Deck 1: Appendix A: Statistics in Psychology

Question 1

Joaquim decides to survey the salaries of college basketball players in championship teams.He makes a frequency polygon of the data.It is most likely that the graph looks like a _____________.

A)normal distribution
B)bimodal distribution
C)negatively skewed distribution
D)positively skewed distribution

Answer 1

negatively skewed distribution

Question 2

Descriptive statistics are used to ______________.

A)summarize data from a sample
B)decide if two sample groups are different from each other
C)decide if two variables are related to each other
D)determine if an experimental design has high reliability

Answer 2

summarize data from a sample

Question 3

Which type of frequency distribution graph uses lines to present the frequency data?

A)polygon
B)normal curve
C)histogram
D)skewed distribution

Answer 3

polygon

Question 4

One problem with collecting data from samples is that ________.

A)in almost any body of data there are correlational areas
B)in almost any body of data there are sampling errors
C)data collected from samples cannot guarantee that you have calculated a parameter
D)you cannot determine the probability that the differences found are due to chance

Question 5

In a sequel to Lord of the Rings,a NBA basketball team is transported to Hobbit-town.Gandalf the Wizard is fascinated by the new visitors to Hobbit-town and decides to make a frequency distribution of the heights of all the male residents in Hobbit-town.The shape of this frequency distribution would likely be a _________.

A)normal curve
B)bell curve
C)skewed curve
D)bimodal curve

Question 6

The most usual kind of frequency distribution is the _________.

A)normal curve
B)skewed curve
C)bimodal curve
D)binomial distribution

Question 7

Which is NOT a property of the normal curve?

A)It is symmetrical.
B)Its mode,median,and mean are the same.
C)The highest point can be to the left or the right.
D)It is very common in psychological data.

Question 8

The crucial difference between a statistic and parameter is that __________.

A)a statistic is calculated from a sample and a parameter is calculated from a population
B)a calculated statistic can have error in its estimates whereas a calculation from a population has no error
C)Both of these differences are crucial.
D)Neither of these differences is important.

Question 9

Psychologists want to make judgments and decisions about the data and variables.This is the role of __________.

A)descriptive statistics
B)inferential statistics
C)the standard deviation
D)conformational statistics

Question 10

Maricella decides to survey the heights of BOTH men and women college basketball players in championship teams.He makes a frequency polygon of the data.It is most likely that the graph looks like a _____________.

A)normal distribution
B)bimodal distribution
C)negatively skewed distribution
D)positively skewed distribution

Question 11

Statistical analysis is a way ______________exists in almost any body of data.

A)of trying to account for the error that
B)of trying to correct the error that
C)of trying to maximize the difference between various experimental groups
D)of trying to increase the variability between various experimental groups

Question 12

Which measure is calculated from a population?

A)parameter
B)statistics
C)frequency polygon
D)t-test

Question 13

Which type of frequency distribution graph uses bars to present the frequency data?

A)polygon
B)normal curve
C)histogram
D)skewed distribution

Question 14

A parameter is ______________.

A)calculated from a population
B)calculated from a sample
C)are calculated using the formula Σ(X - M)²/N
D)tells you the probability that a sample difference is due to chance

Question 15

A bimodal frequency distribution is one that _________.

A)is both positively and negatively skewed at the same time
B)is normal in shape
C)has two separate groups being graphed together
D)is always made up of the two sexes

Question 16

Jamilla is interested in how many pizza slices the average teenage boy would eat for lunch.Thus,she asks 25 young men from her high school home room class and computes the average.This average would be called a ___________.

A)measure of variability
B)measure of dispersion
C)parameter
D)statistic

Question 17

Saundra collected a data set.She wanted to understand how spread out the scores were.What were the highest and lowest scores? Were the scores tightly concentrated? Saundra went to her psychology professor who told her that she should study up on ________________.

A)measures of central tendency
B)measures of parameters
C)measures of probability
D)measures of variability

Question 18

Psychologists want to be able to do two things with the data they collect.The first is to summarize the information from a study or experiment.To do this they use _________.

