Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

Kyle could feel himself coming down with a nasty cold. His roommate, Dave, had been bragging about a new cold remedy he had discovered, guaranteeing that the remedy cured the common cold. Kyle went to Dave's room and asked him some questions about this new cure. Kyle was demonstrating critical thinking skills by asking:

The text discussed research to establish if there was a causal relationship between cell phone use while driving, traffic density and increased risk of vehicular collision. Which of the following accurately describes the independent and dependent variables in this research?

Danny owns an ice cream stand near the beach. He knows that he sells more ice cream on sunny days than on days when it is cloudy. Danny has some researchers collect data for him so that he can be more efficient when he orders his ice cream. This example illustrates which of the primary functions of correlational research?

If you wanted to ensure that any differences among participants in an experiment were as balanced as possible, you would use

It is difficult to draw causal inferences in correlational research because:

A limitation of physiological measures of behaviour is that:

A(n) definition defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to measure it.

A researcher is examining the relation between two variables: variable X and variable Y. If she is conducting a correlational study, the researcher measures variable X and ________ variable Y.

In survey research, a population is defined as:

A humanistic psychologist believes that people who don't have a clear sense of meaning in their lives are more vulnerable to depression and physical illness. This psychologist's beliefs are best viewed as an example of:

The ethical guideline of informed consent specifically asserts that:

A correlation of .53 is considered to be stronger than a correlation of -.78.

Dr. Davis is planning a study on the effect of rewards on the academic achievement of young children. For his study, Dr. Davis decides to use white, male children from an upper-class neighbourhood. Having taken an introductory psychology course, you can see that Dr. Davis is going to have some problems because he won't necessarily be able To apply his results to girls or to students of other demographics. This particular problem Substantially weakens the of Dr. Davis' study.

Consider the following distribution: (3, 4, 5, 2, 256). What would be the most representative measure of central tendency for you to report?

The experimental group is to the control group as:

An ethical guideline that refers to how participants should be given full descriptions about the procedures involved in a study and told that they are free to withdraw from the study at any time is called _.

Bruce notices that on the days that he eats lunch at Archie's diner, people are less likely to ask him to join them for the afternoon coffee break. Bruce wonders why this is happening and thinks that his co-workers must assume that he doesn't want coffee after a hearty lunch. If Bruce were to use the scientific process, now that he has a tentative Explanation, he would translate this into a(n):

A researcher is designing a study and is debating the potential use of deception. After discussing the issue with her colleagues, it is decided that there really is no alternative methodology that she could use to test her idea. Having said this, all of her colleagues agree that the cost of using deception in her study would strongly outweigh any positive benefits that would be gained from the study. Given this information, which of the Following statements is true?

In a study designed to investigate the causes of stress, a psychological researcher measures stress by monitoring people's heart rate and blood pressure. In this study, the researcher has utilized which method of measuring behaviour?

The primary reason for using deception in psychological research is that sometimes it is the only way to obtain: