PSY 291 exam 3 study guide
1. RESEARCH STUDY 6.1: Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction
...
PSY 291 exam 3 study guide
1. RESEARCH STUDY 6.1: Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He writes the following questions for his survey:
A. What was your favorite part of this class?
B. Please rate how much you agree with the following statement using the scale below: This was one of my favorite classes all semester. 1 2 34 5 Strongly Agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree
C. Which of the following is most true of you? a. I am a very serious student. b. I try only as hard as I have to.
D. How easy did you feel this class was? 1 23 45 Easy Hard
Which of the questions above is an example of a forced-choice question?
a. Question A
b. Question B
c. Question C
d. Question D
2. RESEARCH STUDY 6.1: Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He writes the following questions for his survey: A. What was your favorite part of this class? B. Please rate how much you agree with the following statement using the scale below: This was one of my favorite classes all semester. 1 2 34 5 Strongly Agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree C. Which of the following is most true of you? a. I am a very serious student. b. I try only as hard as I have to. D. How easy did you feel this class was? 1 23 45 Easy Hard
Which of the questions above is an example of an open-ended question?
a. Question A
b. Question B
c. Question C
d. Question D
3. RESEARCH STUDY 6.1: Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He writes the following questions for his survey: A. What was your favorite part of this class? B. Please rate how much you agree with the following statement using the scale below: This was one of my favorite classes all semester. 1 2 34 5 Strongly Agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree C. Which of the following is most true of you? a. I am a very serious student. b. I try only as hard as I have to. D. How easy did you feel this class was? 1 23 45 Easy Hard
Which of the questions above is an example of a question that uses a Likert scale?
a. Question A
b. Question B
c. Question C
d. Question D
4. RESEARCH STUDY 6.1: Professor Singh creates a survey to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes: Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He writes the following questions for his survey: A. What was your favorite part of this class? B. Please rate how much you agree with the following statement using the scale below: This was one of my favorite classes all semester. 1 2 34 5 Strongly Agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree C. Which of the following is most true of you? a. I am a very serious student. b. I try only as hard as I have to. D. How easy did you feel this class was? 1 23 45 Easy Hard
Which of the questions above is an example of a question that uses a semantic differential scale?
a. Question A
b. Question B
c. Question C
d. Question D
5. In developing a measure of “need for cognition” (the degree to which people like thinking and problem-solving), Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: “I frequently solve and enjoy solving crossword puzzles and Sudoku puzzles.” What is the problem with this question?
a. It is a forced-choice question.
b. It is a double-barreled question.
c. It has a double negative.
d. It is a leading question.
6. Why are double-barreled questions problematic?
a. They may have poor construct validity.
b. They may be too easy to answer.
c. They are leading questions.
d. They are too conceptual.
7. In his measure of “need for cognition” (the degree to which people like thinking and problem-solving), Dr. Jonason asks his participants to rate their agreement with the following statement: “I have never not enjoyed thinking.” What is the problem with this question?
a. It is a forced-choice question.
b. It is a double-barreled question.
c. It has a double negative.
d. It is a leading question.
8. Which of the following is the most direct way to control for question order effects?
a. Give the survey questions to different groups of people.
b. Prepare different versions of the survey, varying the order of the questions.
c. Combine multiple questions into single questions.
d. Order effects cannot be controlled for.
9. Dr. Gore is conducting a survey examining people’s opinions toward funding for collegiate athletics on his campus. He notices that several participants agree with all 12 questions. This could be an example of all of the following EXCEPT:
a. a response set.
b. acquiescence.
c. yea-saying.
d. fence sitting.
10. How do reverse-worded items address shortcuts?
a. They slow down readers, making them answer more carefully.
b. They give people more answer options.
c. They are easier for people to read.
d. They ask each question twice so the participant answers twice.
11. Which of the following increases accurate responding?
a. Nay-saying response sets
b. Fence sitting
c. Reverse-worded questions
d. Acquiescence
12. Dr. Gahan decides to create a questionnaire asking about people’s attitudes toward immigration (a socially sensitive topic). He should be most concerned about which of the following?
a. People self-reporting more than they can know
b. Fence sitting
c. Faking bad
d. Negatively worded answers
13. Dr. Paul is concerned about a fence-sitting response set when he conducts his survey. Which of the following might you recommend to decrease fence sitting?
a. Using reverse-worded questions
b. Using scales with an even number of response options
c. Providing a “no opinion” option
d. Using a Likert scale
14. Forced-choice question formats are especially good at dealing with which of the following issues?
a. Fence sitting
b. Faking good
c. Response sets
d. People self-reporting more than they can know
15. Which of the following is true when asking people questions about themselves?
a. The confidence people have in their memories is not strongly related to the accuracy of
their memory.
b. People are very good judges of the reasons for their behavior.
c. People are better able to remember vivid memories.
d. If people are inaccurate in reporting their reasons for behavior, it is because they are
deliberately trying to be deceptive.
16. Which of the following statements is true of observational data?
a. Observational measures automatically have good construct validity.
b. Observational measures cannot be used to make causal claims.
c. Observational measures can be used to make frequency claims.
d. Observational measures provide better information than self-report data.
