Deck 2: Research Methods in I0 Psychology

Question 1

Procedures that allow researchers to rule out certain explanations for results other than the hypotheses they wish to test are referred to as __________ procedures.

A)generalization
B)control
C)confounding
D)exclusion

Answer 1

control

Question 2

To study the effects of pay on performance you pay some people $10/hour and others $20/hour.You use both male and female employees,but all of them have high ability.Which of the following is a control variable?

A)pay
B)performance
C)employee gender
D)ability

Answer 2

ability

Question 3

When I/O psychologists conduct research in organizational settings they are said to be conducting _________ research.

A)experimental
B)laboratory
C)field
D)cross-sectional

Answer 3

field

Question 4

Which of the following research projects is performed in a laboratory setting?

A)You go into a factory and give employees a questionnaire to study the effects of management style on employee motivation.
B)You go into a fast food restaurant and give employees a questionnaire to study the effects of pay on job performance.
C)You design a special room to simulate the work conditions in a factory and manipulate lighting conditions to study the effect of light on performance.
D)Both "a" and "c" are examples of research in lab settings.

Question 5

In experimental studies the __________ variable is assumed to be the cause of the change in the _________variable.

A)dependent;independent
B)confounding;independent
C)independent;dependent
D)independent;confounding

Question 6

Approximately what percentage of I/O studies published in major journals was performed in laboratory settings?

A)10%
B)30%
C)50%
D)70%

Question 7

You want to study the effects of training on performance.Because you must get permission to train people,you ask for volunteers.You train the volunteers,and then measure the performance of both volunteers (trained)and non-volunteers (non-trained).You have used

A)both random assignment and random selection.
B)random assignment but not random selection.
C)random selection but not random assignment.
D)neither random assignment nor random selection.

Question 8

An attribute or characteristic of people or things that can take on different values is called:

A)a variable
B)a hypothesis
C)a statistic
D)an experiment

Question 9

The most critical aspects of a research study are

A)the variables and their generalizability.
B)the research setting and the research design.
C)the research question and the research design.
D)the research question and the hypothesis.

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that control is achieved in research studies?

A)control groups.
B)holding certain variables constant.
C)systematically varying selected variables.
D)quasi-experimental design

Question 11

Generalizability of results refers to the concept that the conclusions of a study can be extended to other

A)groups of people.
B)organizations.
C)settings.
D)all of the above are correct

Question 12

Which of the following is true?

A)Generalizability is a concern with both laboratory and field research.
B)Generalizability is a concern with laboratory research but not with field research.
C)Generalizability is a concern with field research but not with laboratory research.
D)Generalizability is not a concern with either laboratory or field research.

Question 13

As a research psychologist you conduct a study that examines the effect of offering a benefits package on job satisfaction.In this study a group of new employees is offered a benefits package;another group is not.Which is the control group?

A)There is no control group.
B)The group receiving the benefits package is the control group.
C)The group not receiving the benefits package is the control group.
D)The group having their job satisfaction measured is the control group.

Question 14

Which of the following research projects is performed in a field setting?

A)You go into a classroom and give students a questionnaire to study the effects of management style on employee motivation.
B)You go into a fast food restaurant and give employees a questionnaire to study the effects of pay on job performance.
C)You design a special room to simulate the work conditions in a factory and manipulate lighting conditions to study the effect of light on performance.
D)Both "a" and "c" are examples of research in field settings.

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT one of the four major aspects of a research study?

A)How to obtain funding for research
B)Types of research designs
C)Principles of measurement
D)Use of statistics to draw conclusions from data

Question 16

Assume you study effects of pay (high vs.low)on the performance of men and women.Which of the following is a dependent variable?

A)pay
B)subject sex (men vs.women)
C)performance
D)Both pay and subject sex are dependent variables.

Question 17

The same physical location can be the setting for either a field or a laboratory study.The phenomenon being studied is what differentiates the two.

Question 18

The foundation of both the science and practice sides of I/O psychology is

A)Generalizability.
B)Research.
C)Training.
D)Statistics.

Question 19

Assume you study effects of pay (high vs.low)and leadership style (democratic vs.autocratic)on performance.Which of the following is an independent variable?

A)pay
B)leadership style
C)performance
D)Both pay and leadership style are independent variables.

Question 20

A hypothesis is

A)the researcher's best guess about what the results of a study will be.
B)a statement of the results that the researcher expects to find.
C)a prediction,not a question.
D)all of the above are correct

Question 21

You want to study the effects of training on performance.Because you must get permission to train people,you ask for volunteers.You train half the volunteers,and then measure the performance of both trained and untrained volunteers.You have used

A)both random assignment and random selection.
B)random assignment but not random selection.
C)random selection but not random assignment.
D)neither random assignment nor random selection.

Question 22

An advantage of survey designs is:

A)they allow causal conclusions to be drawn about the relationships between variables
B)employees are always good (unbiased)sources of information about variables of interest
C)the results are more generalizable than those from experiments
D)they are expensive and time consuming to run

Question 23

As an I/O research psychologist you chose the subjects of your investigation through a nonsystematic method;you have used which of the following methods?

