Exam 2: Research Methods in Psychology

What is the difference between a positive correlation and a negative correlation? List some specific variables that you predict would be positively correlated, and variables that would be negatively correlated, with alcohol consumption by college students.

Briefly describe the steps involved in scientific psychological research.

One of the disadvantages of the experimental method is

Subjects in the control group should be ____ subjects in the experimental groups in all respects except for the treatment they receive in regards to the ____.

Bongani designed an experiment in which participants listened to a persuasive speech delivered either by a person who was very tall or a person who was average in height. In addition, the speeches were delivered either by individuals wearing business clothes or by people wearing casual clothes. In this example, Bongani

Recording all instances of an event for a particular time period (such as how many times an older brother strikes his younger brother) without the subjects' awareness is an example of

In experimental research, the researcher manipulates the ____ variable in order to measures its effect on the ____ variable.

When studying a research question where it would be impractical to manipulate the variables of interest, a researcher would use a(n)

The mode in a group of scores describes the ____ for that group of scores.

Which research method involves a researcher engaging in careful observation of behaviour without intervening directly with the subjects?

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

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 ____.

In a study designed to test the effects of a new drug developed to treat Alzheimer's disease, half the patients were given the actual drug while the other half of the patients were given a placebo (sugar pill). In this study, the experimental group 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

Dr Desai predicts that if teachers ignore students who act up in class, fewer students will act up in class. Dr Desai's prediction is an example of

An instructor wishes to find out whether a new teaching method is superior to his usual procedures, so he conducts an experiment. Everyone in his classes is quite excited about the prospect of learning under the new procedure but of course he cannot administer the new teaching method to everyone. A random half of the students receive the new method and the remaining half receive the old. What is the most obvious flaw in this experiment?

One of your friends is writing a research paper and wants to obtain information about the depth of personal information people typically reveal during a first date. Directly observing a large number of people during a first date will be difficult, so your friend asks for your advice on the best way to collect this type of data. The best suggestion would be for your friend to use

Dr Mokoena believes that people who are under stress will develop more colds than people who are not under stress. When she randomly selects 10 participants and exposes them to high levels of stress, she finds that 9 of the participants develop colds. Based on these results she concludes that stress causes an increase in colds. Dr Mokoena's reasoning may be flawed because in this study

Suppose a researcher discovered a +0.87 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

Statistics can be used to do all of the below EXCEPT