Accepted Answer

Randomly assigning participants to experimental and control groups helps eliminate confounding variables related to individual differences. By randomly assigning participants, the experimenters ensure that any individual differences are spread equally across the groups, rather than being concentrated in one group. This helps ensure that any differences between the groups in the outcome variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable, rather than other variables.

Question 15

Why do research designs often include a control condition?

Accepted Answer

The control condition serves as a baseline against which the experimental effect is evaluated. This helps to determine whether any changes observed in the experimental condition are due to the manipulation being studied or factors outside of the study.

Question 16

According to the text book,what percentage of patients who use a treatment with no genuine medical effects show a good or excellent outcome?

Accepted Answer

The answer of According to the text book,what percentage of...

Question 17

A researcher theorizes that people are likely to perspire more when telling embarrassing stories than when telling funny stories.Volunteers are asked to record a memory of an embarrassing or a funny incident and their perspiration is measured.On some days,but not others,the lab where the recordings are done is very hot.Based on this information,what should be of most concern to the researcher?

Accepted Answer

The presence of a confounding variable should be of most concern to the researcher. The hot temperature in the lab may affect the participants' perspiration levels and could be a confounding variable that influences the results. The researcher should control for this variable by ensuring that the temperature in the lab is consistent across all sessions or by randomly assigning participants to hot and cool temperature conditions. It is possible that other confounding variables may also be present and should be identified and controlled for in order to accurately determine the relationship between telling embarrassing stories and perspiration levels.

Question 18

A psychologist is doing research for a pharmaceutical company.The drugs that are being tested are numbered so that the psychologist does not know what they are,nor does the psychologist know which participants are receiving which drugs.Participants are also unaware of differences in treatments.Which phenomenon is being described?

Accepted Answer

The phenomenon being described is double-blind control, which means that both the researcher and the participants are unaware of which treatments or drugs are being administered. This helps to eliminate biases that could arise from preconceived notions or expectations about the treatments, leading to more accurate results.

Question 19

When planning a study,the researcher determines that of the one hundred participants,fifty will be randomly assigned to the experimental condition and the other fifty to the control condition.Which type of experimental design is being used?

Accepted Answer

This is a between-subjects experimental design, also known as a between-groups design, where participants are randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group in order to compare the two groups' outcomes.

Question 20

One study described in the text book examined the effects of ginkgo biloba as aanswer to one's memory problems.The study highlighted the importance of utilizing which one of the following controls?

Accepted Answer

The study described in the text book examined the effects of ginkgo biloba as an answer to one's memory problems. Therefore, it is essential to implement a placebo control to isolate the effects of the drug from the placebo effects. A placebo control is a group that receives a non-active substance (i.e., placebo), which allows for the comparison of results between the active treatment and non-active treatment groups.

Quiz 2: A: Research Methods in Psychology