Exam 4: The Scientific Method in Abnormal Psychology

In the Thom et al.(2000)study of the treatment of dental-phobic patients, if participants in the two experimental groups showed reduced anxiety from pretest to posttest, could the researchers conclude that the treatments were effective in reducing anxiety?

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?

What is the role of replication in psychological research?

Idiographic research is most effective ____.

Dr.Richards focuses her research on how and why treatment is effective.She is conducting what type of study?

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

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

One psychologist says, "Depression stems from unconscious feelings of anger and abandonment that go back to childhood." Another psychologist says, "Depression is caused by illogical thoughts and assumptions." These differences of opinion ____.

To study the effectiveness of a new anti-anxiety drug, researchers randomly assign equally anxious people to two groups, one getting Drug X and the other getting no drug.The researchers mistakenly conclude that Drug X works because people in the drug group show fewer signs of anxiety than the others.What is the mistake?

"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?

Prevalence is to ____ as incidence is to ____.

Dr.Kendall is treating a group of people diagnosed with anxiety disorders.At the completion of the treatment program, analyses indicate that the clients are showing statistically significant changes as a result of treatment.Many of the clients, however, still report feeling strong symptoms of anxiety.Which of the following statements is accurate?

Base rates obtained from a normal control group in response to a psychotic-traits questionnaire suggested that ____.

Cynthia wants to ensure that her research is consistent with the scientific method.Among the many characteristics of good research, she will need to be sure that ____.

A study of childhood depression examines 6-year-olds for symptoms of depression, then reassesses these individuals when they are 8 and 12 years old.What kind of research is this?

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.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of correlational studies?

Fifty survivors of an airplane crash are given questionnaires to fill out two weeks, six weeks, and thirty weeks after the crash.This study combines what types of research?

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 ____.

A large school district introduces a new reading program into one-half of its first-grade classrooms.Three years later, the reading scores of the 10,000 children in the new program average 3 points higher on a 100-point test than the scores of the 10,000 children who did not get the program.Although 3 points is statistically significant, the problem with saying that the program was a great success is that ____.