17. A study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) involved telling teachers that some of their students were “bloomers” and would achieve rapid academic success within the next year. In fact, these students were no different than any of the other students in the class. At the end of the year, the “bloomers” showed more gains in IQ than the other students. It appeared that the teacher had unintentionally treated the “bloomers” in special ways. This is an example of which of the following?
a. Observer bias
b. Observer effects
c. A masked study design
d. Self-report operationalization
18. Another word for observer effects is:
a. observer bias.
b. expectancy effects.
c. interrater reliability.
d. unobtrusive observation.
19. Masked, or blind, study designs are designed to deal with:
a. yea-saying biases.
b. bystander effect.
c. observer bias.
d. faking good.
20. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr. Ewell is concerned that the children will behave differently because of the presence of research assistants. He is concerned about:
a. reactivity.
b. observer bias.
c. faking good.
d. interrater reliability.
21. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs.
Dr. Ewell is concerned that the children will behave differently because of the presence of research assistants. Which of the following could he do to address this concern?
a. Make the observations himself instead of using a research assistant
b. Have two undergraduate research assistants make the observations instead of just one
c. Observe the same-sex friend pairs on the first day and the opposite-sex friend pairs on the
second day
d. Hide a video camera in the daycare center and record the children playing without them
knowing
22. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr. Ewell decides to collect his data at a neighborhood park. He has his two research assistants pose as a married couple having a picnic. While having their picnic, they take detailed records of the sharing behavior of the children and note whether the pairs are same sex or opposite sex. This technique is known as:
a. a blind study design.
b. unobtrusive observation.
c. delayed observation.
d. a double-blind study design.
23. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Dr. Ewell decides to collect his data at a neighborhood park. He has hi
s two research assistants pose as a married couple having a picnic. While having their picnic, they take detailed records of the sharing behavior of the children and note whether the pairs are same sex or opposite sex. Given his use of two research assistants, he must establish the of their measures.
a. face validity
b. convergent validity
c. interrater reliability
d. test-retest reliability
24. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Imagine that Dr. Ewell calculates a correlation (e.g., ICC) for his two raters. Which of the following would be the best value for Dr. Ewell to find?
a. 0.92
b. 0.02
c. 0.89
d. 1.15
25. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Which of the following is Dr. Ewell likely to give his research assistants to prevent observer bias?
a. A video camera
b. A developmental psychology textbook
c. A codebook
d. Binoculars
26. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Imagine that Dr. Ewell wants to videotape the children interacting in the park. Which of the
following is true?
a. He will likely need to get permission to videotape the children prior to doing so.
b. If he uses hidden cameras, he does not need to tell the participants they have been
videotaped.
c. He will be unable to use videotape because he is studying children.
d. He can use the videotapes regardless of whether the adult objects as long as the child
agrees.
27. RESEARCH STUDY 6.2: Dr. Ewell, a developmental psychologist, is planning on conducting a study that involves watching children play together to determine how sharing behavior occurs in same-sex friend pairs compared to opposite-sex friend pairs. Imagine that Dr. Ewell wants to videotape the children interacting in the park. Why would most psychologists have no problem with the ethics of Dr. Ewell’s study?
a. His research topic is interesting.
b. People in a public park do not expect their behavior to be private.
c. Research with children is generally not risky.
d. Observing children is the only way to collect data about this topic.
28. Which of the following is true of interrater reliability?
a. It is measured with an ICC.
b. It is necessary to calculate only if you have four or more raters.
c. It does not need to be calculated if your research assistants are well trained.
d. If interrater reliability is established, it means the observations are also valid.
29. The construct validity of observations can be threatened by all of the following EXCEPT:
a. observer bias.
b. observer effects.
c. reactivity.
d. socially desirable responding.
30. Observer bias relates mainly to __________, whereas observer effects stem from _______
a. validity; reliability
b. researchers; participants
c. faking good; faking bad
d. outcomes; expectations
31. Which of the following is NOT a way to deal with reactivity?
a. Blending in with the surroundings
b. Waiting to begin observations
c. Measuring the behavior unobtrusively
d. Using multiple observers
32. Unobtrusive observation is done to counteract which of the following?
a. Observer bias
b. Observer effects
c. Reactivity
d. Nay-saying
33. Dr. Jewell is interested in measuring people’s attitudes toward proposed tax cuts. One of his items reads, “People who support cutting taxes are not well informed about how the government works.” What is the problem with this question?
a. It is a forced-choice question.
b. It is a double-barreled question.
c. It has a double negative.
d. It is a leading question.
34. In which of the following studies is self-report the best data collection option?
a. A study examining the intensity of pain during natural childbirth
b. A study examining the health of children born via natural childbirth
c. A study examining discussions about natural childbirth between mothers and doctors
d. A study examining the breathing styles used during natural child birth
35. Which of the following is another term for response sets?
a. Observer bias
b. Nondifferentiation
c. Socially desirable responding
d. Uniqueness
36. Which of the following questions is most likely to result in a socially desirable answer?
a. “How often do you shop online?”
b. “Have you ever sent a ‘sext’ (a sexually explicit message or photo)?”
c. “When was the last time you tweeted/retweeted?”
d. “Why did you choose your Facebook profile photo?
37. Faking good is also known as:
a. fence sitting.
b. acquiescence.
c. socially desirable responding.
d. nondifferentiation.