A)randomized sampling
B)random assignment
C)nonsystematic sampling
D)random selection

Question 24

When conducting survey research psychologists use the term to refer to the percentage of those surveyed who agree to participate.

A)answer rate
B)participation rate
C)response rate
D)reverse-refusal rate

Question 25

With categorical measurement the numbers represent the amount of the characteristic in question.

Question 26

When I/O psychologists perform job analyses they often take notes on the employees' actions by observing employees without the subjects being aware of the researchers.This is an example of a(n)

A)obtrusive observational design .
B)unobtrusive observational design.
C)unobtrusive survey design.
D)obtrusive survey design.

Question 27

To study the effectiveness of employee training you train 20 volunteers and compare their post-training performance to that of 20 non-volunteers.What type of research design have you used?

A)observational
B)quasi-experimental
C)experiment
D)survey

Question 28

In which of the following research designs would it be MOST difficult to draw causal conclusions?

A)laboratory experiment
B)field experiment (true experiment,not quasi-experiment)
C)longitudinal survey design
D)cross-sectional survey design

Question 29

In a study that examines the effect of job tenure on job satisfaction,the added variable of the age of the research subject is intertwined with the variable of job tenure.When variables are intertwined in this way such that clear conclusions cannot be drawn,researchers say that a _________ has occurred.

A)covariation
B)confounding
C)cross-sectional design
D)correlation

Question 30

When two or more variables are intertwined in such a way that conclusions cannot be drawn about either one a researcher would say that _________ has occurred.

A)confounding
B)covariation
C)control
D)random assignment

Question 31

The term refers to the placement of people in different treatment conditions in a nonsystematic way.

A)random sampling
B)random selection
C)random assignment
D)random placement

Question 32

Case studies,participant observation,and interviews are all forms of:

A)survey methods
B)experimental methods
C)quantitative methods
D)longitudinal survey methods

Question 33

In your study of motivation and performance you record each respondent's gender,and assign the number "1" to males and "2" to females.This type of measurement is referred to as

A)sex typing.
B)categorical measurement.
C)continuous measurement.
D)classical measurement.

Question 34

You are interested in learning about work factors that cause employee stress,so you watch employees in their organizational setting perform their jobs for a few days.The employees are not aware that they are being studied.What type of research design have you used?

A)laboratory design
B)experimental design
C)cross-sectional design
D)unobtrusive observational design

Question 35

Procedures that allow researchers to rule out certain explanations for results other than the hypotheses they wish to test are referred to as __________ procedures.

A)generalization
B)control
C)confounding
D)exclusion

Question 36

Random assignment enhances the generalizability of a study.

Question 37

To draw causal conclusions about a research question,one should use:

A)experimental research designs
B)survey research designs
C)observational research designs
D)a variety of research designs

Question 38

The major advantage of the experiment is the ability to

A)draw causal conclusions.
B)measure multiple variables.
C)use laboratory settings.
D)control variables.

Question 39

You want to know if part-time employees become more or less happy with their employment over time.Thus,you give a questionnaire to 100 new hires and four months later give the same questionnaire to the same employees.What type of research design have you used?

A)longitudinal design
B)quasi-experimental design
C)cross-sectional design
D)obtrusive methods observational design

Question 40

You have been hired by an organization to conduct an analysis of the productivity of the production department and the number of coffee breaks the employees take.You collect your data by observing the employees while pretending to be a new hire in the department.This type of observation is called a(n)

A)unobtrusive survey design.
B)obtrusive survey design.
C)unobtrusive observational design.
D)obtrusive observational design.

Question 41

Experience sampling differs from longitudinal designs because experience sampling…

A)does not require ethical consideration
B)relies on a person's experiences rather than their opinions
C)does not collect data over time
D)takes repeated measurements over short time intervals

Question 42

If pay and performance were graphed,and employees who have low pay have high performance and employees who have high pay have low performance,this would represent a

A)zero correlation.
B)positive correlation.
C)negative correlation.
D)spurious correlation.

Question 43

At Qzork each applicant is interviewed by two different managers who then rate each job candidate on a series of competencies.If you compare how well these two managers agree on their ratings of each applicant you are measuring

A)inter-rater reliability.
B)test-retest reliability.
C)internal consistency reliability.
D)validity.

Question 44

Assume that students with high college GPAs tend to earn more money in starting salary than students with low college GPAs,but this relation is far from perfect.Which of the following is a likely correlation between GPA and starting salary?

A)- 0.90
B)0.00
C)+ 0.40
D)+ 0.90

Question 45

The consistency of measurement over time is assessed by

A)internal consistency reliability.
B)inter-rater reliability.
C)test-retest reliability.
D)the temporal stability index.

Question 46

What is the mean of the following set of numbers: 1,2,6,8,5,3,4,3?

A)1
B)2
C)3
D)4

Question 47

You are interested in determining whether or not you can predict the amount of your expected pay increase from your job performance rating.What type of analysis provides you with a mathematical formula that allows the prediction of one variable from another?

