Deck 8: Experience Carefully Exploited: Quasi-Experimental Research Designs

Question 1

The difference between natural experiments and person-by-treatment quasi-experiments is that natural experiments:

A)are conducted in the laboratory
B)do not make use of random assignment
C)allow researcher to use unbiased statistics to analyze their findings
D)all of these are true

Answer 1

do not make use of random assignment

Question 2

T_______ approach selects participants based on whether they score in the top or the bottom half of a distribution on an individual-difference measure.

A)extreme groups
B)prescreening
C)patching
D)median split

Answer 2

median split

Question 3

Prescreening is frequently used by researchers to:

A)identify potential person confounds
B)create different experimental groups
C)determine similarities between participants
D)select different control groups

Answer 3

create different experimental groups

Question 4

Pelham,Mirenberg,and Jones (2002)used archival records to document that the name letter effect seems to influence:

A)people's use of their own names in business advertisements
B)the specific brand names (e.g. ,Coke vs.Pepsi)that people purchase
C)the names people give their children
D)the city or state in which people choose to live

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT true of quasi-experiments?

A)They provide researchers with complete control over all aspects of the independent variable(s).
B)The presence of confounded variables can reduce internal validity.
C)They can often be conducted when true experiments cannot.
D)The external validity of quasi-experiments is often higher than that of true experiments.

Question 6

The one-group pretest-post design is an improvement over a one-group design because it provides the researcher with:

A)alternative explanations
B)meaningful comparisons
C)internal validity
D)a separate control group

Question 7

What type of design did Johnson,Richeson,and Finkel (2011)use in their study on the effect of being a poor or middle class student at Northwestern University?

A)a person-by-treatment quasi-experiment
B)a survey
C)a nature-by-treatment two-groups design
D)a laboratory experiment

Question 8

An advantage of using extreme groups in quasi-experiments is that this approach:

A)increases test sensitivity
B)minimizes person confounds
C)improves external validity
D)replaces random assignment

Question 9

Baumeister and Steinhilber's (1984)study of the "home-field disadvantage" in World Series baseball games is a good example of:

A)an archival study
B)a quasi-experiment
C)a natural experiment
D)all of these

Question 10

According to the text,the quasi-experiment proposed by Daniel to the Babylonian King's official is a good example of a:

A)nature-by-treatment two group design
B)person-by-treatment quasi-experiment
C)natural groups with experimental treatment design
D)natural groups with person-by-treatment design

Question 11

18_____design uses dependent measures taken at multiple points in time to establish (a)the equivalence of two or more groups prior to a quasi-manipulation.Doing so allows researchers to see the precise point at which the two groups may begin to differ.

A)retrospective
B)temporal
C)time-series
D)prospective

Question 12

Which is NOT an advantage that quasi-experiments have over laboratory experiments?

A)They tend to be better at proving causality.
B)They can determine if effects observed in the laboratory generalize to the real world.
C)They can test theoretically derived hypotheses that cannot be studied in the lab.
D)They have some methodological advantages over laboratory experiments.

Question 13

Dr.Park identified 20 restrictive eaters (people who constantly monitor and limit their caloric intake)and 20 matched control participants.She then manipulated whether each group of participants had or had not just consumed a high calorie milkshake prior to taking part in a "taste test" of chocolate chip cookies.She found that whereas the control participants ate fewer cookies than usual after having just consumed the shake,the restrictive eaters actually ate more.Dr.Park's study is:

A)a person-by-treatment quasi-experiment
B)a natural experiment
C)a laboratory experiment
D)a clinical evaluation experiment

Question 14

In many patched-up designs,researchers systematically increase the number ________ in a quasi-experimental design.

A)experimental groups
B)independent variables
C)dependent variables
D)control groups

Question 15

Dr.Spock wants to study whether having schizophrenia leads to an increase in risky health behaviors.Which would be the most appropriate control group to use for comparison?

A)a group of people with anxiety
B)a randomly selected group of college students
C)people diagnosed with both schizophrenia and anxiety
D)no control group is necessary

Question 16

Ma______ are also quasi-experiments.

A)case studies
B)experimental simulations
C)pseudo-experiments
D)archival studies

Question 17

The groups of participants in a typical pretest-posttest design with nonequivalent groups are usually created by means of:

A)prescreening
B)matching
C)using random selection
D)using random sampling

Question 18

Patching is a research method in which a researcher adds new conditions to a quasi-experiment to help:

A)improve test sensitivity
B)preselect participants in the study
C)rule out alternate explanations of an effect
D)create comparison groups

Question 19

According to the text,the quasi-experimental design used most frequently by clinical and social psychologists is the:

A)pretest-posttest design with nonequivalent groups
B)one-group pretest-posttest design
C)person-by-treatment quasi-experiment
D)posttest-only design with nonequivalent groups

Question 20

Which kind of quasi-experiment makes use of at least one measured variable and at least one experimentally manipulated variable?

A)a pseudo-experiment
B)a natural experiment
C)a person-by-treatment quasi-experiment
D)a hybrid quasi-experiment