Deck 4: Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology

Question 1

After examining surveys you collected from Culture X,you find that people's responses tend to gather toward the center of your scale.This phenomenon is known as the _____________ bias.

A)acquiescence
B)social desirability
C)moderacy
D)deprivation
E)extremity

Answer 1

moderacy

Question 2

After examining surveys that you collected from Culture X,you notice that everyone's responses tend to cluster at both ends of the scale.How do you correct this?

A)Split the scores into high versus low.
B)Reverse-score half of the items.
C)Ensure that the items are thoroughly back-translated.
D)Use a scale with an odd number of response options.
E)Specify a reference group for comparison.

Answer 2

Split the scores into high versus low.

Question 3

Your study does not have enough power.To maximally increase power in your study,which of the following should you do?

A)get a more sensitive independent variable and keep the dependent variable the same
B)get a less sensitive independent variable but a more sensitive dependent variable
C)keep things the way they are-you cannot increase power
D)get a more sensitive independent variable but a less sensitive dependent variable
E)get a more sensitive independent variable and a more sensitive dependent variable

Answer 3

get a more sensitive independent variable and a more sensitive dependent variable

Question 4

You are having trouble publishing results from your latest study,but you remember reading about how people are more easily convinced by neuroscientific evidence.To add neuroscience to your study,you decided to

A)unpackage why you obtained your results from the original study.
B)measure the heart rates of new participants.
C)work with researchers in the Faculty of Science.
D)get fMRI data from new participants.
E)expose new participants to pictures of brains.

Question 5

What is a problem with using the "back-translation" method?

A)One may inadvertently prime participants to think in ways that are similar to English speakers.
B)The literal meaning of the words is sometimes lost.
C)The researcher has no way of identifying whether the translators faithfully captured the meaning.
D)The translation may sound very unnatural and may contain idioms that are unintelligible.
E)Participants might not have good enough language skills to understand the materials.

Question 6

One advantage of experimental methods over survey methods in cultural psychological research is that

A)experimental methods are cheaper and easier to conduct than survey methods.
B)experimental methods allow one to investigate more cultures at one time than survey methods.
C)cultural differences in response biases are controlled better with experimental methods than with survey methods.
D)experimental methods allow one to focus on comparing means across cultures,whereas survey methods allow one to focus on comparing patterns of means across cultures.
E)experimental methods are more easily understood than survey methods.

Question 7

Dr.G is conducting a study to see whether people can be made to think in terms of East Asian and Western thoughts.Using college students in two cultures as participants,and using a very insensitive cultural prime for each participant,Dr.G measured how much they believe in Chinese medicine.A sample of the dataset is given below. This study employs a _____________ manipulation,has low _____________,and the prime is classified as a(n)_____________ variable.

A)between-groups;generalizability;independent
B)between-groups;power;independent
C)between-groups;generalizability;dependent
D)within-groups;power;independent
E)within-groups;generalizability;independent

Question 8

While helping your colleague analyze data,you realize that she has turned the participants' responses into z-scores.Based on the response biases in the textbook,for what is she most likely trying to account?

A)prestige bias
B)the deprivation effect
C)moderacy bias
D)the reference-group effect
E)ingroup bias

Question 9

The tendency for people living in conditions with a real threat of starvation to report valuing food more than those living in conditions where food is abundant is an example of

A)the reference-group effect.
B)social desirability norms.
C)acquiescence biases.
D)unsynchronized sample selections.
E)the deprivation effect.

Question 10

After examining surveys you handed out in a given culture,you find that many people in the culture tend to agree with both the positively worded item "I strongly support the prime minister's policies" and the negatively worded item "I disagree with the prime minister's policies." What is this an example of?

A)deprivation effects
B)acquiescence biases
C)moderacy biases
D)agreement biases
E)reference-group effects

Question 11

Which of the following is one problem especially associated with studies using WEIRD samples?

A)Researchers cannot use effective independent variables.
B)They are very difficult to unpackage.
C)It is difficult to find powerful dependent variables.
D)They have very low generalizability.
E)They make it especially impractical to use multiple methods.

