Exam 2: Psychology as a Science

"Okay.What does a correlation coefficient tell us?" Zoe asks the members of her psychology study group."The strength of a relationship between two variables," answers Yvonne."The direction of the relationship between two variables," puts in Will.Who's right?

Tiffany is conducting a survey on personality traits and binge drinking among college students as part of her masters' thesis work.Tiffany distributes questionnaires to students enrolled in her own section of an introductory psychology course,as well as those taught by her thesis advisor.Based on this information,it appears that Tiffany has failed to

Descriptive is to experimental as ___ is to ___.

What step comes after analyzing the data and accept/reject the hypothesis in the cycle of how psychologists conduct research?

Jasper just participated in a study in which deception was used.What is likely to be true about this study?

Provide an example of a negative correlation.

Correlational analysis is to experimental analysis as ___ is to ___.

Dr.Vesner is examining how exposure to Drug X affects levels of aggression in rats.She gives each rat one of four doses of Drug X: no drug (saline injection),low dose,medium dose,and a high dose.After 20 minutes so the drug has time to take effect,she measures aggression by the intensity with which the rat bites a probing rod that is entered into the apparatus.In this study,what is the independent variable?

Recall the levels of analysis described in Chapter 1 of your text.If you were sympathetic to the notion that psychology should limit itself to clearly observable phenomena,on which level of analysis might you concentrate?

Dr.Bauer is investigating the effects of a new drug on the capacity of short-term memory.To do this,he uses four doses of drug on different groups of patients: some take a high dose,others a medium dose,others a low dose,and finally some take a placebo sugar pill.He then measures each participant's short-term memory capacity by seeing how many words they can remember immediately after hearing a list of 50 words.What statistic would Dr.Bauer use to determine if there was a significant difference between groups?

Researchers use statistics as a tool to

Daphne is writing a paper about the core beliefs of science.Which of the following would NOT be included in her paper?

Roger is having a discussion with his roommates about whether psychology is a science.His roommates are calling psychology a 'soft science',and this is infuriating Roger,who is adamant that psychology is a science like any other.What is Roger likely to say to make his point?

Experimental research must be conducted if researchers intend to claim cause and effect..

Describe what replication means?

Fabio is about to participate in a psychology research study.The first thing he is asked to do is read over a document that explains the purpose of the study,what he will be asked to do in the study,as well as the risks and benefits of the study.The document concludes by asking him if he is willing to participate.What type of document was this?

Each of the following is an operational definition of 'happiness' EXCEPT

Ivy has decided to use a scientific approach to figure out how much her boyfriend loves her.She realizes that she cannot go based on her feelings alone because she is very likely to be biased,and she wants to know truthfully,once and for all,whether he really loves her or not.In what way does this example show how psychology as a field differs from the physical sciences in the pursuit of scientific goals?

Match the appropriate words in the left column to the definitions in the right column.

Which of the following would a research ethics board NOT be concerned with?