Exam 4: Research Methods

Why are placebos used in experiments?

Why do researchers use control groups?

What is a hypothesis?

The internal validity of a study can be increased by using which of the following to create different research groups?

Explain how family studies are used to help determine the role of genetic factors in psychopathology.Describe the limitations of family studies in determining the genetic factors influencing psychopathology.

What type of research compares people with a specific disorder to those without the disorder, and then identifies markers that occur significantly more often in people with the disorder?

Dr.Marx says that a study he is reviewing has good internal validity.What does Dr.Marx believe?

To study how anxiety disorders develop in individuals, a researcher asks a group of adults whether they were anxious about school when they were children, and then measures their current functioning with respect to symptoms of anxiety.What is one significant limitation of this approach?

Why are adoption studies often used when attempting to study the influence of genetic factors on psychological disorders?

When conducting research with adults who have been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, which of the following is essential regarding consent?

A new research study is published and becomes the "hot daily news story." This story concerns you because the researchers report that they are the first scientists to find a higher incidence of depression for individuals taking a particular vitamin-the same vitamin that your physician has had you taking for years.While this may be cause for you to investigate further, why should you probably NOT panic?

What does "phenotype" refer to?

Your friend was the recipient of a nine-month research grant.Based on her interests, she can choose one of the four areas of concentration.She has always wanted to work with street youth.Based on this fact, what prevention strategy will she most likely choose?

Describe the differences between the cross-sectional and longitudinal research methods.What are the uses and limitations of each of these methods? Provide an illustrative example of a research question that would be better addressed by a longitudinal study than by a cross-sectional study and explain why.

Which genetic mechanism contributes to the underlying problems that cause the difficulties experienced by people with psychological disorders?

Differentiate between the three different parts of repeated measurements in single-case experimental designs.

While studying the impact of nutrition on intelligence, a researcher gives one group of rats a vitamin-rich diet while the other rat group eats Big Macs.While observing the rats run a complicated maze, the researcher notes that the vitamin-enhanced rats' maze is more brightly lit than the Big Mac rats' maze.What is the difference in lighting in this study?

Describe the differences between the statistical and clinical significance of research findings.Explain why it is important to make a distinction between statistical and clinical significance when interpreting research findings.

Joe has been diagnosed by his psychiatrist as having an anxiety disorder.His psychiatrist prescribes a medication that has been found to help reduce anxiety.Joe takes the medication, but his anxiety level does not improve at all.Because an anxiety medication did not work, Joe concludes that his psychiatrist must be wrong and that he, Joe, must be suffering from some other disorder.What is the problem with Joe's conclusion?

To compare treatment strategies in various psychiatric settings, researchers are evaluating the psychiatric patients' levels of depression every four months for four years in three different hospitals.What type of research are they applying?