Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

The first step in the scientific process is to:

The primary goal of _____________ research is to examine the associations between naturally occurring events or variables.

An operational definition defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to measure it.

Considerations about the manner in which information gained in an experiment will be recorded and distributed are most relevant to which ethical consideration?

In a famous experiment by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1966),teachers at an elementary school were told at the beginning of the year that certain students were "late bloomers" and most likely these particular students were going to become strong students during the school year ahead.Sure enough,by the end of the year,the identified students were doing much better in school.Interestingly,the researchers had selected these children randomly at the beginning of the year and they had no real evidence on which they could base their predictions.The findings in this study are most similar or analogous to the problem of:

A theory is best defined as:

Often,psychological researchers will manipulate more than one variable in an experiment.The main reason for this is that:

All other things being equal,a simpler theory is considered to be better than a more complex theory.

The experimental group is to the control group as:

As an alternative to random assignment,researchers will sometimes design experiments where each participant is exposed to all conditions or groups in an experiment.This second procedure controls for differences between individual participants by:

Strayer and colleagues wanted to establish if there was a causal relationship between cell phone use while driving,traffic density,and increased risk of vehicular collision.They found evidence of an interaction because:

The three key scientific attitudes displayed by John Darley and Bibb Latané were curiosity,skepticism,and reason.

The problem of participant placebo effects and experimenter expectancy effects are both minimized by:

Random sampling occurs when every member of a target population has an equal chance of being in a survey.

What three key attitudes did John Darley and Bibb Latané display in their research on "bystander apathy"?

Brain imaging technology is generally used to explore the following:

In order to learn about the social behaviour of children,a developmental psychologist goes to an elementary school,finds a seat near one of the windows in a classroom,and watches the children playing on the playground outside during recess.This psychologist is engaged in which method of research?

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the case study research method?

When participants pick up cues about the hypothesis of a study and alter their behaviour accordingly,it threatens the ________ validity of the study.

As part of a class on animal behaviour,students are sent to a local park and are asked to watch and record the feeding behaviour of the crows there.These students are engaged in which method of research?