Deck 3: Developing Ideas for Research in Psychology

Question 1

Applied research

A) always has mundane realism but seldom has experimental realism
B) always has experimental realism but seldom has mundane realism
C) can be either laboratory or field research
D) is always field research, while basic research is laboratory research

Answer 1

can be either laboratory or field research

Question 2

Broadbent's study on selective attention is to Strayer's study on cell phone use while driving as _______ is to _________.

A) field research; laboratory research
B) mundane realism; experimental realism
C) applied research; basic research
D) basic research; applied research

Answer 2

applied research; basic research

Question 3

Operational definitions

A) are seldom needed because of modern advances in behavioral technology
B) are needed to force researchers in different laboratories to all use the exact same definition of a construct
C) force researchers to be clear about defining the terms of their studies
D) differ from one study to another, which means that using operational definitions hinders the replication process

Answer 3

force researchers to be clear about defining the terms of their studies

Question 4

Which of the following is true of the studies done by Bushman and Anderson (which evaluated exposure to violence and helping behavior)?

A) it combined both laboratory and field research in a series of experiments
B) it was a series of experiments high in mundane realism but low in experimental realism
C) it combined both basic and applied research in a single experiment
D) it was a series of experiments high in experimental realism but low in mundane realism

Question 5

In Bushman and Anderson's field experiment, who was the experimental confederate?

A) a young man who was heard fighting with another person
B) a young woman with and apparent ankle injury and crutches at a movie theater
C) a young woman with and apparent ankle injury and crutches in the laboratory
D) the experimenter who administered the questionnaires

Question 6

Sternberg and Grigerenko studied the effects of parasitic infections on cognitive functioning in several field sites around the world. They argued that field research offers several advantages over laboratory research. All of the following are advantages they cited except

A) some conditions (e.g., extreme heat) could never be duplicated in the lab
B) discoveries that result from the research can have immediate beneficial effects on people
C) field research can correct misconceptions that might arise from laboratory research
D) field research automatically allows the experimenters greater experimental realism

Question 7

Which of the following research studies is most obviously an example of basic research?

A) the effect of delaying reward on maze learning in rats
B) the effectiveness of hypnosis for improving courtroom eyewitness memory
C) worker productivity in well-lit vs. poorly-lit environments
D) whether hands-free cell phones are less disruptive to driving than hand-held phones

Question 8

Participants are asked to memorize three different lists of words. The lists are presented at three different presentation speeds. How would you classify this study?

A) applied research
B) field research
C) basic research
D) both a. and b.

Question 9

Compared to laboratory research, which of the following is true about field research?

A) it allows for a greater degree of control over variables
B) it may be higher in mundane realism
C) both informed consent and debriefing are easier to manage
D) it will be higher in experimental realism

Question 10

In the laboratory research study by Bushman and Anderson, participants played either violent or nonviolent video games, then filled out a questionnaire. Which of the following describes what they found?

A) participants who played violent video games completed the questionnaires faster than participants who played non-violent video games
B) participants who played violent video games reported less violence in the video games than participants who played non-violent video games
C) participants who played violent video games
D) participants who played violent video games were slower to help an individual in an adjacent room compared to participants who played non-violent video games
E) participants who played violent video games did not help an individual in an adjacent room compared to participants who played non-violent video games

Question 11

If a study is high on experimental realism, then

A) participants will take the procedures seriously
B) the participant's task will resemble a normal daily activity
C) it is certain that deception has been used
D) it is almost certainly a field study rather than a laboratory study

Question 12

Compared to field research, what is the advantage of laboratory research?

A) informed consent is easier
B) it allows experimental realism to occur
C) there is a greater degree of mundane realism
D) only lab research yields data that can be analyzed adequately (statistically)

Question 13

The studies by Cherry and by Broadbent, using dichotic listening, are examples of

A) basic research on attention
B) applied research on the factors that enhance the focusing of attention
C) research high in mundane realism but low in experimental realism
D) basic research on car driving

Question 14

A researcher is measuring aggression. Which of the following is most clearly inadequate as an operational definition of the term?

A) choosing a button which makes it difficult for another subject to complete a task
B) honking one's horn at an intersection for a period of more than two seconds
C) attempting to harm someone
D) delivering electric shocks to a competitor

Question 15

After completing their laboratory experiment on exposure to violent video games, why did Bushman and Anderson complete a field experiment on the exposure to violence and helping behavior?

