Exam 2: Research Methods in Psychology

The ____ is a research strategy that minimises the potential methodological problems associated with the placebo effect and experimenter bias.

The primary reason descriptive/correlational research cannot determine conclusively that variables have a cause and effect relationship is because in conducting the research

Placebos are used in research to control for

A researcher is measuring the heart rate of subjects as an index of anxiety.In this study, heart rate is

Researchers who were studying plant growth raised plants in two separate rooms.One room had taped conversations playing 24 hours a day; the other room was silent.The researchers found that the plants grew better in the room which had the conversations playing.In this study, the type of room (conversation or silence) would be

A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables is called a theory.

Operational definitions are most closely associated with which major advantage of the scientific approach?

Dr Matamela believes that "misery loves company." Based on this belief, Dr Matamela predicts that people who have received bad news will seek out other people.Dr Matamela's belief is an example of ____, and her prediction is an example of ____.

Donovan is filling out the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and as he reads each question he thinks about the way most other people would probably respond.When he answers, he selects the alternative that he thinks will present the most favorable impression.Donovan's answers reflect

While theories are most closely associated with the scientific goal of ____, hypotheses are most closely associated with the goal of ____.

A sample is representative if

Pretend that you are in a discussion with friends and the topic is hard sciences versus soft sciences.It is argued that psychology is not a true science at all, as are sciences like chemistry and physics.How would you defend the proposition that psychology is a true science?

How much the scores in a data set vary from each other and from the mean refers to the concept of

The purpose of the control group is to

The use of mathematics to organise, summarise, and interpret numerical information is referred to as

Which is NOT among the goals of scientific psychology?

What is the mode of the following data? 2, 3, 3, 3, 5, 5, 7, 12

Because additional statistical manipulations can be performed on it, in general, the most useful measure of central tendency is the mean.

One of the disadvantages of the experimental method is

Charlie tells you that 17 out of the 30 students enrolled in his English class scored exactly 62 points on the last exam.Conceptually, this is the same as saying