Deck 2: Research Methods

Question 1

The peer review process is designed to

A)block alternative therapies from being made available to the general public.
B)identify flaws in a research study's methods,findings,and conclusions.
C)make researchers feel bad when their article is not published.
D)place obstacles in front of people whose theories differ from mainstream science.

Answer 1

identify flaws in a research study's methods,findings,and conclusions.

Question 2

What is the purpose of an institutional review board?

A)To help protect research participants from abuse
B)To hinder the research process by placing unnecessary hurdles in the way of researchers
C)To help protect the university from lawsuits from unhappy research participants
D)To encourage the use of deception in medical and psychological research with humans

Answer 2

To help protect research participants from abuse

Question 3

In which situation would presenting the mean as one's measure of central tendency be least accurate?

A)When the distribution is normally distributed
B)When the distribution is negatively skewed
C)When the distribution is bimodal
D)When there are many scores in the data set

Answer 3

When the distribution is negatively skewed

Question 4

A key factor to consider when reading about the results of a study on the Internet,in a newspaper,or in a news magazine is to

A)consider the source of the information.
B)determine how well it fits with what others have told you in the past.
C)rely on your common sense or "gut" intuition.
D)popular media outlets always have inaccurate information.

Question 5

Sarah,a graduate student in psychology,just heard about a five-year-old child who has already learned calculus.She is thinking about doing an in-depth study of the child for her dissertation because such early-life math skill is so rare.Sarah is considering which research method?

A)Naturalistic observation
B)Experiment
C)Independent study
D)Case study

Question 6

After carefully observing thousands of students,Dr.O'Brien revealed to his colleagues that students with brown eyes are statistically more likely to write with pens instead of pencils.Although his colleagues did not question his statistics,they did suggest that a finding such as this lacked

A)authenticity.
B)validity.
C)statistical measures.
D)practical significance.

Question 7

Dr.Johansen randomly assigned subjects to three different groups during her last experiment.She then proceeded to give all the participants in the experiment a new study technique designed to enhance their learning for the upcoming test.What critical error did she make during her experiment?

A)She failed to identify the independent variable.
B)She failed to identify the dependent variable.
C)She failed to include an experimental group.
D)She failed to include a control group.

Question 8

The variable that an experimenter assesses or measures to determine whether or not the manipulation has had an effect is the _____ variable.

A)causal
B)confounding
C)dependent
D)independent

Question 9

Dr.Fortner is discussing cognitive psychology with his introductory psychology class and says that we act as cognitive misers when making judgments about others or making decisions.What does Dr.Fortner mean with this statement?

A)We are frequently incorrect in our judgments and decision making.
B)We value accuracy in our judgments and decisions.
C)We are lazy and conserve mental energy by simplifying the world.
D)We will use heuristics only as long as they give us the correct answer

Question 10

The perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists is known as

A)confirmation bias.
B)illusory correlation.
C)existence proof.
D)type I error.