Question 1

Recall that Latané and Darley (1968) studied bystander intervention by having participants overhear a seizure while they were speaking on headphones with another discussant.Assuming that the participants believed that the seizure was real and felt anxious and confused about whether and how to help when they heard the seizure, Latané and Darley's (1968) experiment was

Accepted Answer

The experiment was high in psychological realism because participants believed in the reality of the situation and would likely experience similar feelings of anxiety and confusion in a real-world emergency.

Question 2

Using a cover story to enhance the psychological realism of an experiment is one way to increase the ________ of a study.

Accepted Answer

A cover story can make an experiment more realistic and relatable to real-world situations, thereby enhancing its external validity, which refers to the extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other settings, people, and times.

Question 3

Internal validity is to ________ as external validity is to ________.

Accepted Answer

Internal validity refers to the extent to which a study can establish causality between variables, whereas external validity refers to the extent to which findings can be generalized to other populations, situations, or contexts. Therefore, choice A is the correct answer as it has the correct pairing of concepts.

Question 4

Why do researchers go to great lengths to create cover stories and devise elaborate situations in their studies to cover up the true purpose of the study?

Accepted Answer

People may behave differently when they know they are being observed or are part of a study, even if they are asked to be as genuine as possible. To elicit natural and genuine responses, researchers use cover stories and elaborate situations to avoid participants from knowing about the true purpose of the study. This is called deception, which must be used judiciously and only when there are no other feasible alternatives. It is not about tricking, rather, it is about making sure the study is as valid and reliable as possible.

Question 5

A psychologist first conducted a study on helping behavior with a sample of college undergraduates.This psychologist then replicated the study using the same procedure with a different participant sample.If similar results were obtained with both samples, this experimenter has demonstrated

Accepted Answer

Replicating a study with a different participant sample and obtaining similar results demonstrates external validity, which refers to the extent to which the findings can be generalized to a population beyond the specific sample used in the study. Internal validity refers to the degree to which a study accurately tests what it was designed to test. Population consistency and chronological consistency are not commonly used terms in psychology research.

Question 6

Did the participants in Latané and Darley's (1968) bystander intervention experiment think what Kitty Genovese's neighbors thought? Did they feel what her neighbors felt? These questions address the ________ of their experiment.

Accepted Answer

The question is asking about whether the participants experienced psychological realism, which is the extent to which the experimental situation and tasks are realistic and meaningful to participants. The experiment was designed to study bystander intervention, and the participants were asked to act as if they were witnesses to a real emergency situation. Therefore, it is more likely that the participants experienced psychological realism rather than internal validity, reliability, or cover story.

Question 7

________ would increase the external validity of experiments, but social psychologists rarely do it.

Accepted Answer

Random sampling would increase the external validity of experiments as it would ensure that the participants are representative of the population under study. However, social psychologists rarely do it due to practical limitations and budget constraints.

Question 8

Latané and Darley (1968) told participants that they were interested in the kind of problems that college students experience.This explanation to their participants was the

Accepted Answer

The explanation given to the participants is known as the cover story, which is a false explanation given to the participants to conceal the true purpose of the study.

Question 9

There are many advantages to using experiments; however, a major drawback is

Accepted Answer

Experiments often require psychological realism to ensure that the findings can be generalized to real-world settings, which is a challenge for maintaining external validity.

Question 10

A credible cover story helps to ensure

Accepted Answer

A credible cover story helps to ensure psychological realism by making the experimental situation more believable and engaging for the participants, thereby enhancing the naturalness of their behavior within the experiment.

Question 11

In reading descriptions of the behaviors of the New York University students who participated in Latané and Darley's (1968) experiment on bystander intervention, you wonder whether a similar study conducted in Tokyo in 1968 would have yielded the same results as those participants from NYU.In essence, your question is, "Will these results generalize across ________?"

Accepted Answer

The question is asking whether the results of the study would be generalizable to a different group of people (in this case, those in Tokyo in 1968). Therefore, the answer is B) people.

Question 12

The biggest problem with using random assignment and controlling extraneous variables in an experiment is that

Accepted Answer

Random assignment and controlling extraneous variables can make the experimental situation quite artificial because these procedures often create an environment that does not naturally occur, potentially limiting the external validity or generalizability of the findings.

Question 13

Jane analyzed the results of her study and found that the probability of getting such findings by chance was less than 1 in 100.Jane can say that her results are statistically

Accepted Answer

If the probability of getting the findings by chance is less than 5% (typically represented as p < 0.05), then the results are considered statistically significant. This means that there is evidence to support the alternative hypothesis and that the findings are not likely due to chance.

Question 14

Participants in a classic experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram (1963) found themselves in the uncomfortable position of being asked to administer increasingly strong shocks to a learner every time he made a mistake.Videotapes of the participants showed them laughing hysterically, chain-smoking, sweating, and fidgeting nervously.Based on these videotapes, it could be inferred that Milgram's experiment was high on

Accepted Answer

The observed behaviors on videotapes indicate that the experiment was high in psychological realism, meaning that participants were truly experiencing the emotional distress and discomfort of inflicting harm on someone else. This suggests that the experiment was an accurate reflection of real-world situations and emotions. Internal validity, experimental control, and reliability are not necessarily indicated by the participants' behaviors on videotapes alone.

Question 15

Experimenters who value external validity primarily want their findings to generalize across ________ and ________.

Accepted Answer

Experiments that value external validity want their findings to be applicable to different people (populations) and situations (settings).

Question 16

Dr.Aronoff takes extra time when planning his studies to make sure that the results will generalize to other people and other situations than those he is directly examining.Dr.Aronoff is concerned with

Accepted Answer

Dr. Aronoff's concern for making sure that the results of his studies can be generalized to other people and situations suggests that he is focused on external validity, which refers to the extent to which the findings of a study can be applied or generalized to populations and settings beyond those directly examined.

Question 17

No matter how artificial an experimental situation may at first appear, if participants think, feel, or react the way that people in a real-life situation would react, the experiment has

Accepted Answer

High psychological realism refers to the degree to which an experimental situation is able to replicate the psychological processes that occur in real-life situations. If participants are able to think, feel, or react as they would in a naturalistic setting, then the experiment has high psychological realism. This is important because it allows researchers to draw valid conclusions about how people would behave in the real world based on their behavior in the experimental setting. High internal validity is also important, but it refers to the degree to which an experiment is able to rule out alternative explanations for the observed results, rather than the degree of realism in the experimental situation.

Question 18

The relationships developed on shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have rarely produced long-lasting marriages.This is likely because the situations in which these relationships begin are

Accepted Answer

The situations in which relationships begin on shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette are low in external validity, meaning they are not reflective of real-life situations and thus do not generalize well to real-life relationships. Therefore, the success of these relationships is unlikely to be replicated in the real world.

Question 19

A cover story is

Accepted Answer

A cover story is a false description of the true purpose of the study, given to participants to avoid influencing their behavior in a certain way. It is used in research to ensure that the study remains unbiased and does not produce results that are influenced by participant knowledge or awareness of the true purpose of the study.

Question 20

Suppose the research by Donnerstein and Berkowitz (1981) regarding the role of violent pornography on aggression could be generalized to women aggressors.What could you conclude?

Accepted Answer

The research by Donnerstein and Berkowitz (1981) suggests that exposure to violent pornography increases aggression, and if generalized to women aggressors, it would likely increase aggression toward men, similar to the findings with male aggressors.

Quiz 2: Methodology: How Social Psychologists Do Research