A)descriptive statistics
B)inferential statistics
C)the standard deviation
D)conformational statistics

Question 19

Moshe decides to survey the heights of the men in his high school class.He measures every single male student in his school.He then plots a frequency distribution.The curve that he plots will probably be described as a _________.

A)bell curve
B)abnormal curve
C)skewed distribution
D)scattergram

Question 20

Which is a property of the normal curve?

A)It is symmetrical.
B)Its mode,median,and mean are the same.
C)It is very common in psychological data.
D)ALL of these are properties of the normal curve.

Question 21

When researchers want to know about the causes of differences in data they would use ______________.

A)descriptive statistics
B)inferential statistics
C)the correlation coefficient
D)the method of limited decisions

Question 22

With a skewed distribution,the best measure of central tendency is the __________.

A)mean
B)median
C)mode
D)mood

Question 23

With a positively skewed distribution __________.

A)the mean is always in the center of the distribution
B)all the measures of central tendency are equal
C)the mean is always in the low end of the scores
D)the mean is pulled in the direction of the tail

Question 24

Calculate ΣX from the following numbers: 3,5,6,8,and 9.

A)31 Correct: ΣX = 3+5+6+8+9 = 31.
B)30
C)15
D)25

Question 25

On IQ tests,"giftedness" is normally defined as having an IQ score that is _________standard deviation(s)above the mean.

A)one
B)two
C)three
D)four

Question 26

Which is the correct formula for the z score?

A)ΣX/N
B)(X - M)/SD
C)ΣZx/Zy/N
D)A² + B² = C²

Question 27

A __________ indicates how many standard deviations you are away from the mean.

A)z score
B)t score
C)F score
D)mean score

Question 28

The formula for the mean is ___________.

A)ΣX/N
B)Σ(X – M)²/N
C)ΣZx/Zy/N
D)A² + B² = C²

Question 29

The median is _____________.

A)the sum of all scores divided by N
B)a measure of the variability of a frequency distribution
C)the smallest value of a frequency distribution
D)the score that falls in the middle of an ordered distribution

Question 30

Which statement is true if there is a large variability in the data set?

A)The standard deviation will be small.
B)The data will be positively skewed.
C)The mean,mode,and median will not be the same.
D)The standard deviation will be large.

Question 31

This measurement known as the _________________ is the square root of the average squared difference,or deviation,of the scores from the mean of the distribution.

A)average deviation
B)range
C)variability estimate
D)standard deviation

Question 32

Dr.Mosher finds that the results of her t-test are significant at p < .05.That means that she can be __________.

A)totally certain that the results are not due to chance
B)totally certain that the results are due to chance
C)5 percent certain that the results are not due to chance
D)5 percent certain that the results are due to chance

Question 33

The mode is _______________.

A)the measure of central tendency representing the most frequent score
B)a measure of the variability of a frequency distribution
C)the smallest value of a frequency distribution
D)the score that falls in the middle of an ordered distribution

Question 34

A measure of central tendency will give you information about __________.

A)a distribution's most typical score
B)the variability of a distribution's score
C)always computed by adding all the scores and dividing by the total number of scores
D)the center of the central nervous system

Question 35

Zola has designed a personality test.After giving it to a large sample,it looks like the test produced a normally shaped frequency distribution.The test had a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10.Zola wants to find the two scores of this normal distribution that would cut off the central 68.26 percent of the scores.The lower score would be __________ and the higher score would be ____________.

A).85;115
B)40;60
C)45;55
D)One cannot determine the scores from the information given.

Question 36

Let's say that you take a test and the test has a mean of 70 and a standard deviation of 5.You get a score of 85 on the test.Your z score would be ________.

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

Question 37

Given the following numbers,calculate the mean: 1,3,5,and 7.

A)1
B)3
C)4
D)5

Question 38

When scores are tightly clustered around a measure of central tendency,____________.

A)the variability of the distribution is small
B)the variability of the distribution is unknown
C)the variability of the distribution is large
D)the distribution is usually skewed

Question 39

Which is the correct formula for the standard deviation?