38. Which of the following is a poll likely to measure?
a. A person’s attitude toward their doctor
b. A person’s feelings about people diagnosed with cancer
c. A person’s thoughts about whether they prefer Advil or Tylenol
d. A person’s opinions about a healthcare law
39. Which of the following determines the construct validity of a survey question?
a. How well it is worded
b. How many people answer it
c. How short it is
d. How many response options it has
40. Which of the following is a disadvantage of using open-ended questions?
a. The answers provided are often spontaneous.
b. The answers are unscientific.
c. The answers must be coded.
d. The answers are not taken seriously by participants.
41. Which of the following is true of question wording?
a. It has no effect on the results of a survey/poll.
b. No research has scientifically demonstrated that question wording affects the answers
participants give.
c. Differences in how questions are worded always lead to different results.
d. Researchers may alter the wording of a question to determine if it does have an effect on
the results.
42. A question that leads people to answer in a particular way is known as a(n):
a. leading question.
b. double-barreled question.
c. negatively worded question.
d. ordered question.
43. Why might question order affect how people respond to a survey or poll?
a. People cannot understand multiple questions.
b. People are lazy.
c. People may try to appear consistent.
d. People are easily confused.
44. Julian creates a survey asking participants first to report how happy they are in their marriage and then second to report how happy they are in their life. His advisor, Dr. Fuentes, recommends that he create a second version of the survey that reverses the order of these questions. Why is Julian’s advisor recommending this?
a. He is concerned that Julian has a double-barreled question.
b. He is concerned that Julian’s results could be affected by question order.
c. He is concerned that Julian’s participants will use shortcuts.
d. He is concerned that Julian’s participants will try to fake good.
45. A researcher wants to know what people really do, not what they think they do. Which method would you advise him to use?
a. Behavioral observations
b. Self-report questions
c. Both behavioral observations and self-report questions are equally good for finding out
what people really do.
d. Neither behavioral observations nor self-report questions is desirable for finding out what
people really do.
46. Which of the following is true of behavioral observation?
a. It requires recording technology, such as video cameras.
b. It requires a research assistant to be with the participant at all times.
c. It may tell a different story than data collected by self-report questions.
d. It is a more reliable and valid method than self-report methodology.
47. Why would behavioral observation be a good research method for studying a high-frequency behavior (e.g., number of words spoken in a day or number of steps taken in a week)?
a. It will take less time to collect the data.
b. Participants would not be able to accurately keep track of so much data.
c. It is cheaper to collect data than it is to self-report data.
d. Researchers do not need to obtain participant consent for behavioral observation.
48. Which of the following is a unique threat to construct validity found only in behavioral observation?
a. Acquiescence
b. Fence sitting
c. Socially desirable responding
d. Observer bias
49. Which of the following is a good reason a researcher may give for using observational methods as opposed to self-report methods?
a. “I do not want to have to worry about the construct validity of my conceptual variable.”
b. “I do not want to have to worry about ethics.”
c. “I want to measure something that people may not know how often they do it.”
d. “I want to make a causal claim.”
50. If a question has response options such as strongly agree, agree, neither agree nor disagree, disagree, and strongly disagree, this is known as a(n):
a. Likert scale.
b. agreement scale.
c. semantic differential format.
d. open-ended format
SHORT ANSWER:
51. Write three questions designed to measure liking for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—one forced-choice, one open-ended, and one with a response scale (can be of any type).
Students must create a question for each type. For the response scale question, students may use any type of response scale (semantic differential, Likert-type, etc.). Sample questions include:
a. Open-ended: How much do you like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?
b. Forced-choice: Choose between the following two statements: I really like peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches OR I prefer not to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
c. Using a 10-point scale in which 1 = hate and 10 = love, rate how much you like peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches.
52. What is an advantage of open-ended questions? What is a disadvantage?
Students should state that an advantage is the amount of information they can generate, that the data generated are very rich, or that the data generated can be spontaneous. Students should state that a disadvantage is that the data can be complicated/difficult, that the data still need to be coded/categorized, or that the data are very time-consuming.
53. RESEARCH STUDY 6.3: Dr. Omiata is working on creating a survey designed to measure people’s attitudes toward marijuana use. For each statement, the person is asked to rate their agreement on a 5-point scale. A selection of his statements is below.
1 2 3 4 5
A. I think that people who illegally ruin their lives by smoking pot are all alike.
B. I think that marijuana should be legal in all 50 states and that people should have easy access
to it.
C. Marijuana consumption should never not be controlled.
D. People who smoke marijuana are breaking the law.
For each of Dr. Omiata’s statements, state whether it is well worded. If it is not, indicate what the problem is and how it could be fixed.
Students should state the following:
a. Statement A is leading and is likely to have people all respond in the same way because of its tone. Fixes could involve taking out the phrase "ruin their lives," for example.
b. Statement B is a double-barreled statement—it states two different things simultaneously. Students should recommend breaking it into two separate statements.
c. Statement C is a double negative and is likely to lead to confusion. Fixes could involve rewording it ("Marijuana consumption should be controlled") or adding another statement ("Controlling marijuana is a good idea").
d. Statement D is well-worded.
54. Dr. Smith is interested in measuring how adults view sexual behavior in teenagers. She asks the following two questions.
i. Is it okay for boys under the age of 18 to be sexually active?
ii. Is it okay for girls under the age of 18 to be sexually active?
Explain why Dr. Smith should be worried and how she can correct the problem.