A) they wanted to improve experimental realism
B) they wanted to see if the results of their first experiment would generalize to everyday situations
C) they wanted to rule out alternative interpretations of their laboratory experiment
D) they wanted to increase sample size

Question 16

Compared to field research, which of the following is true about laboratory research?

A) it allows for a greater degree of control over variables
B) it may be lower in mundane realism
C) both informed consent and debriefing are easier to manage
D) all of the above

Question 17

Basic research is concerned with ______ while applied research tries to ________.

A) experimental realism; accomplish mundane realism
B) establishing essential principles; solve practical problems
C) the laboratory only; use field studies only
D) mundane realism; accomplish experimental realism

Question 18

What is the advantage of using operational definitions?

A) they force researchers in different laboratories to all use the exact same definition
B) they facilitate replication
C) it's easy to agree on a universal definition for a concept like aggression
D) there are no advantages to using operational definitions; no two persons can ever agree on the best definition

Question 19

Qualitative research is to quantitative research as _______ is to _______.

A) analytic narrative; inferential analysis
B) applied research; basic research
C) field research; laboratory research
D) basic field research; applied field research

Question 20

The study in the text that examined male female patterns of control over the TV remote is a good example of a study that combines

A) basic and applied research
B) field and lab research
C) qualitative and quantitative research
D) all of the above

Question 21

When is a theory discarded?

A) when a study does not come out as predicted, thereby producing falsification
B) whenever a better theory is proposed
C) when empirical results consistently fail to support it
D) when the theory's originator dies

Question 22

Theories

A) are not highly regarded until proven true
B) lead to hypotheses through the process of induction
C) provide the basis for making predictions that can be tested empirically
D) are ideal if they can explain all possible outcomes

Question 23

Two researchers with two completely different operational definitions for aggression nonetheless produce the same result - frustration leads to aggression. This outcome is referred to as

A) exact replication
B) operationism
C) converging operations
D) serendipity

Question 24

Which of the following is the best example of converging operations?

A) several studies use different operational definitions of aggression yet produce the same basic results
B) several studies of anxiety, each with a different operational definition of anxiety, each yields different results
C) researchers from different laboratories agree ahead of time to use the same operational definitions for intelligence
D) researchers from different laboratories collaborate on the same research program

Question 25

Hypotheses are derived from theories through the process of

A) induction
B) deduction
C) falsification
D) parsimony

Question 26

Which of the following examples illustrates research that resulted from reflecting on an everyday observation?

A) Skinner's research on extinction
B) Festinger's application of dissonance theory to the decision making
C) Zeigarnik's decision to study the effects of incomplete tasks on memory
D) Pfungst's study of Clever Hans

Question 27

Which of the following is an example of research began as the result of reflecting on a real news event?

A) Festinger's cognitive dissonance research
B) Darley's helping behavior research
C) Broadbent's dichotic listening research
D) Bushman and Anderson's violence and helping behavior research

Question 28

If a number of studies all seem consistent with a theory, then the theory is said to have been supported through

A) induction
B) deduction
C) serendipity
D) parsimony

Question 29

According to the original cognitive dissonance theory, dissonance occurs when people

A) experience electrical shock that is painful
B) simultaneously experience contradictory thoughts
C) are rewarded by others for feeling sad
D) must learn difficult tasks and they sometimes fail

Question 30

The idea for Zeigarnik's study on the forgetting of completed tasks came from

A) a deduction from a theory
B) the observation of an everyday event in a restaurant
C) the accidental discovery of a memory problem with incomplete tasks
D) an unanswered question from a study Zeigarnik had just completed

Question 31

Hypotheses are

A) reasonable predictions about what should occur under specific circumstances
B) guesses about the causes of events
C) generated from theory through the process of induction
D) considered to be "proven true" when supported by more than one experiment

Question 32

"If a theory is true, then event X should occur." Suppose event X does not occur. What would the typical scientist conclude?

A) the theory has been disproven - let's get rid of it
B) the outcome must have been an accident
C) the study failed to support the theory - let's replicate
D) the original hypothesis must have been deduced improperly

Question 33

A prediction is made from a theory and the results are just as predicted. What can be concluded about the theory?

A) it has been proven true
B) it has been inductively supported
C) it has been turned into a fact
D) it has been disproven

Question 34

What do the following discoveries have in common: Skinner's extinction curve and Hubel and Wiesel's feature detectors?

