Exam 2: Research Methods in Psychology

Which of the following statements about correlations is incorrect?

The principle advantage of the experimental method is that the final conclusions can be extended to everyday behaviour that occurs outside the laboratory.

One method to control for experimenter bias effects in research is to use

If we were to measure the height and weight of 100 adult women, we would find that these two measures are

The two major advantages of the scientific method are its ____________________, or the fact that it requires that people specify exactly what they are talking about and its intolerance of error.

Answering the question of "how" something works is most closely associated with which goal of science?

As the number of bystanders' increases, people are less likely to help someone who is in distress. This suggests that the size of a crowd and helping behaviour are

Placebos are used in research to control for

Completing an in-depth study of 100 members from a cult that committed mass suicide would be one example of ____________________ research.

Tyrone conducts a decision-making experiment to determine if people reason more logically when they have more time to decide. All the participants who are under 40 are allowed 15 minutes to reach a decision about a problem; all the participants who are over 40 are allowed 20 minutes to reach a decision about the same problem. Tyrone has a problem with his experimental design because

Descriptive/correlational research methods broaden the scope of phenomena that psychologists are able to study.

In Emma's sociology discussion group 4 of the 5 students are between the ages of 19 and 23; the fifth student is 54 years old. If Emma wants to report the statistic that best represents the "average" age for her discussion group, she should report either

The best type of evidence for psychological studies is anecdotal evidence.

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

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?

In an experiment designed to test memory processes, one group was given special instructions and asked to group the items on a list into categories while they tried to memorise them. A second group of participants was given the same list, but they did not receive any special instructions. In this study, the experimental group is

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

The ____________________ is the measure of central tendency that is most affected by extreme scores in a set of data.

In an experiment the investigator varies the dependent variable and measures the independent variable.

When the scores for a recent Chemistry exam were calculated, the mean was 60 and the median was 65. Later the lecturer discovered that one score had been recorded incorrectly; it had been entered into the computer as a 5, instead of as a 50. When this correction is made,