Students should state that Dr. Smith is likely to see order effects in her questions. They may also state that the order of her questions may affect the validity of her results. For example, people may say that it is okay for girls only because they originally said that it was okay for boys. (Students may actually state that people may be hesitant to reveal having a double standard.) To correct this problem, Dr. Smith should have two versions of the questionnaire—one with the question order of boys then girls and one with the question order of girls then boys—to make sure there are no differences.
55. Explain why each of the following poses problems to a measure’s validity: response sets (acquiescence, nay-saying, and fence sitting), socially desirable responding (faking good or faking bad), and inability to report.
Students should state that the response sets pose a problem for validity because it is unclear whether the reader really does agree (or disagrees or has no opinion) with each question/statement, meaning that we are unsure whether the data really does represent what they think (we just do not know). Socially desirable responding is a problem because we cannot tell whether a participant is simply trying to look good/bad and being dishonest or if they really do have those opinions/engage in those behaviors. Inability to report is a problem because participants may not realize that they do not know the exact answer (Why did I buy my new car? How many times did I eat lunch last month?) but may respond as if they do know. Instead of providing no data, they provide some data, but we are unsure of the data's accuracy.
56. Dr. Katz is interested in studying self-esteem. He is especially curious as to whether people who have higher self-esteem say the words I and me more often than those who have low self-esteem do. He has decided to poll people and ask them how often they say these words during the day. Explain why you would advise him not to use this method and explain what alternative you would propose.
Students should state that people are unlikely to be able to realistically know how many times they say any given word or two in a given day. (Students may be precise and say this is an issue of inability to report.) Thus, he is likely to acquire a lot of very inaccurate data. As an alternative, they should recommend some sort of observational measure. Students may recommend a specific way to collect data, but that is not necessary. If they mention some alternatives, these could include using some sort of recording device (similar to the electronically activated recorder [EAR] described in the book) or even bringing participants into a lab and counting the words in a lab conversation.
57. State three ways that a researcher could reduce reactivity in a study and why each one is effective.
Students should state that one option is to hide their presence from the person they are observing. This is effective because the person cannot behave differently as a function of being observed if they are not aware they are being observed. A second option involves waiting until the person being observed has become desensitized to being observed and is likely to go back to responding "normally." A third option involves examining some product of people's behavior rather than the people's behavior itself. For example, instead of observing people's eating behavior, you could count the number of chips that are missing from the bowl after the study. This is effective because this method is unobtrusive and people will not be aware that their behavior's results are being observed.
58. Dr. Leman is interested in using a survey to study people’s experiences with natural disasters, like Hurricane Sandy and the tornadoes that hit Joplin, Missouri, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Provide one reason why a survey is a good method to study this topic and one reason that a survey may not be a good method.
Students can give a variety of reasons why using a survey may be a good method. These reasons may include that surveys are excellent measures of subjective experiences (e.g., fear, anxiety) or that surveys may be good measures of why people think they responded to the natural disaster the way they did (why they evacuated). Students can give a variety of reasons that is not a good reason, including but not limited to the faulty nature of people's memory, especially for vivid events (like a natural disaster). The answers in both cases should demonstrate that the student realizes that surveys are better for subjective information as opposed to objective information.
59. Explain the difference between observer bias and observer effects and give an example of each.
Students should state that observer bias occurs when researchers rate or record behavior in a way that is not objective. An example should clearly demonstrate that the researcher is seeing something different based on their expectations (similar to the study described in the book of the psychiatrist judging a person differently based on whether they think they are a patient or not). Observer effects occur when participants' behavior changes to match the expectations of observers. An example should clearly demonstrate that the behavior change is coming from the participant, such that a participant acts smarter because the researcher treats them in a way that makes them behave that way.
60. Explain why observational methods are typically seen by most psychologists as ethical.
Students should state that in many cases, researchers are observing behavior that is expected to be public, meaning that there is no expectation of privacy. They may also mention that researchers do not identify the identities of the people they observe. Students may also mention that when more secretive measures are used to observe behaviors, researchers often obtain permission beforehand or explain the recording after the study.
61. Dr. Overup decides to use a hidden camera to videotape the behavior of people on dates at a local restaurant to determine how they express affection in public. State which threat to construct validity Dr. Overup is trying to address. Briefly discuss how she should deal with the ethics of the hidden camera.
Students should state that Dr. Overup is attempting to deal with reactivity. The student could mention several things related to ethics, including getting IRB approval, getting informed consent from people prior to videotaping, or deleting videotapes if participants request that after participation.
62. Dr. Overup decides to use a hidden camera to videotape the behavior of people on dates at a local restaurant to determine how they express affection in public. She has three research assistants code each video. She calculates an ICC of .94 for their rating of affection. Explain how Dr. Overup should interpret this value and what it tells her in terms of the reliability and validity of her measure.
Students should state that Dr. Overup should be pleased with an ICC of that value as it is very close to one, indicating a high degree of interrater reliability. Students should state that it appears that the research assistants are all rating the same behavior, indicating good reliability but they should state that this says nothing about the validity of her measure (it is possible that the research assistants are all similarly biased).
63. Explain why socially desirable responding happens. Name one way to decrease the likelihood of its occurrence.
Socially desirable responding happens when participants are embarrassed, or shy, or uncomfortable about giving an unpopular answer. Possible means of decreasing socially desirable responding include ensuring anonymity, creating questions designed to assess this tendency, getting others to rate participants (e.g., friends), or using specialized measures to keep participants from knowing exactly what they are studying (e.g., the IAT).
