Exam 5: Using the Scientific Method in Psychology

The statement "If children watch violent television, then they will be more violent than children who do not watch violent television" is written in

What variables were controlled in this study?

"Depressed individuals who receive therapy will be less depressed than those in the control group who do not receive therapy." This hypothesis is an example of a

"Individuals who undergo therapy will differ in their levels of depression from those who do not undergo therapy." This hypothesis is an example of a

What does it mean to say that science is self-correcting?

A ________ research hypothesis does not predict the exact outcome of an experiment.

What is the dependent variable?

Describe the principle of falsifiability.

Why do Proctor and Capaldi (2001) believe that hypothesis testing can be harmful in the early stages of theory-building? What do they propose researchers do instead?

Distinguish between replication and replication with extension.

In one study, students read a fictitious job application. The applications are identical except that half have a female name ("Joan") and half have a male name ("John"). The students rate the likelihood of the applicant succeeding at the job. What is the dependent variable?

A ________ research hypothesis specifies the outcome of an experiment.

Which of the following scenarios correctly depicts the self-correcting nature of science?

Under what circumstances is it best to use a nondirectional hypothesis?

Changes in the __________ variable should be caused by the _________ variable.

What is the independent variable in the following statement? "If rats are reinforced with five food pellets for each correct response, then they will make more correct responses than rats that are reinforced with zero food pellets."

Suppose a researcher is interested in determining whether playing violent video games causes aggression in children. She obtains a sample of children and brings them individually to a laboratory setting. Half of the children play a violent video game and half play a nonviolent video game. After playing the game for 30 minutes, the children then play with toys in a separate room and an observer records the number of aggressive acts displayed by each child. a. What is the independent variable in this study? How many levels does this independent variable have? What are those levels? b. What is the dependent variable in this study? c. What extraneous variables should the researcher control?

The ____________ variable is the causal part of a cause-and-effect relation.

Janet conducts a study and finds that, similar to previous research, students by themselves worked harder than students in groups (a phenomenon known as social loafing). In addition, she found that social loafing could be lessened if the students in the group knew each other well. Janet's study represents

Cause-and-effect explanations answer the ______ questions in research.