Exam 2: Methods in Psychology

The belief that one can obtain accurate knowledge about the causes of human behaviour by observing people behaving in different situations exemplifies:

Double-blind observations are a way of controlling for experimenter bias.

What is the mean of the number sequence 1 1 2 4?

Which number represents the WEAKEST correlation coefficient (r)?

When the odds are high that random assignment failed to create equivalent groups,the results are said to be statistically significant.

Which value of the correlation coefficient represents the WEAKEST degree of relationship between two variables?

Diana wants to see if heat causes happiness.She asks 100 participants to come to the laboratory,and as they walk in,she asks each person to choose a warm booth or a cool booth.On the basis of their choices,participants spend 20 minutes in one or the other booth before rating their levels of general happiness.What's wrong with Diana's experiment?

To correctly measure a specific property of an object,the property must be _____ and _____.

What is the only way to determine a causal relationship between two variables?

The extent to which a concrete event defines a property is referred to as:

A boxer suddenly begins experiencing severe mood swings and exhibiting bizarre behaviour.A neuropsychologist determines that the boxer has suffered traumatic brain injury,which has probably been caused by numerous concussions.The neuropsychologist then studies the functioning of the boxer's brain in detail using fMRI brain-imaging techniques to learn more about his concussions.This represents a(n):

Which mathematical expression distinguishes the case method from other types of research?

The function of a research ethics board is to help researchers design experiments high in internal and external validity.

Which statement is NOT true of a normal distribution?

Random assignment of participants to groups generally is an effective way of eliminating the third-variable problem.

A bathroom scale cannot detect the difference in weights between Jorge and Carlos,because the two men only differ by 1 kilogram.As a measure of weight,the scale is limited in terms of its:

The more time children spend playing video games at home,the lower their grades are at school.This represents a:

A negative correlation between two variables means that,as the score on one variable decreases,the score on the other variable will also decrease.

In a classic experiment,psychology students were assigned to work either with "bright" rats or with "dull" rats,described as such by the experimenter.After a series of tests,the students' results showed that the "bright" rats had outperformed the "dull" rats.However,in fact,all the rats were of the same strain and breed;there were no preexisting differences between the groups.What caused the difference in their performance?

When random assignment fails to create equivalent groups,the problem of _____ occurs.