64. There are several ways to decrease socially desirable responding. Choose one of these and explain why it decreases this response tendency.
Students may provide any of the following:
a. Ensure anonymity—this may allow participants to feel that others may not judge them or know that their answer is "unpopular."
b. Measure participant's tendency to respond in a socially desirable way—this will allow the researcher to determine who these participants might be and thus, they can remove or discount their data.
c. Use "other reports" instead of self-report— people may be less concerned about reporting something unpopular or embarrassing about someone other than themselves.
d. Using a special measure, such as the IAT—this allows for more indirect or unconscious measurement.
65. Explain how a masked or blind design deals with both observer bias and observer effects.
Students should state that this design deals with observer bias and observer effects by keeping the observer unaware of the condition they are observing, so there is no way their expectations can affect either their measurements/observations of the participants (observer bias) or cause the participants to change their behavior in response to the expectations of the researcher (observer effects).
CH.7
1. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. What is Dr. Kramer’s likely population of interest?
a. All students at the university
b. All psychology majors and minors
c. All students he is currently teaching
d. All students in his Introduction to Neuroscience class
2. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer plans to give his survey only to his Psychology and Law students because he sees them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and he can spare the class time (unlike in his Introduction to Neuroscience class, which only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Which of the following is true?
a. This will lead to a biased sample because the type of students who take Psychology and
Law may be different from the type of students who take Introduction to Neuroscience.
b. This will lead to a biased sample because of self-selection.
c. This will lead to a biased sample because the Psychology and Law students have a lot of
time to complete the survey.
d. The will lead to a sample that is representative of both of his classes.
3. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer needs to avoid which of the following if he hopes to avoid having a biased sample?
a. Sampling only those students who come to class frequently
b. Sampling only those students who agree to complete the survey
c. Sampling only those students who sign the consent form
d. Sampling only those students who finish the survey
4. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. If all the students in Dr. Kramer’s two classes complete the survey, then Dr. Kramer has done which of the following?
a. Decreased the external validity of his study
b. Collected too much data
c. Relied on a census
d. Enhanced sampling bias
5. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. Dr. Kramer could reasonably use his sample to say something about which of the following populations of interest?
a. Students enrolled at the university
b. Students who are political science majors
c. Students who have taken a class with Dr. Kramer
d. Students currently taking a psychology class
6. RESEARCH STUDY 7.1: Professor Kramer has decided to measure how happy his students are with his teaching this semester. He is teaching two classes this semester—Psychology and Law and Introduction to Neuroscience. He gives his students a survey. 43 of 50 Introduction to Neuroscience students and 46 of 48 Psychology and Law students complete the survey. Based on this information, which of the following can Dr. Kramer say?
a. His sample is larger than his population.
b. His sample is representative.
c. His sample is biased.
d. His sample came from his population of interest.
7. A sample is always ____________ a population.
a. more expensive to measure than
b. smaller than
c. more interesting than
d. more scientific than
8. If researchers measure every member of a population, they have:
a. conducted a census.
b. collected a sample.
c. increased internal validity.
d. biased the study.
9. If researchers measure every tenth member of a population, they have:
a. conducted a census.
b. collected a sample.
c. increased internal validity.
d. biased the study.
10. Which of the following is NOT an example of a probability sample?
a. Simple random sample
b. Convenience sample
c. Systematic sample
d. Cluster sample
11. Which of the following is true of probability sampling?
a. It is the best way to obtain a representative sample.
b. It is the same as random assignment.
c. It results in larger samples than nonprobability sampling.
d. It should only be used when external validity is not the goal of the study.
12. Dr. Tanaka is an educational psychologist interested in students’ attitudes toward science and the effect of those attitudes on performance on standardized tests. He chooses his local school district to study. There are15 high schools, and he randomly chooses five. Then, of the 2,500 students in each of those five schools, he randomly recruits 250 students. This is an example of which of the following sampling techniques?
a. Snowball sample
b. Systematic sample
c. Multistage sample
d. Cluster sample
13. Dr. Chandler is a personality psychologist who is interested in studying the characteristics of people who report being abducted by UFOs. She finds several people in an online support group for UFO abductees to participate and asks them if they can provide the names and contact information of other people who have also been abducted. Upon contacting these new participants, she asks them to refer her to even more people they may know who have been abducted. This is an example of what kind of sampling?
a. Purposive sampling
b. Snowball sampling
c. Convenience sampling
d. Self-selection sampling
14. Having a representative sample is most important in which of the following example claims?
a. “Having a dark triad personality is associated with having greater relationship problems.”
b. “Receiving weekly feedback from your supervisor increases work productivity.”
c. “People who report knowing someone who has been diagnosed with skin cancer also
report having greater sunscreen use.”
d. “Forty-three percent of psychology majors report being frustrated by people asking them if they are psychoanalyzing them.”
