Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

A researcher is interested in the effects of a vegetarian diet on memory. One group eats a strict vegetarian diet for three months, a second group eats a strict vegan diet for three months, while a third group eats anything they want for three months. After three months, all participants are given a memory test. Results indicated that memory was is better for both the vegetarian and vegan groups. In this study, the independent variable is

An observation such as diffusion of responsibility: a psychological state in which each person feels a decreased personal responsibility for intervening can be measured in research.

When participants are misled about the nature of an experiment, researchers refer to this as

You have recently submitted a study for publication and one of the reviewers mentions that your study suffers from a third-variable problem. What do we know for sure about your study?

Which of the following statements about naturalistic observations is true?

How do positive and negative correlations differ?

If stress is found to affect sleep differently on days in which someone has maintained other healthy lifestyle behaviours (e.g. eating behaviour), what term would describe that kind of relationship?

Being able to duplicate findings of a given study is a concept of?

Explain the major drawback of hindsight understanding.

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, students at Western would be considered

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.

If a sample in a survey accurately reflects the important characteristics of the population from which it is drawn (e.g., the sample has 53% women and the population has 53% women), the sample is said to be

Researchers often manipulate more than one independent variable in experiments because it better captures the complexity of human behaviour.

Participants in a double-blind study (where neither experimenters nor participants know which group receives the treatment) show improvement in blood pressure recordings after receiving a sugar pill or a new medication that treats high blood pressure. The results suggest

If a scientific study determines a correlation between vaping and heart disease, then we can conclude that vaping causes heart disease?

Describe and define the three methods of descriptive research: case studies, naturalistic observations, and survey research. For each method, list at least one limitation and explain how the method could be used to study marriage.

Jake and Jack are both interested in the effect of the loud music from the dorm room next door on their grades. Jake records the days and hours the music is loud and compares that information to the grades he received on exams taken the days following the loud music. Jack plays his own music loud before his first psychology exam and quietly before his second exam. He then compares his exam scores. The primary difference in the way Jake and Jack conducted their research is

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

Describe the major ethical issues in human research and how participants' rights are protected.

An important advantage of naturalistic observation is that it can