Question 1

Which is NOT one of the major psychological research perspectives?

Accepted Answer

A)  biological 
B)  therapeutic 
C)  cognitive 
D)  sociocultural

Question 2

Suppose Abby finds a significant positive correlation between the hours that a child watches TV and the number of aggressive behaviors the child displays in the classroom. Because she is aware of _____, Abby concludes correctly that TV watching _____ aggressive behavior.

Accepted Answer

A)  the third-variable problem; causes 
B)  the third-variable problem; predicts 
C)  the social desirability bias; causes 
D)  the social desirability bias; predicts

Question 3

Psychology is currently defined as the science of _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  mental health 
B)  unconscious and conscious thinking 
C)  observable behavior 
D)  behavior and mental processes

Question 4

When Carla works in a group, she may not exert as much effort as she does when she is working alone. This example of the effect of other people on behavior is MOST directly related to psychology's _____ perspective.

Accepted Answer

A)  behavioral 
B)  biological 
C)  cognitive 
D)  sociocultural

Question 5

Which selection procedure(s) would be MOST likely to yield a random sample of voters' opinions toward capital punishment in the state of Texas?

Accepted Answer

A)  randomly selecting voters registered in the smallest and largest voting districts 
B)  randomly selecting voters who visit the polls on election day in all voting districts 
C)  randomly selecting voters from the complete list of all registered voters 
D)  All of these selection procedures would be equally likely to yield a random sample.

Question 6

A psychologist using the _____ perspective would be MOST interested in studying why Canadians have almost as many guns per capita as Americans but a significantly lower level of per capita murders.

Accepted Answer

A)  biological 
B)  behavioral 
C)  cognitive 
D)  sociocultural

Question 7

Atypical scores are MOST likely to distort _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  the mean 
B)  the median 
C)  the mode 
D)  both the median and mode

Question 8

Which correlation coefficient indicates the weakest relationship between two variables?

Accepted Answer

A)  -1.00 
B)  -0.43 
C)  +0.66 
D)  +0.21

Question 9

"Positive correlation" is the answer to which question?

Accepted Answer

A)  What is an inverse relationship between two variables? 
B)  What is a direct relationship between two variables? 
C)  What is a correlation that describes a positive outcome from a manipulated variable? 
D)  What is a correlation that predicts a positive outcome from a manipulated variable?

Question 10

Two variables increasing and decreasing together is to _____ as two variables moving in opposite directions is to _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  no relationship; curvilinear relationship 
B)  curvilinear relationship; no relationship 
C)  positive relationship; negative relationship 
D)  negative relationship; positive relationship

Question 11

To obtain a representative sample, researchers use random _____, which allows them to _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  assignment; generalize results to the population of interest 
B)  assignment; equalize participant characteristics across groups 
C)  sampling; generalize results to the population of interest 
D)  sampling; equalize participant characteristics across groups

Question 12

Suppose you have a normal distribution of test scores with a mean of 60 and a standard deviation of 10. Which range of test scores contains 68 percent of the scores?

Accepted Answer

A)  20 to 88 
B)  40 to 80 
C)  50 to 70 
D)  60 to 94

Question 13

As Jimmy constructs a survey about attitudes toward health care, he words the questions carefully to minimize the possibility that participants will respond in a way that does not reflect what they actually think. By attending to question construction, Jimmy aims to minimize _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  the third-variable problem 
B)  hindsight bias 
C)  the placebo effect 
D)  social desirability bias

Question 14

In an attempt to more objectively observe drinking behavior among fraternity members, Henry joined a fraternity. Henry is utilizing the _____ research method.

Accepted Answer

A)  naturalistic observation 
B)  participant observation 
C)  case study 
D)  All the answers are correct.

Question 15

One of the major benefits of the case study technique is that it allows researchers to _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  make predictions about specific human behaviors 
B)  develop hypotheses that can be tested using experimental methods 
C)  explain why individuals engage in specific behaviors 
D)  All the answers are correct.

Question 16

Dr. Matthews is observing children on the playground and recording instances of aggression. This BEST illustrates which research method?

Accepted Answer

A)  case study 
B)  experimentation 
C)  participant observation 
D)  naturalistic observation

Question 17

If Kate wanted to provide a visual depiction of the correlation between hours of sleep each night and grade point average, she would use a _____.

Accepted Answer

A)  scatterplot 
B)  pie chart 
C)  frequency distribution 
D)  bar graph

Question 18

Which is NOT a measure of variability?

Accepted Answer

A)  a standard deviation score 
B)  the range of scores 
C)  the mode 
D)  None of these.

Question 19

The _____ indicates the strength of a correlation coefficient.

Accepted Answer

A)  slope 
B)  sign 
C)  absolute value 
D)  None of these.

Question 20

"Negative correlation" is the answer to which question?

Accepted Answer

A)  What is an inverse relationship between two variables? 
B)  What is a direct relationship between two variables? 
C)  What is a correlation that describes a negative outcome from a manipulated variable? 
D)  What is a correlation that predicts a negative outcome from a manipulated variable?

Exam 1: Section 2: The Science of Psychology