Exam 2: Research Methods in Psychology

A group of researchers wanted to investigate allegations of sexual harassment on a company's assembly line.To make their observations, the researchers took jobs working on the assembly line and pretended to be new employees.In this example, the researchers were using

The goals of the scientific enterprise in psychology are to describe, understand, predict and control behaviour.

The hypotheses for a research study are most likely to be found in the

When a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained, ____________________ is said to have occurred.

An experimenter tests the hypothesis that physical exercise improves people's mood.Subjects in the experimental group participate on Monday and Tuesday and those in the control group on Wednesday and Thursday.What is the independent variable?

A dependent variable in an experiment refers to the variable

A clinical psychologist notes that an unusually large number of obese people are depressed or anxious, and she offers an explanation that excess weight causes emotional disorders.Her explanation is a(n)

A high correlation coefficient (either positive or negative) indicates that

In scientific investigations a researcher must clearly define the variables under study by precisely describing how they will be measured or controlled.These definitions are referred to as

Suppose a researcher discovered a +.87 correlation between the length of a person's toes and the number of shoes the person owns.In general, people who own the fewest number of shoes would have

Researchers studying the effects of sleep deprivation tested the physical coordination skills of 25-year-old males who had been sleep deprived for either 24, 36, or 48 hours.In this study, the dependent variable would be

Helen conducted a study in which she measured the response time for males and females to complete a spatial task.She found that the mean response time was 1.48 minutes for males and 1.63 minutes for females.For Helen to be confident that an actual difference exists between the males and females in her study, she must

In experimental research, while subjects in the ____ group received some special treatment in regard to the independent variable, subjects in the ____ group did not.

Dr Jacobs is investigating the link between social support networks and grades in school.Students in his classes are required to complete survey forms related to this research; however they are never told about the purpose of the survey.In this case, some researchers might argue that Dr Jacobs's research violates the ethical principle of

Dr Slabbert plans on introducing a new exam review procedure in his chemistry classes.To check the effectiveness of the new procedure he is going to have half his students try the new technique for one semester, while the remaining students review in the way they have always done in the past.He asks each student to decide which of the techniques they would like to use, the new technique or the standard technique.In this example, Dr Slabbert's procedure illustrates

Melvin and Leigh are interviewing students at their campus to determine if the students agree or disagree with a proposed policy change.Melvin believes the proposed policy change is a good idea, but Leigh believes the change will be bad for students.Nearly all the students who Melvin interviewed supported the policy change, but nearly all the students who Leigh interviewed disapproved of the change.The differences in the results illustrate the potential impact of

A researcher is conducting an experiment on the effect of alcohol consumption on reaction time and half of the subjects drink alcoholic drinks and half drink non-alcoholic versions of the same drinks.The subjects receiving the non-alcoholic drinks are the ____ group and are used in the study to minimise the influence of ____.

The two basic types of statistics are

Dr Abrahams has found that students who score higher than 85% on the first midterm tend to earn scores of 75% or better on the final exam, while students who score less than 60% on the first midterm often end up with a failing grade on the final exam.This suggests that

Which of the following is NOT a measure of central tendency?