Exam 1: Introduction to the Science of Psychology

Dr. McGufficke's research indicates that twenty minutes of exercise done three times a week positively affects people's emotions as well as their overall fitness. Dr. McGufficke is a(n)__________ psychologist.

Dr. Ayala conducts an experiment where she gives half her participants a yellow pill containing a drug that keeps them awake during psychology lectures. She gives the other half of her participants an identical-looking yellow pill that does not contain the drug. This experimental design controls for

A friend of yours claims that psychology isn't a science. Explain why your friend is wrong by relating the scientific goals of psychological research to the research methods psychologists use.

An experimenter is studying the facial expression of the emotion terror. He plans to point a loaded gun at participants as they enter the room and photograph them at the same instant. Such an experiment would be ethically

Marcella has applied for a job, and as part of the process of getting hired she must take a test that examines her outgoingness and general levels of friendliness. Marcella's test was most likely created by a __________ psychologist.

In an experiment to study the effects of alcohol consumption on sexual stamina, individual participants' drinking histories are an example of

Subjects in an experiment are exposed to a stimulus and asked to describe and analyze their experiences. These subjects are engaging in

Jon believes that exercise is a cause of higher levels of life satisfaction. If Jon plans to study this hypothesis experimentally, his dependent variable would be the

The first figure in psychology to suggest that all of our processes, from actions to slips of the tongue to dreams, were influenced by psychological factors was

Dr. Lampert wants to know how college students tend to flirt with each other, so he sits in the college cafeteria and pretends to be doing a crossword puzzle. In fact, he's listening to the conversations of nearby students and is taking notes when he observes flirtations taking place. Dr. Lampert has chosen a __________ research method.

A researcher might test the influence of environment on cognitive development by taking newborn children away from their parents and assigning half of them to a rich cognitive environment and half to a deprived cognitive environment. What is wrong with this experiment?

A ________ psychologist would be most interested in researching changes in human behavioral, emotional, and mental processes over time.

Automobiles have been made more accessible to those who suffer from physical limitations, such as amputated limbs or body parts that do not function normally. Part of this development has been to redesign the controls of vehicles so that those who have these challenges can access the controls more easily. These changes would most likely be made by a(n)__________ psychologist.

In what ways are culture typically passed from generation to generation?

LaTasha works for a multinational corporation. She must report to executives from a collectivist culture about the status of a project conducted by her group. To communicate in the most appropriate way to these executives, she should say:

A psychologist proposed an experiment in which he would tell participants that their performance on an intelligence test was extremely low (regardless of actual performance)and then measure their self-esteem. What might an Institutional Review Board ethics committee say about such a proposal?

In the United States, approximately ________ of those earning doctoral degrees in psychology today are women.

Craig works with students at Middlesex High School who are experiencing academic problems. He meets with these students to assess what family and peer factors may be leading to their poor performance. Craig is a(n)__________ psychologist.

A participant in an experiment is told that a particular pill should improve her performance on a cognitive task. The participant is then given the pill, and she performs better than usual on the task. In actuality, the pill did not contain any ingredients that would affect her performance on the task. The participant's improved performance was most likely due to

Psychology is based on research questions about many phenomena. When a psychologist asks if she can control for a phenomenon, she is ready to