A) both examples of research ideas resulting from everyday observations
B) both examples of research deduced logically from theory
C) both examples of a serendipitous finding
D) both examples of failures to replicate

Question 35

All of the following are true of theories except

A) they organize existing data
B) an attribute of a good theory is that it is high on "productivity"
C) provide the basis for making predictions that can be tested empirically
D) they are tentative until the facts prove them true

Question 36

Which of the following would be an example of a research project began as the result of a serendipitous event?

A) A suspects B of fraud, so A replicates B's work
B) A notices that complete strangers who take the same subway to work every day begin to greet one another at the station; A wonders why
C) A comes across an interesting study and does a partial replication and an extension of it
D) A has an equipment failure and notices some unusual behavior that leads to a series of studies

Question 37

To reason inductively is to

A) reason from the specific event to the general principle
B) reason from the general principle to the specific event
C) use a modus tollens improperly
D) affirm the consequent

Question 38

Anxiety is not observed directly but is inferred from certain behaviors. That is, anxiety is an example of

A) a construct
B) a law
C) a theory
D) an operational definition

Question 39

"If a theory is true, then event X should occur." Which of the following outcomes illustrates the fallacy of affirming the consequent?

A) event X occurs, therefore the theory has been proven true
B) event X occurs, therefore the theory has been supported
C) event X does not occur, therefore the theory has been disproven
D) event X does not occur, therefore the theory has not been supported

Question 40

In the original cognitive dissonance theory, it was said that dissonance develops as a result of experiencing contradictory thoughts. This "dissonance" is an example of

A) a behavior
B) a hypothesis
C) an operational definition
D) a construct

Question 41

According to Pasteur, "chance favors the prepared mind." Thus, creative breakthroughs in physics are most likely to be made by

A) random accident (thus they could be made by anyone)
B) physicists
C) chemists
D) any scientist other than a physicist

Question 42

Theories that can explain all outcomes after the fact

A) do not allow for predictions to be made
B) have been falsified
C) are said to be highly parsimonious
D) illustrate the results of converging operations

Question 43

Some dogs can open gates with their noses. To explain this phenomenon by attributing logic and problem solving abilities to the dog is to

A) give a parsimonious explanation
B) falsify a simpler explanation
C) be guilty of a confirmation bias
D) give an explanation that is not very parsimonious

Question 44

According to the text, which of the following is true about the Freudian and the learning theory explanations for why young children imitate their parents?

A) the learning theory explanation has fewer assumptions and is therefore more parsimonious
B) the Freudian explanation has fewer assumptions and is therefore more parsimonious
C) Freudian theory has been falsified
D) learning theory has been falsified

Question 45

According to Popper, science proceeds by

A) creating theories and trying to falsify them
B) searching for the ideal (i.e., cannot be falsified) theory
C) accumulating data in the absence of formal theories
D) achieving the proof of a theory after sufficient inductive support has accumulated

Question 46

On the basis of a theory a prediction is made; from the prediction a study is run, and the study does not come out as expected. What is the researcher most likely to conclude?

A) the theory should be discarded
B) the study should be replicated
C) the theory has been supported but not proven
D) the equipment must have failed

Question 47

On the basis of cognitive dissonance theory, it was predicted that after making a hard choice, people will convince themselves that they have made a wise choice. Suppose you do a study and discover that exact outcome. What is the proper conclusion?

A) cognitive dissonance theory has been proven
B) cognitive dissonance theory has been disproven
C) cognitive dissonance theory has not been supported
D) cognitive dissonance theory has been supported

Question 48

Study #1 compares 2- and 4-month old children on a perceptual task. Study #2 uses the same task and compares four groups of children, aged 2, 4, 6, and 8 months. Which of the following is true?

A) study #2 is an exact replication
B) study #2 should not have tested the 2- and 4-month olds (already been done)
C) study #2 is a partial replication and an extension
D) study #1 should have tested 6- and 8-month olds

Question 49

A researcher uses some of the same procedures in her method as in a previous study, but she adds a new variable to be tested. What has she done?

A) engaged in data falsification
B) did an exact replication of the previous study
C) partially replicated the previous study
D) created serendipity in her study

Question 50

Research in psychology is characterized by all of the following except

A) most research is a logical "what's next?" consequence of a study just completed
B) to avoid getting off to a bad start, most research is highly structured in its early stages
C) research is more likely to be completed by research teams than individual researchers
D) at the start of a research project, researchers often conduct loosely structured pilot studies

Question 51

Which of the following is true about the case of Clever Hans?

