Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

Strayer and colleagues wanted to establish if there was a causal relationship between cell phone use while driving and increased risk of vehicular collision. The independent and dependent variables in that experiment were, respectively:

In a positive correlation, high scores on one variable are associated with ________ scores on the second variable.

John Darley's and Bibb Latané's statement, "IF an emergency occurs, THEN the greater the number of bystanders, the less likely any one bystander will be to intervene" is best considered an example of a(n):

The case study method was used to study the program which was designed to train the mothers of "failure-to-thrive" infants in nutrition and feeding techniques at Surrey Place Centre in Toronto. The case study method helped researchers to:

Dr. West wanted to know about the media preferences of all students at Western University. The student body is 60 percent female and 40 percent male. So he conducted a survey in which 60 percent of the participants were women and 40 percent were men. In this study, Dr. West has used

Dr. Gonzalez has just completed a correlational study where he found a strong association between parental expectations and children's academic achievement. In other words, children who perform well in school tend to have parents who have high Expectations of them. However, Dr. Gonzalez can't tell which variable causes the other. It may be that high expectations cause children to perform better, or that children's better performance cause their parents to have higher expectations. This particular problem is known as:

In both correlational research and experimental research, the experimenter manipulates a variable.

A researcher is interested in studying the Canadian women's beliefs about the pros and cons of sending a child to daycare. She recruits ten women from a major city in each province and territory and asks them to fill in a survey and mail it back to her. The population for this study would be:

One of the differences between experimental research and correlational research is that:

If an experiment has a confounding variable, this significantly lowers its internal validity.

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

A psychologist notes that there is a correlation between physical health and the number of vacations that a person takes. According to him, people who take more vacations tend to have better physical health. After thinking about this result, you realize that this association may be due to a third factor: income. People with more income can afford more vacations and can afford better health care. Your explanation for this is most consistent with which limitation of correlational research?

In experiments, researchers often use random assignment to place participants in various groups or conditions in their experiments. An alternative to random assignment is to design the study in such a way that each participant:

The size or absolute value of the correlation coefficient tells us:

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

Despite having excellent vision, Kris was unable to grasp or pick up objects properly. It is likely that he has damaged his:

Dr. Monitz has been able to replicate a research finding in three different countries and with both men and women. This finding is likely to be considered to be

Dr. Samways is interested in the relationship between education level and annual income. He randomly selects 5000 Canadians and collects information about their highest completed education and last year's income. He then calculates a correlation coefficient, and finds that the correlation between education and income is +.78. On the basis of this correlation we can conclude that

Dr. Jones is interested in conducting a survey of all the college students at her university. She is careful when conducting her research to make sure that each student on campus has an equal opportunity to participate in her survey. To create her survey sample Dr. Jones will use:

The "Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists" lists basic principles that should be followed when psychologists are involved in