A)meta-analysis equation
B)correlation equation
C)Pearson product-moment equation
D)regression equation

Question 48

If in your English class you were given a test that contained 85% mathematics questions and only 15% vocabulary questions,you would say the test lacked

A)internal consistency reliability.
B)content validity.
C)criterion-related validity.
D)test-retest reliability.

Question 49

Which of the following statistics is a measure of central tendency?

A)standard deviation
B)mean
C)variance
D)correlation

Question 50

_________ refers to the inferences that are made about what an observed score measures or represents.

A)Reliability
B)Generalizability
C)Central tendency
D)Validity

Question 51

The variance statistic is a measure of ____________.

A)dispersion
B)central tendency
C)correlation
D)validity

Question 52

You use applicant scores on two tests (intelligence and mechanical aptitude)to predict their performance,and then hire the applicants with the highest predicted performance.You have used the _________ technique.

A)multiple regression
B)inferential
C)meta-analytic
D)correlational

Question 53

When a researcher is interested in measuring the consistency of measurement across repeated observations of a variable on the same subject s/he is said to be measuring the ____________ of the measurements.

A)accuracy
B)reliability
C)repeatedness
D)observational consistency

Question 54

Which of the following shows the strongest correlation between variables X and Y?

A)- 0.90
B)-0.65
C)+ 0.43
D)+ 0.55

Question 55

The fewer items in a test,the better the test's internal consistency.

Question 56

In your study of motivation and performance you count the number of computer chips assembled by each worker.This type of measurement is called

A)discrete measurement.
B)categorical measurement.
C)continuous measurement.
D)classical measurement.

Question 57

While evaluating tests for selecting sales staff,Pat finds that a measure of extraversion is related to sales performance.This test has:

A)face validity.
B)content validity.
C)criterion-related validity.
D)construct validity.

Question 58

According to classical measurement theory, every observation of a variable can be divided into two components. They are

A) true score and error .
B) categorical and continuous measurement.
C) observed score and error.
D) qualitative and quantitative measurement.

Question 59

Descriptive statistics summarize the results of a study with summary statistics such as means and standard deviations.

Question 60

Your boss tells a friend that he is sure all of his employees love their jobs because every time he sees them they are smiling and they always tell him how much they like their jobs.As an I/O psychologist you would say that your boss' measures of employee satisfaction have high

A)criterion related validity.
B)content reliability.
C)face reliability.
D)face validity.

Question 61

You conduct a study to determine if employee attitudes differ as a function of gender (male vs.female)and company size (small vs.large).What statistical technique should you use to analyze these data?

A)independent group t-test
B)meta-analysis
C)factorial ANOVA
D)t-test for correlation

Question 62

You want to know whether group size influences the success of employee training.Rather than do a new study you find 20 previous studies on this question and statistically combine their results.What is this analysis called?

A)analysis of variance
B)multiple regression
C)factorial analysis
D)meta-analysis

Question 63

You want to know whether the trained and untrained employees at your organization differ in their job performance.The variability in performance observed among the trained employees is called

A)incremental variance.
B)squared variance.
C)inferential variance.
D)error variance.

Question 64

When a variable explains the relationship between two other variables it is referred to as a

A)moderator variable.
B)mediator variable.
C)factor.
D)extraneous variable.

Question 65

An I/O psychologist must protect the well being of subjects in research,but not in practice.

Question 66

Which branch of statistics allows us to draw conclusions that generalize from the subjects we have studied to all the people of interest by allowing us to make inferences based on probabilities?

A)Descriptive statistics
B)Inferential statistics
C)Meta-analytic statistics
D)Multivariate statistics

Question 67

An ethical principle dictates that subjects of studies should be told about the nature and purpose of a study before they participate.This can be accomplished through the use of:

A)face validity
B)qualitative methods
C)observational designs
D)informed consent forms

Question 68

A quantitative method of combining the results of a number of research studies is called

A)multiple regression.
B)meta analysis.
C)analysis of variance.
D)factorial analysis.

Question 69

When I/O psychologists conduct research they are obligated to abide by ethical principles.In which of the following is the researcher NOT acting ethically?

A)The researcher obtains informed consent from all subjects in the study.
B)The researcher reveals the identity of those subjects who responded to the survey to the manager of the company as part of the outcome report.
C)The researcher discloses the purpose and goals of the research to the subjects prior to testing them.
D)The researcher conducts an anonymous survey of the employees and reports the results to management.

Question 70

When the probability is less then 1 in 20 that the result of a research study is due to chance,the results of the study are said to be non-significant.

Question 71

Which of the following is consistent with recommendations for research integrity?

A)it is not considered plagiarism to copy from previous research as long as the research was done by a colleague
B)if a student does work on your research,it is not ethical to give them authorship
C)if you are unable to support a theory that you know is right,it is acceptable to use false data
D)it is not considered ethical to use p hacking to analyze data until something becomes significant

Question 72

When the outcome of an inferential statistical test is said to have statistical significance we would conclude that the observed results are most likely due to

A)error.
B)chance.
C)the treatment.
D)probability.