A) it was shown to be a case of scientific fraud
B) Pfungst demonstrated that the most parsimonious explanation was that the horse had a higher level of intelligence than other horses
C) Pfungst ruled out intelligence by showing that if the questioner didn't know the answer, thehorse didn't know the answer
D) he only answered correctly when his trainer (von Osten) knew the answer

Question 52

A theory that has the minimum of constructs and assumptions, yet adequately summarizes and organizes information, is said to be a(n) ________ theory.

A) parsimonious
B) operationalized
C) falsified
D) simplistic

Question 53

An __________ is someone who is working for the experimenter and is "in on" the experiment, but to the participant, appears to be another participant (or perhaps just a bystander).

Question 54

Which of the following is the least accurate description of most research in psychology?

A) the outcome of one study is usually a question that leads to the next study
B) research is more likely to be the product of a research team than of an individual investigator working alone
C) the majority of research ideas come from a logical deduction from an established theory
D) researchers don't complete projects in topic A, then move to B; they develop programs of research on topic A

Question 55

A study that duplicates a situation encountered in everyday living is said to have a high level of ________ realism; such a study may or may not have ________ realism.

Question 56

The predictions from dissonance theory did not always come out as predicted. What happened to the theory?

A) it was discarded
B) it was concluded that it must be true; most of the research proved it
C) it evolved to incorporate the idea that dissonance occurred most strongly when the self was threatened
D) it was logically disproven but hung on over the years because nothing better came along

Question 57

In the early stages of designing a study, the feasibility of some procedures is often evaluated by conducting a

A) debate among different members of the research team
B) pilot study
C) hypothetical "what's next?" exercise
D) rigorous attempt to falsify the prediction

Question 58

________ research contributes to our essential knowledge of psychological processes such as learning, memory, perception, and emotion.

Question 59

Which of the following is true about cognitive dissonance theory?

A) it failed the criterion of productivity
B) it generated a lot of research, but it was discarded because better theories came along
C) it was not stated precisely enough to be tested-thus, it failed the test of falsifiability
D) through the work of Aronson, it evolved into a theory emphasizing threats to the self concept

Question 60

On the basis of cognitive dissonance theory, it was predicted that after making a hard choice, people will convince themselves that they have made a wise choice. Suppose you do a study and discover the exact opposite outcome. Logically, what can be concluded?

A) cognitive dissonance theory is true
B) cognitive dissonance theory is not true
C) cognitive dissonance theory has not been supported
D) cognitive dissonance theory has been supported

Question 61

Many research studies are examples of what is known as "replication and extension." Explain and use an example to illustrate.

Question 62

A researcher, before starting a study, proposes that as the number of bystanders increases, the chances that any one of them will help an injured victim decreases. This statement is a good example of a(n) ___________.

Question 63

Define manipulation check and pilot study and describe how Bushman and Anderson used each to ensure that their laboratory experiment was methodologically sound.

Question 64

John Watson completed a series of studies in which he attempted to determine which senses were necessary for maze learning to occur. His procedure of eliminating senses one by one is an example of what Popper would call a(n) _________ strategy.

Question 65

Use Festinger's dissonance theory to explain what is meant by a construct.

Question 66

Describe the purposes of basic and applied research and use the selective attention examples to show why some researchers argue that applied research often relies on a foundation provided by basic research.

Question 67

If variables are poorly defined and procedures aren't clearly spelled out by a particular investigator, it will be difficult for another researcher to ___________ the study.

Question 68

Some thought that Clever Hans was highly intelligent, but a more _________ explanation was that he was responding to simple visual cues from the questioner.

Question 69

A theory can be the starting point for developing a research hypothesis through the logical process of _______.

Question 70

Describe the roles played by inductive and deductive thinking in the relationship between theory and the results of research.

Question 71

On strictly logical grounds, a theory can be disproven by a single study. On practical grounds, however, this never happens. Explain.

Question 72

Describe the ethical problems associated with doing field research.

Question 73

_________ can be thought of as the process of seeing a meaningful connection between two ideas that appear to be unrelated to each other.

Question 74

Using maze learning as an example, describe how scientists can be creative.

Question 75

What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative research. Give an example of a typical method used in the latter approach.

Question 76

To say that hunger can be defined as the result of 24 hours without food is to use a(n) _____________ definition of the term.

Question 77

What is serendipity? Use an example to show how the phenomenon relates to the question of developing research ideas.

Question 78

Distinguish between the major goals of basic and applied research.

Question 79

Distinguish between mundane realism and experimental realism and explain why most researchers believe the latter to be more important than the former.

Question 80

Sometimes discoveries are made accidentally, as when a procedural error occurs. Such a discovery is said to be the result of __________.