Exam 4: Research Methods for Studying Mental Disorders

To better understand bulimia among college students, a researcher lives in a female freshman dorm for the fall semester to observe and interview students about their stresses, attitudes, and eating behaviors. A limitation of this field study is ____.

Wayne, a young adolescent male, reports a history of seizures to his psychologist. His psychologists tries to determine if the seizures are psychogenic. In other words, they are trying to determine whether or not the seizures are ____.

"There are many assets to using a field study," said the graduate student. "First, you're dealing with correlation, so you can draw conclusions about the direction of causality. Second, you have a high degree of control over confounding variables. Third, because you're dealing with a contrived situation, you're bound to have poor external validity. And fourth, your presence might influence the subjects' behavior." Which part of the graduate student's thinking was accurate ?

Instead of manipulating variables, the researcher measures the extent to which changes in one variable are accompanied by changes in a second variable. What type of study is this?

Contrived situations are to ____ studies as naturalistic observations are to ____ studies.

In order to compare how often some behavior or other phenomenon occurs in the population that is being studied, researchers examine ____.

Rosie participates in a study assessing the effectiveness of a drug to treat osteoporosis. Throughout the study, neither Rosie nor the person administering the dosage knows whether she was getting the real medication or a placebo. Rosie is participating in a ____.

Professor Pierrot told his class, "Clinical research must be replicable, relationships between variables must be clearly hypothesized and defined, and the measures used must be both reliable and valid." What additional characteristic should the professor include in his instructions?

To better understand bulimia among college students, a researcher lives in a female freshman dorm for the fall semester to observe and interview students about their stresses, attitudes, and eating behaviors. This is an example of what type of study?

What are some of the ways that psychologists attempt to understand human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors? Describe some of the obstacles psychologists encounter as well as ways they attempt to overcome these obstacles.

A researcher finds that when people report their sexual activity on a mailed questionnaire, they indicate higher levels of bizarre fantasies than when they are questioned face to face. This indicates that these methods of measuring sexual activity ____.

Evidence-based therapies should be based on ____.

A characteristic of all endophenotypes is that they are ____.

The primary method for gathering data in a field study is ____.

Results of a study show a significant positive correlation between scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale and a questionnaire on child abuse. The researchers conclude that this supports "the view that dissociation represents a reaction to early negative experience." What is one problem with this conclusion?

Dr. Malcolm is developing a new personality inventory. In his validation study, he ensures that his participants include individuals from every state, an equal number of men and women, individuals from all ethnic and racial backgrounds, and individuals from both rural and urban areas. Dr. Malcolm is trying to ensure that his study is ____.

Often, when new drugs are developed, their effects are first tested on animals rather than on humans. The use of animals as substitutes for humans in research is often referred to as ____.

A school psychologist was concerned with the number of children being diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If she were interested in learning how many new cases of ADHD had been diagnosed within the last two years, she will look at ____.

Dr. Richards focuses her research on many school teachers were diagnosed with anxiety disorders in 2012. What information is she trying to determine?

A research report includes this paragraph: "We hypothesized that anxiety disorders are more frequent in children whose parents are divorced. We looked at the frequency of anxiety problems in divorced and intact families, using court records to determine when the divorce took place." What component of scientific research is missing in this paragraph?