Exam 2: Studying Behaviour Scientifically

What is a case study? Identify its advantages.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of animal research. In your opinion, is research with animals justified? Give the specific reasons for your conclusion.

Dr. Child has developed a straightforward theory on emotional eating (the tendency for people to eat for emotional reasons rather than hunger). Dr. Gordion has also developed a theory, though her theory is far more complicated. Both theories generate a number of new hypotheses. Both theories predict the phenomenon equally well. In the scientific community, Dr. ______________ theory will probably be preferred because _____________.

Sometimes, psychotherapy works because the patient believes that something useful is being done and they have put in a lot of effort. It may not matter what the therapist does at all. If so, then the outcome of psychotherapy may be the result of

Dr. Jung argues that increases in temperature are related to increases in aggression. To support his claim, he recorded the temperature each day and noted the number of reported assaults. More assaults were recorded on days when the temperature was cooler. In this study, temperature and aggression are

Placebo effects make it difficult to draw causal conclusions because we can't tell whether

In experimental research, one variable is manipulated by the experimenter. This is called the __________ variable.

What is a theory? How does it differ from a hypothesis?

Dr. Mentor is conducting an experiment examining the effects of cell phone conversations on reaction times while driving a car. Each participant, either conversing on a cell phone or not, maneuvers a driving course on a simulator. This simulated drive is videotaped. The research assistant hired to do the coding of the video tapes does not believe cell phone use should be banned while driving a motor vehicle and tends to err in the coding of the reaction times in a way that favours this belief. This experimenter expectancy effect could be controlled by

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

Which of the following defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to measure it?

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?

A researcher is conducting an experiment to gather evidence about the most effective study techniques for committing material to memory. They randomly assign students to one of three groups that are instructed to learn a list of words using one of three techniques. If the researcher does not _____ the order of lists across participants, the _____ will be low.

A psychologist is interested looking at the effectiveness of a new computer program in helping students learn math. She decides to test this new program with a group of middle school students. At this particular school, the boys and girls tend to be disruptive when they are in the same classroom, so she decides to run them in separate groups in the experiment. She creates a group of boys, each of them using the computer program four times per week. She creates a group of girls to serve as a comparison group and they do not get the computer program. This experimental design is flawed because gender is a confounding variable and as a result the following has been lowered

The procedure that ensures that all subjects have an equal chance of being in any group or condition within the experiment is called

When the researcher observes behaviour as it occurs in a normal or typical setting, she is using _______________.

A hypothesis is best considered as a(n)

If a participant in a computer-based experiment is periodically interrupted to make judgments about how focussed they feel, what kind of measure is being used?

In experimental research, both reliability and validity can be used interchangeably?

In an experimental study that's conducted over a 20-year span, participants are interviewed and asked to recall childhood details. If such an experiment is conducted then the concern would be