A)ΣX/N
B) $\surd$ Σ(X - M)²/N
C)ΣZx/Zy/N
D)A² + B² = C²

Question 40

The percentage of scores of a distribution that falls between -1 to +1 standard deviations from the mean is ______________.

A)84.13 percent
B)68.26 percent
C)34.13 percent
D)50 percent

Question 41

Which correlation coefficient indicates a positive relationship?

A)+1.2
B)0)8
C)-0.8
D)1)96

Question 42

Students with good research and statistical skills _________.

A)make more money on average than those without
B)make less money on average than those with these skills
C)show no difference in salary between students without research skills
D)are known to panic in more professional situations than those without research skills

Question 43

When a researcher computes the t statistic based on two means and looks it up in a table of possible t values,the p value in the table helps the researcher determine __________.

A)whether the experimental design was valid
B)whether the experiment was confounded
C)the probability that the results were due to chance
D)whether the two variables are related to each other

Question 44

After computing a correlation coefficient,you should ________.

A)see if it is statistically significant
B)have a cup of coffee and a doughnut
C)check its z value in the z table
D)find out if the value is greater than 1.0 as that means the answer is really useful

Question 45

The correlation coefficient is a ________________.

A)measure of variability
B)measure of central tendency
C)parameter
D)measure of a relationship between two or more variables

Question 46

To determine if frequencies or proportions differ between groups,one would use ____________.

A)the t-test
B)the analysis of variance
C)chi-square
D)chee-square

Question 47

If you were interested in evaluating the relationships among three or more variables,you might use a technique known as ___________.

A)the analysis of variance
B)the correlation coefficient
C)chi-square
D)multiple regression

Question 48

A bigger t-score would mean that __________.

A)the differences in the group means is more likely to be significant
B)the differences in the group means is less likely to be due to chance
C)the scores of the two groups are highly correlated
D)the proportions between the two groups are significantly different

Question 49

The normal curve is not always symmetrical.

Question 50

Descriptive statistics allow you to make decisions and reach conclusions about your data.

Question 51

A (an)___________means a difference thought not to be due to chance.

A)parametric difference
B)experimental difference
C)probabilistic difference
D)significant difference Correct: A real difference means that the difference is not due to sampling error.

Question 52

The formula for the correlation coefficient is ___________.

A)ΣX/N
B)Σ(X - M)²/N
C)ΣZx/Zy/N
D)A² + B² = C²

Question 53

A way to test differences to see how likely differences are to be real and not just caused by the random variations in behavior is called ______________.

A)statistical significance
B)descriptive statistics
C)correlational analysis
D)chi-cubed

Question 54

To determine if the means of three or more groups are significantly different,one would use _____________.

A)the t-test
B)the analysis of variance
C)chi-square
D)chee-square

Question 55

The range of the correlation coefficient is from ___________.

A)-1.0 to +1.0
B)-3 standard deviation units to +3 standard deviation units
C)0 to +1
D)34.13 percent to 68.26 percent

Question 56

The symbol for the correlation coefficient is ________.

A)t
B)r
C)z
D)F

Question 57

Which correlation coefficient demonstrates the strongest relationship?

A)+0.5
B)-0.7
C)+1.2
D)-3.2

Question 58

Inferential statistics are used to determine if ____________.

A)the differences in your data are caused by chance variability
B)your theory is the best theory of all of them
C)the scores in the distributions are skewed
D)one can best determine what measure of central tendency describes your data

Question 59

The median value has half the scores falling above and below it.

Question 60

To determine if the means of three or more groups are significantly different,one would use _____________.

A)the t-test
B)the F-test
C)chi-square
D)chee-square

Question 61

A psychologist would compute a t-test to determine if two variables are related in a linear fashion.

Question 62

A correlation coefficient of -.74 indicates a stronger relationship than a correlation coefficient of +.50.

Question 63

A z score of 1 means that the score is one standard deviation away from the mean of the distribution.