Question 12

If an independent variable has more variance,is it more difficult or easier to detect an effect on the dependent variable?

A)more difficult,but only if the dependent variable also has lots of variance
B)easier,but only if the dependent variable has much less variance
C)more difficult
D)easier
E)The answer cannot be determined.

Question 13

Dr.G is conducting a study to see whether people can be made to think in terms of East Asian and Western thoughts.Using very insensitive cultural primes for each participant,Dr.G measured how much they believe in Chinese medicine.A sample of the dataset is given below. This study employs a _____________ manipulation,has _____________,and "belief in Chinese medicine" is classified as a(n)_____________.

A)between-groups;high power;independent variable
B)between-groups;low generalizability;dependent variable
C)within-groups;low power;dependent variable
D)within-groups;high generalizability;independent variable
E)between-groups;low generalizability;culture-level measure

Question 14

What is a strategy for avoiding problems with the reference-group effect?

A)standardizing people's responses
B)combining the cultures' respective reference groups
C)reverse-scoring half of the items
D)counterbalancing the order of the items
E)using concrete response options

Question 15

Reference-group effects in cross-cultural research occur because

A)people use social comparison to evaluate themselves.
B)people do not really know how they feel.
C)people from different cultures have different response styles.
D)people value what they are most in need of.
E)some words do not translate well into other languages.

Question 16

In your initial study,you noticed that your participants tended to say they strongly agreed with all of the items on your questionnaire.When doing a follow-up study,how would you tell that your original participants suffered from acquiescence bias?

A)Use concrete as opposed to subjective response options.
B)Use a scale with an odd number of response options.
C)Ensure that the items are thoroughly back-translated.
D)Reverse-score half of the items.
E)None of these choices will correct the problem.

Question 17

You want to study how large people's faces are in Cultures X and Y.To do this,you simply ask people,"On a scale of 1 (small)to 10 (large),how large is your face?" To your surprise,most people in Culture X think they have small faces,even though their faces are much larger than those in Culture Y.Conversely,most people in Culture Y think they have large faces.How can you address this problem of trying to assess cultural differences in how large people's faces are?

A)Use a scale with an odd number of response options.
B)Use concrete as opposed to subjective response options.
C)Reverse-score the item.
D)Ensure that the items are thoroughly back-translated.
E)Use bilingual samples.

Question 18

Steven is a new English-speaking cultural psychologist who only uses questionnaires.He wants to first establish methodological equivalence when studying cultural differences in "happiness" between rural Nigerians and urban South Koreans.To do that,he must

A)have all the Nigerians and South Koreans in his sample practice taking questionnaires.
B)translate his questionnaires from English into the languages spoken in the target countries.
C)ask his participants to provide examples of when they experience happiness within their own cultures.
D)ensure that participants from both countries answer the questionnaire in English.
E)reverse-code half of the items on his questionnaires.

Question 19

After examining the surveys you collected from people in Culture A,you find that people tend to answer "yes" to all the questions,regardless of the content.How do you deal with this problem in the future so this does not recur?

A)establish methodological equivalence
B)reverse-code half of the items
C)thoroughly back-translate the items
D)provide a middle "neutral" option
E)make sure a middle "neutral" option is not provided

Question 20

If you wanted to do a study using a within-groups manipulation to examine whether European Canadians can be made to think like Canadians and East Asians,which of the following would be the most relevant and appropriate methodology?

A)random assignment
B)standardization
C)between-groups manipulation
D)acculturation
E)cultural priming

Question 21

Canada and the United States are two countries that,in many ways,are very similar to each other,particularly in terms of the personality trait called extraversion.A researcher wants to study whether there is a cultural difference between Canada and the United States in terms of how much the people like to socialize with friends,which is related to extraversion.From the information provided,determine what the independent variable(s)and dependent variable(s)are,write about whether you think this study is high or low in power,and justify why you would ascribe high or low power to this study.

