Exam 1: The Mission and the Method

A study is said to have internal validity if the researcher can be relatively confident that ____.

Compared to laboratory experiments, field experiments tend to be ____.

According to the textbook, psychology can be thought of as a kind of 'experimental philosophy' because psychology ____ while relying on the experimental method.

Suppose that you participate in an experiment that is designed to examine the effects of sadness on creativity.Even though the sadness manipulation used by the experimenters is very artificial, you nonetheless experience deep sadness during the study.Thus, the study was apparently high in ____________________.

Within psychology, typically focus on 'abnormal' behaviour (e.g., mental disorders and behavioural disorders).

Social psychology is best defined as the study of ____.

Dr Modibe and Dr Groenewald are designing a new study.They have come up with a good hypothesis for the study, but they are having trouble thinking of operational definitions for their variables.In other words, they are concerned that their research might be low in ____.

Replication refers to ____.

According to the simile in your text, if psychology is like a tree, then social psychology is like ____.

When social psychologist Kurt Lewin said that 'there is nothing so practical as a good theory', he meant that ____.

In recent years, the line between social psychology and ____ has become especially blurred.

Dr Molefe is studying the effects of sleep deprivation on interpersonal skills.He is testing the interpersonal skills of 20-25 year-old males who have been sleep deprived for 24 hours, 36 hours, or 48 hours.In this study, the dependent variable is the ____.

Many areas of study in social psychology evoke a lot of passion from the researchers invested in that arena.Although doing research to make the world a better place is great motivation, one of the hazards of this motive is that ____.

Replication is essential to the self-correcting nature of science.

Dr Kgwadi is conducting a study to test the effect of a new drug on people's ability to concentrate at work.His research sample consists of 100 South African adults.During a 14-week period, half of the sample is administered the drug and the other half is administered a placebo, and participants' concentration abilities are continually tracked.In the context of this study, if Dr Kgwadi uses random assignment, it means that ____.

Polls that use large random samples yield very accurate predictions.Since 1936, Gallup poll results taken just before US national election days have diverged from actual election results by an average of only about _____.

Dr Ndlovu studies individual differences in introversion (a trait similar to shyness).Dr Ndlovu is MOST likely a _____ psychologist.

If you conduct a study and predict that excessive computer use causes social awkwardness, then social awkwardness is the ____________________ variable.

During the 'Decade of the Brain' in the ____, social psychologists became particularly interested in the biological aspects of social behaviour.

Researchers tend to use quasi-experimental research designs when they are able to manipulate an independent variable but NOT able to ____.