Deck 7: Control and Comparison Groups

Question 1

Spontaneous remission is a problem in therapy studies because:

A) Participants change overtime without being in a treatment condition
B) It is a threat to the external validity of the experiment
C) It does not provide a necessary baseline for comparison
D) It does not utilize at least one control group

Answer 1

Participants change overtime without being in a treatment condition

Question 2

Why are waiting-list control groups more favorable than no-treatment control groups?

A) They allow for both between and within-participant comparisons
B) It is easier to recruit participants
C) It eliminates ethical problems of no treatment
D) a and b

Answer 2

a and b

Question 3

What is the goal of a dismantling treatment strategy?

A) To reduce psychopathology
B) To determine the effect of treatment on a waiting-list control group
C) To identify the necessary and sufficient components of treatment
D) Both b and c

Answer 3

To identify the necessary and sufficient components of treatment

Question 4

Why are patched-up control groups used?

A) To establish the impact of a modified treatment condition
B) To make sure that the control group is the same as the treatment group
C) In order to rule our rival hypotheses
D) To determine why a treatment outcome did not confirm the experimental hypothesis

Question 5

The use of a treatment that is not based on theoretical or empirical findings is typically used to:

A) To rule out threats to internal validity
B) Is unethical regardless of the reasons
C) To test for attention-placebo effects
D) Both a and c

Question 6

Which of the following is typically an initial approach to a research question?

A) Constructive strategy
B) Dismantling strategy
C) Parametric strategy
D) Treatment package strategy

Question 7

A nonspecific-treatment control group:

A) Is designed to control for common factors that are associated with treatment.
B) Rules out the role of expectancies in explaining why clients get better
C) Controls for placebo effects in a medication study
D) Is the best way to rule out threats to internal validity e.g., regression, testing)

Question 8

Comparison groups are used to:

A) Reduce threats to internal validity and construct validity
B) Confirm rival hypotheses
C) Rule out treatment effects
D) Reduce threats to construct validity and external validity

Question 9

Why is the treatment moderator strategy used?

A) To examine attributes of the clients, therapists, or context that may influence outcome
B) To determine if two or more treatments differ in effectiveness
C) To explore the impact of multiple treatments on clients and therapists
D) a and c

Question 10

The treatment mediator strategy?

A) Focuses on subject characteristics that influence the direction or magnitude of change
B) Examines predictors and correlates of change
C) Focuses on mechanisms of change
D) a and c

Question 11

Why is the parametric treatment strategy used in experiments?

A) To determine what the minimum amount of treatment needed to produce an effect
B) To maximize therapeutic change
C) To explore the interaction of multiple treatments
D) To determine the impact of new treatments

Question 12

Which design is used to control conceptually and procedurally irrelevant factors that might emerge during a study e.g., duration or number of treatment sessions)?

A) No design does this
B) Yoked control group
C) All designs do this
D) Multiple-treatment design

Question 13

Control groups are typically used to address threats to:

A) External validity
B) Ecological validity
C) Construct validity
D) Internal validity

Question 14

No-treatment and waiting-list control groups are primarily used to:

A) Reduce bias in participants' responses
B) Reduce threats to external validity
C) Increase construct validity
D) Increase internal validity

Question 15

Why are no-treatment control groups problematic?

A) They do not account for individual differences in outcomes
B) They are difficult to ethically justify
C) They are not typically based upon strict protocols
D) They do not allow for random assignment