Question 1

A "freshman year" program finds that first year students are more relaxed at the end of their first semester than they were at the beginning. The Dean is excited, but the researcher suspects the change may be due to

Accepted Answer

Maturation refers to the natural development or changes that occur in individuals over time, which could explain why students are more relaxed by the end of the semester.

Question 2

After taking a special computerized introductory sociology course, students do twice as well on the posttest as they did on the pretest. The researcher suspects the pretest alerted students to what was to come, however. This threat to internal validity is called

Accepted Answer

The testing threat to internal validity occurs when the pretest influences the participants' performance on the posttest, as it may alert them to the content or format of the test, leading to improved scores.

Question 3

After averaging 20 points per game for her college basketball team over the first 15 games, Amanda scores 37 points one night. Because of _______, she will almost certainly score _______ points in the next game.

Accepted Answer

Regression to the mean suggests that after an extreme performance, such as scoring 37 points, Amanda's performance is likely to return closer to her average, which is 20 points per game, meaning she will likely score fewer points in the next game.

Question 4

Compared with research in which people learn lists of words and recall them, studies on such topics as eyewitness memory and the recall of high school Spanish have greater

Accepted Answer

Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research findings can be generalized to real-world settings. Studies on eyewitness memory and recall of high school Spanish are more applicable to real-life situations than controlled word list recall tasks.

Question 5

The presence of a control group enables researchers to evaluate threats to internal validity. However, one threat that is most likely to still influence results to an unknown degree, even when a control group is used, is

Accepted Answer

The answer of The presence of a control group enables...

Question 6

Most researchers would agree that

Accepted Answer

Internal validity is often considered more important than external validity because it ensures that the results of an experiment are due to the manipulation of the independent variable and not other factors. Without internal validity, the findings of a study cannot be trusted, regardless of their applicability to real-world settings.

Question 7

Between the administration of a pretest and a posttest, an event may occur that can affect the results of the study independent of the treatment program being evaluated. This threat to internal validity is called

Accepted Answer

The "history" threat to internal validity refers to events that occur between the pretest and posttest that can affect the results independently of the treatment.

Question 8

External validity concerns the extent that research findings

Accepted Answer

External validity refers to the extent to which research findings can be generalized to settings, people, times, and measures beyond the specific conditions of the original study.

Question 9

In study described in the previous item, confidence in program effectiveness would be highest if a control group, which also started with a pretest score of 80, had a posttest score of

Accepted Answer

If the control group maintained the same score of 80, it suggests that any change in the experimental group can be attributed to the program, increasing confidence in its effectiveness.

Question 10

In order to determine if some experience brought about a change in an individual from one time to another, researchers often use designs that include

Accepted Answer

Pretests and posttests are used to measure changes in an individual by comparing their status before and after an experience.

Question 11

The internal validity of a study is high when

Accepted Answer

Internal validity is high when potential confounds are properly controlled, ensuring that the results are due to the independent variable and not other factors.

Question 12

Concerning subject (participant)pools, the APA recommends all of the following except

Accepted Answer

The APA recommends that students should be informed about alternatives to research participation upfront, not only if they ask about them.

Question 13

Worker productivity is assessed before and after a program for flextime is instituted. Just after the pretest, workers receive an unexpected bonus check based on unusually high product sales. Productivity is higher on the posttest than on the pretest, but the researcher suspects ______ as a threat to internal validity.

Accepted Answer

The unexpected bonus check represents a historical event that could have influenced the workers' productivity, making it a threat to internal validity by potentially causing the observed increase in productivity rather than the flextime program itself.

Question 14

For an experimental group in a program to reduce anxiety, the mean pretest score is 80 (max = 100). The posttest score is 70. This change was the result of

Accepted Answer

The change in scores could be due to regression to the mean, the effectiveness of the program, or natural maturation over time. Without further information, any of these explanations are possible.

Question 15

During the course of an experimental that lasts over a period of time, normal developmental changes may occur that can affect the results of the study independent of the treatment program being evaluated. This threat to internal validity is called

Accepted Answer

Maturation refers to the natural developmental changes that occur over time, which can affect the results of a study independently of the treatment being evaluated.

Question 16

Social psychologists might be concerned that conformity experiments using participants from individualist cultures might not be relevant for understanding behavior in collectivist cultures. This concern is about _______ validity.

Accepted Answer

External validity refers to the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other settings, populations, and times. The concern here is whether findings from individualist cultures apply to collectivist cultures.

Question 17

Which of the following is true about subject (participant)pools?

Accepted Answer

Students must be given a reasonable alternative to research participation to ensure ethical standards and voluntary participation.

Question 18

Research that attempts to study psychological phenomena in settings that reflect daily living (e.g., a memory study about forgetting where we put our keys)is said to have _________ validity.

Accepted Answer

Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research findings can be generalized to real-world settings. Studying psychological phenomena in naturalistic settings, like forgetting where we put our keys, aims to ensure that the findings are applicable to everyday life, thus enhancing ecological validity.

Question 19

Sometimes, pretest and posttest measures are records taken by observers who improve their skills with practice. In this case, pretest-posttest changes could be due to program effectiveness or to the threat to internal validity called

Accepted Answer

Instrumentation refers to changes in the measurement tools or observers' skills over time, which can affect the results of pretest and posttest measures.

Question 20

Because of the _______ phenomenon, any extreme score on a pretest is almost certain to be followed by a less extreme score on the posttest.

Accepted Answer

Regression to the mean is a statistical phenomenon where extreme scores tend to be closer to the average on subsequent measurements.

Quiz 5: Introduction to Experimental Research