15. A sample is to _________________ as a population is to _________________.
a. part; entire
b. external; internal
c. people; groups
d. participants; researchers
16. A biased sample consists of too many ________________ cases.
a. basic
b. ideal
c. complicated
d. unusual
17. Convenience sampling relies on which of the following?
a. Studying people who are easy to find
b. Studying people who are willing to participate
c. Studying people who are typical
d. Studying people who are colleagues of the researcher
18. Online surveys commonly suffer from which of the following?
a. Poor reliability
b. Self-selection
c. Probability sampling
d. Over sampling
19. Another term for probability sampling is:
a. purposive sampling.
b. convenience sampling.
c. random sampling.
d. cluster sampling.
20. Why do studies that use probability samples have excellent external validity?
a. They also ensure excellent internal validity.
b. They study every member of the population of interest.
c. They use a larger number of measures.
d. All members of the population are equally likely to be represented in the sample.
21. Why are techniques like cluster sampling and multistage sampling just as externally valid as simple random sampling?
a. They all contain elements of random selection.
b. They all measure every member of the population of interest.
c. They all use lists of all population members.
d. They all rely on large samples.
22. The difference between a cluster sample and a multistage sample is:
a. cluster samples are probability samples; multistage samples are not.
b. multistage samples sample both clusters and participants; cluster samples just sample
clusters.
c. cluster samples rely on clusters of participants; multistage samples collect data from
participants at different stages.
d. There is no difference between cluster samples and multistage samples.
23. The difference between a cluster sample and a stratified random sample is:
a. cluster samples study all possible clusters; stratified random samples randomly select
strata.
b. cluster samples use oversampling; stratified random samples use undersampling.
c. cluster samples use randomly selected clusters; stratified random samples use
predetermined strata.
d. There is no difference between cluster samples and stratified random samples.
24. Oversampling is a variant used in which of the following sampling techniques?
a. Simple random sampling
b. Cluster sampling
c. Convenience sampling
d. Stratified random sampling
25. Which of the following does NOT result in a representative sample?
a. Systematic sample
b. Simple random sample
c. Snowball sample
d. Stratified random sample
26. Which of the following does NOT result in a biased sample?
a. Snowball sample
b. Convenience sample
c. Purposive sample
d. Systematic sample
27. Which of the following statements is true of random assignment and random sampling?
a. Random assignment is necessary for internal validity, whereas random sampling is
necessary for external validity.
b. They both are necessary for frequency claims.
c. They both mean the same thing.
d. Random sampling is more important than random assignment.
28. For his research methods class project, Hiro is studying the effect of pet ownership on stress levels. Although a lot of research has been done on dog and cat owners, not much is known about other pets, so Hiro decides to study bird owners. Which of the following would demonstrate a purposive sampling technique?
a. He contacts the Twitter followers of Dr. Oiseau, a famous biologist who studies birds.
b. He recruits bird owners by e-mailing members of the National Bird Owners Association
and asking for participants.
c. His participants are all the people who have purchased birds at his local pet store in the
past 6 months.
d. He asks bird owners to give him the names of other bird owners.
29. What is the most common sampling technique in behavioral research?
a. Simple random sampling
b. Purposive sampling
c. Cluster sampling
d. Convenience sampling
30. For his research methods class project, Hiro is studying the effect of pet ownership on stress levels. Although a lot of research has been done on dog and cat owners, not much is known about other pets so Hiro decides to study bird owners. Which of the following would demonstrate a snowball sampling technique?
a. He contacts the Twitter followers of Dr. Oiseau, a famous biologist who studies birds.
b. He recruits bird owners by e-mailing members of the National Bird Owners Association
and asking for participants.
c. His participants are all the people who have purchased birds at his local pet store in the
past 6 months.
d. He asks bird owners to give him the names of other bird owners.
31. How are quota sampling and stratified random sampling similar?
a. Both identify subgroups that need to be studied.
b. Both randomly sample subgroups to be studied.
c. Both result in nonrepresentative samples.
d. Both result in representative samples.
32. Which of the following is true regarding interrogating frequency claims?
a. Their accuracy can usually be determined.
b. The chief concern is to evaluate the sampling technique.
c. The most important thing to consider is the size of the sample.
d. Frequency claims cannot be interrogated.
33. External validity is most important for which of the following claims?
a. Frequency claims
b. Association claims
c. Causal claims
d. External validity is equally important for all claims.
34. Which of the following is true of a nonrepresentative sample in a research claim?
a. You should automatically disregard the claim.
b. You should automatically accept the claim.
c. You should ask whether it is relevant to what the researchers are measuring.
d. You should ask whether more participants are necessary.
35. In which of the following cases would a large sample especially be needed?
a. A study of high school students
b. A study of first-time homeowners
c. A study of people who have been to the doctor in the past year
d. A study of teenagers whose parents are both deployed overseas in the military
36. When you are interrogating the external validity of a sample, which is the most important question to ask?
a. How many people are in the sample?
b. How was the sample collected?
c. How were the participants measured?
d. How many people are in the population?
37. Dr. Cyril conducts a simple random sample of 500 men who became fathers for the first time in the past year. He finds that 23% of them report being unsure of their ability to be good fathers, plus or minus 4%. What does this mean?
a. The true percentage of fathers who feel this way is 23%.
b. If this study was done many times, the estimate of father uncertainty would be 23% about
4% of the time.
c. We can be 4% sure that the estimate of father uncertainty would be 23% of fathers.
d. If the study was done many times, the estimate of father uncertainty would be between
19% and 27%.
