Exam 2: Section 4: Methods in Psychology

Validity is the tendency of a measure to produce the same result whenever it is used to measure the same thing.

It is possible for a measure to be reliable but not valid.

It is common to assign experimental participants to groups by random assignment.

Scientists tend to judge more complex theories as preferable to simpler theories.

When the odds are high that random assignment failed to create equivalent groups, the results are said to be statistically significant.

Self-selection by participants to experimental conditions is an effective way of eliminating the third-variable problem.

A sample taken from a population is signified by a lowercase n.

The matched samples technique eliminates the third-variable problem associated with correlational research.

Current ethical guidelines prohibit conducting psychological research on animals that involves pain.

Measuring intelligence in terms of eye color lacks reliability.

A common strategy in experimentation is to allow participants to choose if they would like to be studied in the experimental group or the control group.

Participants may not be exposed to risk in an experiment, no matter how small.

Reliability is the tendency of an operational definition and a property to have a clear conceptual relation.

Random assignment to groups is common when using the case method.

Research participants should be told the nature and purpose of a study after it is completed.

The matched samples technique attempts to eliminate the third-variable problem by holding it constant for each participant.

A positive correlation between two variables is stronger than a negative correlation between two variables.

Net worth is a variable that tends to be positively skewed in the population.

A theory is a testable prediction made by a hypothesis.

A correlation coefficient (r) can range from 0 to 100.