Question 22

Nisbett and Cohen's archival studies in the United States found that

A)the homicide rate within the rural U.S.South is larger in the moist plains than in the hills and dry plains.
B)prior to the Civil War,there were more slaves in the hills and dry plains than in the moist plains.
C)the difference in argument-related homicide rates between the U.S.South and North is more pronounced between large cities in the South and North than it is between rural areas within the South and North.
D)all kinds of homicide rates are higher in the U.S.South than in the North.
E)None of these statements are correct.

Question 23

Using cultural priming,come up with a within-groups study design involving American and Japanese participants that examines whether independent or interdependent mind-sets affect their feelings of connectedness with their friends (ignore response biases as a consideration for this question).

Question 24

Your new research project is to examine the extent to which a culture values freedom.You decided that the simplest way to measure this is to use culture-level measures.As such,which of the following would you do?

A)Average a group of people's scores on a measure of "attitude toward freedom."
B)Add up the frequency with which the word "freedom" appears in magazines.
C)Ask people to rate how much other people around them value freedom.
D)Scan for the parts of people's brains that show increased activity in response to words related to freedom.
E)Take an online survey to gather data from as many people as possible regarding how much they value freedom.

Question 25

An advantage of the situation-sampling method is that it

A)can be used with more than one culture at a time.
B)does not require the experimenter to translate any materials.
C)controls for cultural differences in response biases.
D)allows researchers to see how people in different cultures would respond if they were in the other groups' cultural worlds.
E)equates the reference group across cultures.

Question 26

Dr.H wants to unpackage the cultural difference between Japanese and American horror movies.What is Dr.H trying to find out?

A)Japanese and Americans' opinions about Japanese and American horror movies
B)what the Japanese think about American horror movies,and vice versa
C)how much statistical power this difference has
D)the underlying reasons for this difference
E)the generalizability of this difference

Question 27

As seen in the textbook,finding that U.S.southerners respond aggressively to insults more than northerners because of underlying differences in measures of honor would be an example of

A)unpackaging a cultural difference.
B)a within-groups experimental design.
C)a situation-sampling study.
D)a quasi-experimental finding.
E)None of these describe the finding.

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT an example of a culture-level measure?

A)song lyrics
B)a journal entry
C)television programs
D)school books
E)magazine advertisements

Question 29

You want to do a study to examine whether Greek participants view their parenting experiences as being different from those of Chinese participants,and vice versa.What is the most appropriate methodology for testing this?

A)cultural priming
B)culture-level measuring
C)within-groups manipulation
D)between-groups manipulation
E)situation sampling

Question 30

A strength of Nisbett and Cohen's research program into the impact of a culture of honor on regional differences in violence between the U.S.South and North is that

A)they accounted for biases between the two groups.
B)they were able to manipulate all of their independent variables.
C)they were able to cause northerners to respond like southerners.
D)there are no response bias differences between these two groups.
E)they used multiple methods across their studies.

Question 31

Create a six-item questionnaire about "happiness" such that it counters the acquiescence bias.Also,discuss how you would analyze the data to make it less susceptible to the extremity bias.

Question 32

According to a culture of honor account,the U.S.South has historically been more violent than the North because

A)the South is hotter than the North.
B)there was a more extensive slave trade in the South than the North.
C)the South is poorer than the North.
D)there were more herders in the South than in the North.
E)there are more guns available in the South than in the North.

Question 33

Tom comes from a family of cattle herders,while Jack comes from a rice-farming family.They are both recruited to participate in a study that uses a within-subjects manipulation.In the study,the researchers want to see how angry they would get if they were insulted versus if they were not insulted.Anger was measured using blood pressure.Based on Nisbett and Cohen's research on the culture of honor,draw a graph of what you would expect the data to look like.

Question 34

A group of researchers wants to learn about the characteristics of home-cooking recipes in Culture X.What is this type of method an example of?

A)within-groups manipulation
B)between-groups manipulation
C)culture-level measuring
D)situation sampling
E)cultural priming

Question 35

You are hoping to study how people from Denmark and people from Russia differ on levels of happiness.You are concerned about your study being susceptible to the reference-group effect.What is one way of measuring happiness that lessens your study's susceptibility?