38. Dr. Cyril conducts a simple random sample of 500 men who became fathers for the first time in the past year.He finds that 23% of them report being unsure of their ability to be good fathers, plus or minus 4%. What is another term for the 4% value?
a. Margin of error
b. Sampling bias
c. Probability value
d. Statistical significance
39. Dr. Cyril conducts a simple random sample of 500 men who became fathers for the first time in the past year. He finds that 23% of them report being unsure of their ability to be good fathers, plus or minus 4%. If Dr. Cyril increased his sample size to 1,000, which of the following would happen?
a. The true estimate would increase.
b. The margin of error would become smaller.
c. External validity would become less important.
d. Statistical validity would become negatively affected.
40. Which of the following is true of sample size?
a. It primarily affects external validity.
b. It primarily affects construct validity.
c. It primarily affects internal validity.
d. It primarily affects statistical validity.
41. If a sample is biased, then it is _______________ the population of interest.
a. unrepresentative of
b. unrelated to
c. incorrectly compared to
d. unfairly applied to
42. Which of the following is necessary for a sample to be considered representative?
a. All members of the population must be included in the sample.
b. All members of the population have an equal chance of being included in the sample.
c. All members of the sample belong only to the population of interest.
d. All members of the sample are likely to provide the same data/information.
43. Which of the following may lead to a biased sample?
a. Using people who accept compensation (e.g., money) to participate
b. Using people who agree to participate
c. Using people who are readily available to the researcher
d. Using people who have participated in other research studies
44. What do purposive, convenience, quota, and snowball sampling have in common?
a. They are considered ethical sampling options.
b. They are all probability sampling techniques.
c. They produce large samples.
d. They result in samples where some people are systematically left out.
____ 45. Which of the following sampling techniques would you recommend to a researcher interested in studying rare individuals, like people who have been struck by lightning?
a. Snowball sampling
b. Purposive sampling
c. Quota sampling
d. Convenience sampling
46. Why might a researcher choose purposive sampling over systematic sampling?
a. Purposive sampling is always cheaper.
b. External validity is not vital to the researcher’s study.
c. Only purposive sampling allows the researcher to study a particular type of participant.
d. The researcher does not have to specify a population of interest ahead of time.
47. Why is the use of representative samples especially important in frequency claims?
a. Frequency claims require very large samples, and representative samples are always
large.
b. It is unethical to make frequency claims without representative samples.
c. It is unlikely that the accuracy of estimates can be checked.
d. Representative samples allow for enhanced internal and external validity
48. Research articles that use terms such as “unbiased sample,” “random samples,” or “representative sample” allow for readers to .
a. skip interrogating statistical validity
b. make a frequency claim
c. reject the conclusions made by the researcher(s)
d. be confident in a study’s external validity
49. If a study uses an unrepresentative sample, which of the following questions should you ask when assessing its external validity?
a. “Are the characteristics that make the sample biased actually relevant to what is being measured?”
b. “Is the sample size sufficiently large?”
c. “Is the study making a frequency, association, or causal claim?”
d. “Could the study have used a representative sample instead?”
50. Studies that use nonprobability samples have ______________ external validity.
a. zero
b. unknown
c. guaranteed
d. enhanced
SHORT ANSWER
51. RESEARCH STUDY 7.2: Dr. Parrett is a sports psychologist for a large Southern university. The provost and chancellor have asked him to examine the relationship between athletic performance and academic stress at the university. For example, is it the case that the most talented athletes experience the greatest concern over their grades? The provost and chancellor have made it clear to Dr. Parrett that they want a large amount of external validity in the study. He has valid and reliable measures of both athletic performance and academic stress. He knows that he does not have the time or the money to study the entire population of interest. What is the population of interest in Dr. Parrett’s study? Will he be collecting a sample or conducting a census? Why does he need to be concerned with external validity/representativeness?
The population of interest would be all athletes at the university. He will be collecting a sample since he doesn't have the time or the money to test the whole population. He needs to make sure that the results can be generalized to the entire population which means he would need a strong external validity
52. RESEARCH STUDY 7.2: Dr. Parrett is a sports psychologist for a large Southern university. The provost and chancellor have asked him to examine the relationship between athletic performance and academic stress at the university. For example, is it the case that the most talented athletes experience the greatest concern over their grades? The provost and chancellor have made it clear to Dr. Parrett that they want a large amount of external validity in the study. He has valid and reliable measures of both athletic performance and academic stress. He knows that he does not have the time or the money to study the entire population of interest. Describe the three sampling problems that could lead to a biased sample for Dr. Parrett.
Convenience sampling: who is easily accessed
Purposive sampling: only studying certain kinds of people/recruiting certain kind of student athletes
Snowball sampling: where people (players) recommend friends (teammates) to study.
Quota sampling: identifies subsets of the population and sets targets for each category (example teams)…. This is nonrandom and could lead to bias
RESEARCH STUDY 7.2: Dr. Parrett is a sports psychologist for a large Southern university. The provost and chancellor have asked him to examine the relationship between athletic performance and academic stress at the university. For example, is it the case that the most talented athletes experience the greatest concern over their grades? The provost and chancellor have made it clear to Dr. Parrett that they want a large amount of external validity in the study. He has valid and reliable measures of both athletic performance and academic stress. He knows that he does not have the time or the money to study the entire population of interest. What is the difference between a cluster technique and a multistage technique? Explain why Dr. Parrett would be advised to use a cluster or a multistage technique rather than a simple random sample.
