Question 1

After examining surveys you collected from Culture X,you find that people's responses tend to gather toward the center of your scale.This phenomenon is known as the _____________ bias.

Accepted Answer

Moderacy bias occurs when respondents tend to select the middle response options on a rating scale. This can happen when respondents are unsure about their level of agreement or do not want to appear too extreme in their responses. It is different from acquiescence bias, which is when respondents tend to agree with statements regardless of their actual beliefs, and social desirability bias, which is when respondents answer in a way they believe is socially acceptable rather than their true beliefs.

Question 2

After examining surveys that you collected from Culture X,you notice that everyone's responses tend to cluster at both ends of the scale.How do you correct this?

Accepted Answer

A

Question 3

Your study does not have enough power.To maximally increase power in your study,which of the following should you do?

Accepted Answer

To increase the power of a study, both the independent variable and dependent variable should be more sensitive. This will increase the strength of the relationship between the two variables and make it easier to detect significant results. Option E suggests using both more sensitive independent and dependent variables, making it the best choice for maximizing power.

Question 4

You are having trouble publishing results from your latest study,but you remember reading about how people are more easily convinced by neuroscientific evidence.To add neuroscience to your study,you decided to

Accepted Answer

Obtaining fMRI data from new participants is the best choice to add neuroscience to the study and convince people of the results. This is because fMRI is a direct measure of brain activity and commonly used in neuroscience research to study how different areas of the brain are involved in specific tasks or behaviors. This will provide strong neuroscientific evidence to support the study's results.

Question 5

What is a problem with using the "back-translation" method?

Accepted Answer

The answer of What is a problem with using the...

Question 6

One advantage of experimental methods over survey methods in cultural psychological research is that

Accepted Answer

Cultural differences in response biases can be a major concern in cross-cultural research, and experimental methods offer more control over these biases compared to survey methods. In experiments, researchers can manipulate variables and control for possible confounds, which can help control for response biases. Surveys, on the other hand, may be subject to different response styles (e.g., acquiescence, extremity) that can vary across cultures and distort cross-cultural comparisons.

Question 7

Dr.G is conducting a study to see whether people can be made to think in terms of East Asian and Western thoughts.Using college students in two cultures as participants,and using a very insensitive cultural prime for each participant,Dr.G measured how much they believe in Chinese medicine.A sample of the dataset is given below.  This study employs a _____________ manipulation,has low _____________,and the prime is classified as a(n)_____________ variable.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dr.G is conducting a study to see...

Question 8

While helping your colleague analyze data,you realize that she has turned the participants' responses into z-scores.Based on the response biases in the textbook,for what is she most likely trying to account?

Accepted Answer

Z-scores are used to standardize data, which helps to account for moderacy bias by ensuring that responses are comparable across different scales or groups.

Question 9

The tendency for people living in conditions with a real threat of starvation to report valuing food more than those living in conditions where food is abundant is an example of

Accepted Answer

The tendency for people living in conditions with a real threat of starvation to report valuing food more than those living in conditions where food is abundant is an example of the deprivation effect. It is a psychological phenomenon where people value and desire things more that are scarce, rare, or difficult to obtain. In this case, the scarcity of food leads to an increased appreciation and valuation of it.

Question 10

After examining surveys you handed out in a given culture,you find that many people in the culture tend to agree with both the positively worded item "I strongly support the prime minister's policies" and the negatively worded item "I disagree with the prime minister's policies." What is this an example of?

Accepted Answer

This is an example of acquiescence bias, where respondents tend to agree to both positively and negatively worded items without considering the actual content. This can happen due to social desirability bias or a tendency to avoid conflict.

Question 11

Which of the following is one problem especially associated with studies using WEIRD samples?

Accepted Answer

WEIRD samples (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) suffer from low generalizability because they are not representative of the world population as a whole. This means that findings from studies using WEIRD samples cannot be applied to individuals from other cultures or socioeconomic backgrounds.

Question 12

If an independent variable has more variance,is it more difficult or easier to detect an effect on the dependent variable?

Accepted Answer

The answer of If an independent variable has more variance,is...

Question 13

Dr.G is conducting a study to see whether people can be made to think in terms of East Asian and Western thoughts.Using very insensitive cultural primes for each participant,Dr.G measured how much they believe in Chinese medicine.A sample of the dataset is given below.  This study employs a _____________ manipulation,has _____________,and "belief in Chinese medicine" is classified as a(n)_____________.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dr.G is conducting a study to see...

Question 14

What is a strategy for avoiding problems with the reference-group effect?

Accepted Answer

Using concrete response options can help avoid problems with the reference-group effect because it provides specific and measurable responses that are less likely to be affected by social comparisons with others. This can reduce the impact of the reference group on individual responses. Standardizing people's responses, combining cultures' reference groups, reverse-scoring half of the items, and counterbalancing the order of the items do not directly address the reference-group effect.

Question 15

Reference-group effects in cross-cultural research occur because

Accepted Answer

Reference-group effects occur because people use social comparison to evaluate themselves, which can be influenced by the norms and values of their reference group. This can vary across different cultures and can affect how individuals respond in cross-cultural research.

Question 16

In your initial study,you noticed that your participants tended to say they strongly agreed with all of the items on your questionnaire.When doing a follow-up study,how would you tell that your original participants suffered from acquiescence bias?

Accepted Answer

Reverse-scoring half of the items will allow for a better understanding of whether participants are truly agreeing with the statements or simply demonstrating acquiescence bias. By reversing the wording of some items, it becomes more difficult for participants to simply agree with everything without considering the actual content of each statement. This is a common technique used to reduce the impact of acquiescence bias in questionnaire responses.

Question 17

You want to study how large people's faces are in Cultures X and Y.To do this,you simply ask people,"On a scale of 1 (small)to 10 (large),how large is your face?" To your surprise,most people in Culture X think they have small faces,even though their faces are much larger than those in Culture Y.Conversely,most people in Culture Y think they have large faces.How can you address this problem of trying to assess cultural differences in how large people's faces are?

Accepted Answer

The answer of You want to study how large people's...

Question 18

Steven is a new English-speaking cultural psychologist who only uses questionnaires.He wants to first establish methodological equivalence when studying cultural differences in "happiness" between rural Nigerians and urban South Koreans.To do that,he must

Accepted Answer

The answer of Steven is a new English-speaking cultural psychologist...

Question 19

After examining the surveys you collected from people in Culture A,you find that people tend to answer "yes" to all the questions,regardless of the content.How do you deal with this problem in the future so this does not recur?

Accepted Answer

By reverse-coding half of the items, it becomes more difficult for respondents to simply answer "yes" to everything without paying attention to the content of each question. This helps to increase the validity of the responses and ensure that they accurately reflect participants' attitudes or experiences. However, it is important to be mindful of how the reverse-coded items are worded and presented to avoid confusing or frustrating respondents.

Question 20

If you wanted to do a study using a within-groups manipulation to examine whether European Canadians can be made to think like Canadians and East Asians,which of the following would be the most relevant and appropriate methodology?

Accepted Answer

The most relevant and appropriate methodology for this study would be cultural priming. This involves exposing participants to stimuli that are associated with a particular culture in order to activate cultural stereotypes and promote cultural thinking patterns. In this case, the researcher could expose European Canadian participants to stimuli associated with Canadian and East Asian culture to see if this would influence their thinking patterns. The other options, such as random assignment, standardization, between-groups manipulation, and acculturation, do not directly address the question of whether European Canadians can be made to think like Canadians and East Asians.

Quiz 4: Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology