Deck 7: Conducting a Good Experiment Ii: Final Considerations, Unanticipated Influences, and Cross-Cultural Issues

Question 1

Which of the following populations is used most often in psychological research?

A) patients with schizophrenia
B) patients with depression
C) the general population
D) college students

Answer 1

D

Question 2

One advantage to using precedence to choose participants is that there is

A) increased power in the experiment.
B) a lowered chance of experimenter expectancies affecting the research.
C) a body of knowledge about that type of participant.
D) increased generalizability of the information that is gathered.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

How might demand characteristics have affected this study?

Answer 3

Participants may have figured out the hypothesis (that intoxicated men were expected to answer the questions in a more sexually risky way than sober men). Some participants may have responded to the questionnaires in the way that the experimenter expected, rather than how they actually felt (the "good participant" effect).

Question 4

How might experimenter characteristics have affected this study?

Question 5

One disadvantage to using precedence to choose participants is that

A) the researcher will have little past information on that type of participant.
B) there is an increased chance of experimenter expectancies affecting the research.
C) there is decreased power in the experiment.
D) there is limited generalizability of the information that is gathered.

Question 6

What is ethnocentrism and why is it problematic for research?

Question 7

What is a cultural response set? How does a researcher know if a cultural response set is operating? How does a cultural response set differ from a more general response set?

Question 8

Identify at least three dependent variables.

Question 9

In studies such as these, researchers often include one or even two placebo conditions. For example, participants might be given flat tonic water and are TOLD that it contains alcohol, but there really isn't any. Or, participants might be given alcohol and are told that it DOESN'T contain alcohol, but it really does. Why do you think researchers would include these conditions?

Question 10

Dawn chose to use college students as her participants because past research did as well. Dawn used _______ in choosing her participants.

A) availability
B) precedent
C) power
D) an etic

Question 11

Describe three ways in which culture influences research.

Question 12

How might experimenter expectancies have affected this study?

Question 13

How do you think the researchers decided on this particular number of participants (finances, time, availability, type of research project, power concerns)? Explain.

Question 14

How do you think the researchers chose their participants for this study (precedent, availability, or type of research project)? Explain.

Question 15

What is the difference between an etic and an emic? Give an example of each.

Question 16

Researchers use which of the following to choose their participants?

A) availability
B) nature of the problem
C) precedent
D) All of the above.

Question 17

An established pattern is referred to as a

A) precedent.
B) demand characteristic.
C) emic.
D) Rosenthal effect.

Question 18

Describe some ways in which researchers control response set.

Question 19

What is the independent variable?

Question 20

What was the hypothesis?

Question 21

In the Rosenthal and Fode (1963) study involving "maze bright" and "maze dull" rats,

A) rats who were genetically superior ("maze bright") were better able to run a maze than rats who were genetically inferior ("maze dull").
B) rats were able to run a maze better in bright light ("maze bright") than in low light ("maze dull").
C) students who were told that their (randomly selected) rats were "maze bright" ended up with rats who were better able to run mazes than students who were told that their rats were "maze dull."
D) All of the above.

Question 22

Which of the following is a common method for controlling physiological and psychological experimenter effects?

A) Use standardized methods.
B) Use careful training to a set standard when the experimenter administers procedures.
C) Standardize appearance, attitude, etc. as much as possible.
D) All of the above.

Question 23

Which of the following experimenter characteristics have been shown to affect the outcome of experiments?

A) sex of the experimenter
B) age of the experimenter
C) race of the experimenter
D) All of the above.

Question 24

Which of the following is a drawback associated with the use of expensive or elaborate equipment in your research study?

A) Often less elaborate equipment can work just as well with less chance of a breakdown.
B) Researchers can unwittingly let their equipment choose the research question.
C) When elaborate equipment breaks down, it can be prohibitively expensive to fix.
D) All of the above.

Question 25

Which of the following helps to minimize experimenter expectancies?

A) precedence in selecting participants
B) conducting a single-blind experiment
C) increasing the power in an experiment
D) using rats instead of human participants

Question 26

Which of the following is the best guideline for choosing the number of participants to use in a research project?

A) cost
B) availability
C) time
D) past research

Question 27

Why will a researcher need more participants when there is a high degree of within-group variability?

A) The scores are spread out within the groups, which makes it more difficult to see differences between groups.
B) The scores are clustered together within the groups, which makes it more difficult to see differences between groups.
C) The scores are spread out within the groups, which makes it easier to see differences between groups.
D) None of the above.

Question 28

In the Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study involving the IQ scores of grade-school children,

A) children who were genetically predisposed to achieve an intellectual spurt actually did increase their IQ scores at the end of the school year.
B) children who came from an intellectually stimulating home environment had increased IQ scores at the end of the school year compared to their peers.
C) teachers were told that certain randomly selected children were "intellectual bloomers" and those children did in fact experience an IQ increase at the end of the school year.
D) All of the above.

Question 29

Experimenter expectancies are best categorized as __________ variables.

A) extraneous
B) nuisance
C) independent
D) dependent

Question 30

Which of the following is true regarding experimenter characteristics?

A) Physiological characteristics of the experimenter can have an effect on participants, but psychological characteristics of the experimenter do not.
B) Past research has shown that female experimenters are friendlier to participants than male experimenters.
C) Both physiological and psychological characteristics of the experimenter can have an effect on participants.
D) Experimenter characteristics are not problematic because experimenters use constancy in their research.

Question 31

In a single-blind experiment,

A) the experimenter is unaware of the treatment the participants are receiving.
B) both the experimenter and the participant are unaware of the treatment the participants are receiving.
C) participants are more likely to engage in yea-saying than nay-saying.
D) participants are more likely to engage in nay-saying than yea-saying.

Question 32

Which of the following is a factor regarding how many participants a researcher will test?

A) time
B) availability
C) finances
D) All of the above.

Question 33

When the experimenter's preconceived idea of appropriate responding influences the treatment of participants and their behavior, it is known as

A) the Rosenthal effect.
B) precedence.
C) power.
D) an etic.

Question 34

The _______ the within-group variability, the _______ the number of participants the researcher will need.

A) greater; fewer
B) lower; greater
C) greater; greater
D) None of the above.

Question 35

Experimenter expectancies refer to expectations that

A) participants have about the research process.
B) the participants have about the experimenter.
C) the experimenter has about the participants.
D) All of the above.

Question 36

The ______ the number of participants, the _____ the power in an experiment.

A) greater; fewer
B) fewer; greater
C) greater; greater
D) None of the above.

Question 37

Why do participants use college students as their participants so frequently?

A) They are more interesting than other populations.
B) They are readily available for researchers.
C) They are less susceptible to demand characteristics compared to other populations.
D) They are less susceptible to response sets compared to other populations.

Question 38

The probability that a statistical test will be significant is called

A) precedent.
B) the Rosenthal effect.
C) a response set.
D) power.

Question 39

Experimenter expectancies usually result in participants

A) behaving in a manner opposite of experimenter expectations.
B) behaving in a manner consistent with experimenter expectations.
C) behaving in a natural way.
D) not understanding the directions of the experimenter.

Question 40

Which of the following is true regarding physiological and psychological experimenter effects, according to the text?

A) Researchers are more concerned with physiological experimenter effects than psychological experimenter effects.
B) Researchers are more concerned with psychological experimenter effects than physiological experimenter effects.
C) Researchers are very concerned with both physiological and psychological experimenter effects.
D) Researchers usually pay little attention to these factors because they are difficult to control.

Question 41

Participants in an experiment figure out that the study is about helping behavior, but they can't figure out which group they are in. The demand characteristics in this study are operating as ________ variables.

A) nuisance
B) extraneous
C) independent
D) dependent

Question 42

When participants answer yes or no to all questions, the _______ of their scores is called into question.

A) validity
B) power
C) precedence
D) All of the above.

Question 43

Features of the experiment that inadvertently lead participants to respond in a particular manner are known as

A) etics.
B) emics.
C) demand characteristics.
D) experimenter expectancies.

Question 44

An experiment in which both the experimenter and the participants are unaware of which treatment the participants are receiving is known as a ___________ experiment.

A) single-blind
B) double-blind
C) triple-blind
D) demand-characteristics

Question 45

Participants who tend to answer yes to all questions are known as

A) good participants.
B) single-blind participants.
C) yea-sayers.
D) yes-men.

Question 46

Which of the following is a drawback to using deception to control demand characteristics?

A) Deception creates excessive yea-saying in participants.
B) Participants might guess erroneously about the true purpose of the experiment, thus creating demand characteristics created by the deception.
C) Experimenter expectancies make the deception ineffective.
D) All of the above.

Question 47

Brenda constructs a questionnaire to assess racial bias. All of the questions are worded such that agreement with each item indicates more racial bias. Brenda runs the risk of creating a(n)

A) etic.
B) emic.
C) response set.
D) double-blind experiment.

Question 48

Which of the following is an accurate depiction of a single-blind experiment?

A) The experimenter is unaware of the treatment the participants are receiving.
B)
B) The participants are unaware of the treatment they are receiving.
C) Both the experimenter and the participant are unaware of the treatment the participants are receiving.
D) Either a or

Question 49

Participants who tend to answer no to all questions are known as

A) double-blind participants.
B) etics.
C) emics.
D) nay-sayers.

Question 50

Which of the following is NOT a technique used by researchers to control demand characteristics?

A) Conduct a single-blind experiment in which participants do not know which group they are in.
B) Conduct a double-blind experiment.
C) Use deception in the informed consent.
D) Use a general population sample rather than a college student sample.

Question 51

Suppose you conduct a double-blind experiment, but you leave participants to their own devices to guess what the experiment is about. The effect of such a situation would be to create

A) an extraneous variable.
B) a nuisance variable.
C) yea-saying.
D) nay-saying.

Question 52

Which of the following represents a way of controlling demand characteristics?

A) Conduct a double-blind experiment
B) Use random sampling
C) Conduct an experiment rather than a correlational study
D) All of the above.

Question 53

When the experimental context or testing situation influences the participants' responses, it is known as a(n)

A) emic.
B) etic.
C) response set.
D) single-blind experiment.

Question 54

Dickson et al. (2001) did not tell their participants that they were studying racial stereotypes because they were worried about

A) experimenter expectancies.
B) demand characteristics.
C) ethnocentrism.
D) sampling issues.

Question 55

Demand characteristics act as _________ variables.

A) extraneous
B) nuisance
C) extraneous or nuisance
D) independent

Question 56

Which of the following is NOT a method to minimize experimenter expectancies?

A) Use a single-blind experiment.
B) Tape-record instructions to participants.
C) Increase the number of demand characteristics in the study.
D) Carefully prepare the instructions given to participants.

Question 57

Participants in an experiment figure out that the study is about group size and helping behavior. They know that some people are in groups of five, and others are in groups of three. The demand characteristics in this study are operating as ________ variables.

A) independent
B) dependent
C) extraneous
D) nuisance

Question 58

The tendency for participants to behave as they perceive the experimenter wants them to behave is known as

A) an emic.
B) the good participant effect.
C) an etic.
D) ethnocentrism.

Question 59

Demand characteristics act as ________ variables when participants know which group they are in, and demand characteristics act as _________ variables when participants are not sure which group they are in.

A) nuisance; extraneous
B) extraneous; nuisance
C) extraneous; extraneous
D) nuisance; nuisance

Question 60

A researcher conducts a study on the effectiveness of a new drug to alleviate anxiety. Participants are given either the drug or a sugar pill, and they don't know which they are receiving. Furthermore, the experimenter dispensing the pills does not know which pill he is giving out (the lead researcher, however, is aware of everything). This experiment is known as a _________ experiment.

A) correlational
B) double-blind
C) single-blind
D) response-set

Question 61

A finding that is the same in different cultures is known as a(n) _________, and a culture-specific finding is known as a(n) _______.

A) etic; emic
B) emic; etic
C) etic; response set
D) response set; emic

Question 62

People of all cultures respond similarly to reinforcers; therefore, reinforcement is a(n)

A) demand characteristic.
B) emic.
C) response set.
D) etic.

Question 63

A researcher reviews her questions to guard against socially desirable responding. The researcher is concerned about

A) ethnocentrism.
B) response set.
C) precedence.
D) etics.

Question 64

The tendency of a particular culture to respond in a certain manner is known as a(n)

A) etic.
B) cultural response set.
C) demand characteristic.
D) Rosenthal effect.

Question 65

What is one way in which a researcher may know that a cultural response set is operating?

A) The participants complain about the deception being used in the experiment.
B) There are more yea-sayers than nay-sayers in the experiment.
C) Differences exist among the groups tested in various cultures.
D) All of the above.

Question 66

What is a back translation?

A) A researcher conducts a study in at least three different cultures.
B) A researcher translates a questionnaire into another language.
C) A researcher translates a questionnaire into another language and then translates it back into the original language.
D) A researcher ensures that a particular culture responds in the same way.

Question 67

Which of the following is a methodological question relevant to cross-cultural research?

A) Are the samples from two cultures equivalent?
B) Is the sample of participants representative of the culture from which they were drawn?
C) Do the survey questions mean the same thing in different cultures?
D) All of the above.

Question 68

In what way does culture influence the research process?

A) Culture influences the choice of the research project.
B) Culture influences the nature of the experimental hypothesis.
C) Culture influences the selection of the IV and recording of the DV.
D) All of the above.

Question 69

Research aimed at determining the universality of research results is known as _________ research.

A) correlational
B) experimental
C) archival
D) cross-cultural

Question 70

Some cultures are individualistic, and others are not. Individualism is a(n)

A) emic.
B) etic.
C) response set.
D) demand characteristic.

Question 71

What is one way to ensure that a questionnaire is appropriate in multiple cultures?

A) The researcher should conduct a reliability analysis.
B) The researcher should conduct a back translation.
C) The researcher should restrict the study to college students.
D) The researcher should conduct a validity analysis.

Question 72

If a researcher cannot distinguish between the effects of the independent variable and the effects of a cultural response set, then the cultural response set is operating as a(n) _________ variable.

A) nuisance
B) dependent
C) extraneous
D) participant

Question 73

Researchers are _________ when they view other cultures as an extension of their own culture.

A) yea-sayers
B) double-blind
C) ethnocentric
D) confounded

Question 74

A culture-specific finding is known as a(n)

A) emic.
B) etic.
C) response set.
D) precedent.

Question 75

A finding that is the same in different cultures is known as a(n)

A) emic.
B) etic.
C) response set.
D) precedent.

Question 76

Briefly describe the three considerations in choosing participants: precedent, availability, and the nature of the project.

Question 77

Which of the following is NOT a technique used by researchers to guard against response set?

A) Review all questions to determine if socially desirable responding has occurred.
B) Create an emic to include in your survey.
C) Pilot test the survey.
D) Interview participants.

Question 78

Lasting values, attitudes, and behaviors which are shared by a group define

A) the Rosenthal effect.
B) culture.
C) response sets.
D) precedence.

Question 79

Which of the following is a technique used by researchers to control yea-saying?

A) Conduct a case study instead of an experiment.
B) Conduct a cross-cultural study.
C) Rewrite items so that sometimes a negative response represents agreement, and sometimes a negative response represents disagreement.
D) Avoid ethnocentrism on the part of the experimenter.

Question 80

Which of the following is true regarding culture?

A) Culture is synonymous with race and nationality.
B) Each country has a particular culture.
C) Each city has a particular culture.
D) Several cultures can exist within the same country.