A multistage technique is two random samples are selected: a random sample of clusters, then a random sample of people within those clusters. Dr. Parrett would be advised to use a cluster or a multistage technique because simple random sampling is a time-consuming process, especially in large populations.
54. RESEARCH STUDY 7.2: Dr. Parrett is a sports psychologist for a large Southern university. The provost and chancellor have asked him to examine the relationship between athletic performance and academic stress at the university. For example, is it the case that the most talented athletes experience the greatest concern over their grades? The provost and chancellor have made it clear to Dr. Parrett that they want a large amount of external validity in the study. He has valid and reliable measures of both athletic performance and academic stress. He knows that he does not have the time or the money to study the entire population of interest. Imagine that Dr. Parrett wants to use a nonrepresentative sampling technique. Name the three types of nonprobability sampling and explain how each one could be used by Dr. Parrett.
Correct In each response, students need to name three of the four types. The four types of nonprobability sampling are convenience sampling, purposive sampling, quota sampling, and snowball sampling. For convenience sampling, Dr. Parrett uses athletes he has access to (perhaps those in his psychology classes or those living in an athletes-only dorm). For purposive sampling, Dr. Parrett seeks out athletes of a particular type to study (perhaps football players because they are the most high-profile). For snowball sampling, Dr. Parrett recruits a beginning group of athletes and then collects from them information on other athletes who he can then study.
55. A representative sample is most necessary for which type of claim (frequency, association, or causal)? Why?
Frequency, because it gives great external validity. A bigger non-representative sample would be worse than a smaller representative sample in terms of being able to generalize to the population.
56. Explain the two reasons nonrandom samples are sometimes acceptable.
1. In some instances the nonrandom methods yield much better inferences about the population
2.??
57. Explain why bigger samples are not always better samples.
A bigger non-representative sample would be worse than a smaller representative sample in terms of being able to generalize to the population. A non-representative sample, as it increased in size, would still do a poor job of representing the entire population because it is biased.
58. What is the difference between random sampling and random assignment?
Random sampling refers to how you select individuals from the population to participate in your study. Every member of the population of interest has an equal chance of being selected for the sample, regardless of whether they are close by, easy to contact or motivated to respond.
Random assignment refers to how you place those participants into groups (such as experimental vs. control). When researchers want to place participants into different groups, they usually assign them at random (ex. Flipping a coin)
59. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Name two populations of interest that Dr. Dowling could reasonably generalize her findings to. State which of these two populations her findings would be more generalizable to and explain why that is the case.
A study of people who have been arrested would be more generalizable because Dr. Dowling is studying criminal activity, not criminal conviction.
60. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Choose a representative sampling technique and a biased sampling technique. Explain how Dr. Dowling would implement each of these sampling techniques.
Representative sampling—simple random sampling: create a list of all patients at all 5 mental facilities in her state and use a software to randomly generate the patients who will be included in the sample
Biased sampling—self-selected sampling: include only those patients in the sample who volunteer/choose to participate in the study
61. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Dr. Dowling is interviewed by a journalist about the findings of her study. The journalist criticizes the sample size as being too small and says that, because of that, the findings do not really have any real-world meaning. How should Dr. Dowling respond?
Larger sample sizes are not always more representative. When researchers are striving to generalize from a sample to a population, the size of the sample doesn’t matter as much as how the sample was collected (pg196)
62. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Dr. Dowling is interviewed by a journalist about the findings of her study. The journalist asks her to explain what it means that “27% of the sample (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime.”
It means to add or subtract %3 from the percentage given. The range is 25% to 30%. The margin of error with a sample of 1500 is +/-3%. (idk if this is right, I think there is a way to calculate it… this number is from the example in the book, pg197)
63. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Dr. Dowling is interviewed by a journalist about the findings of her study. The journalist asks Dr. Dowling how many people live in all five hospitals and Dr. Dowling answers. The journalist replies that given that there are only about 4,000 people, it seems reasonable that Dr. Dowling should have studied the entire population rather than just drawing a sample for her study to really tell us something about people suffering from mental illness. How should Dr. Dowling respond?
See number 61… she should be asking about how the sample was taken from the population. As long as the sample is random, it can be generalized to the population. However, with a sample size of around 1500 the margin of error is +/-3% if it was random. (idk if this is right, I think there is a way to calculate it… this number is from the example in the book, pg197)
64. RESEARCH STUDY 7.3: Dr. Dowling is a clinical psychologist who is interested in the link between mental illness and criminal activity. She gets IRB permission to study patients at all five inpatient/residential mental health facilities in her state. There are 4,307 patients currently living in these facilities. She asks patients whether they have ever been arrested for a crime and whether they have ever been convicted of a crime. She collects a sample size of 1,369. She finds that 27% (+/ 3%) report having been arrested for a crime but that only 13% (+/ 3%) have been convicted of a crime. Indicate Dr. Dowling’s population size, sample size, and population estimate for the two variables along with their margins of error.
Population=4307
Sample size= 1369
65. Explain why a researcher may wish to choose snowballing sampling over a representative sampling technique.
Researchers may choose snowballing sampling when they’re studying a specific group, say a particular medical condition/diagnosis, so someone with that diagnosis may recommend other people who have the same diagnosis to help the size of the sample; whereas a representative sample might not select people only with that diagnosis
[Show More]
