Final Exam Name:______________________________________ 1. In what order are hypotheses tested or addressed in experimental research? (a) The order varies, depending on the specifics of the experiment. (b) The confounding variable, the statistical, and then the causal. (c) The statistical, the confounding variable, and then the causal. (d) The causal, the statistical, and then the confounding variable. 2. When we can conclude that it was the independent variable and not some other variable that caused the change in the dependent variable, then the study has good (a) external validity (b) conceptual validity (c) internal validity (d) construct validity 3. Which confounding factor is most likely to occur when participants are selected because their pretest measures were abnormally high? (a) regression to the mean (b) testing (c) attrition (d) selection 4. What confounding variable can occur if researchers do not calibrate their equipment regularly over the course of the study? (a) regression toward the mean (b) instrumentation (c) maturation (d) history 5. Which threat to internal validity does a researcher need to be concerned with if there is the potential for intrinsic changes in the research participants such as growing older, wiser, stronger, or more experienced during the course of the study? (a) selection (b) instrumentation (c) maturation (d) history 6. A researcher wants to conduct a study on racial stress and cardiovascular reactivity (e.g., blood pressure and heart rate) in Black Americans, but is also concerned about the impact that September 11th and the Iraq war may have had on his/her subject's general arousal levels. These stressful influences outside of the independent variable can serve as a threat to internal validity in this study, but what is the name of this threat? (a) selection (b) instrumentation (c) maturation (d) history 7. Which threat to internal validity does a researcher need to be concerned with if subjects drop out of a study? (a) attrition (b) sequencing (c) maturation (d) history 8. Suppose that a researcher has such a strong expectation concerning how a study will turn out that he or she unintentionally influences the research participants to behave in a manner that increases the likelihood that the hypothesis will be confirmed. Which artifact may the experimenter have introduced into his or her study? (a) good subject effect (b) bad researcher effect (c) evaluation apprehension (d) experimenter expectancy effects 9. In order to minimize subject and experimenter expectancy effects, one should employ (a) quaisi-control subjects (b) demand characteristics (c) double-blind procedures (d) artifacts 10. What type of hypothesis is being tested when we determine if our results are due to chance variation (a) causal hypothesis (b) confounding variable hypothesis (c) statistical hypothesis (d) independent variable hypothesis 11. What is the major purpose of controls in research? (a) To produce research hypotheses when combined with problem statements. (b) To generate initial ideas. (c) To counteract threats to validity. (d) To increase participants' willingness to participate. 12. Which of the following is an appropriate control for situations in which there may be questions of objectivity in making observations? (a) Increase the number of participants. (b) Decrease the number of conditions to be manipulated. (c) Use laboratory animal participants instead of human participants. (d) Use several observers to record participants' responses. 13. What is the major reason for careful participant selection? (a) It generates clear research hypotheses. (b) It reduces statistical errors. (c) It reduces internal validity. (d) It reduces sampling error. 14. What is the most common control for possible subject effects? (a) decrease # of participants (b) debriefing (c) deception (d) increase # of observers 15. The careful preparation of settings is (a) used only in between-subjects designs (c) a control for experimenter effects. (b) a general control procedure. (d) a control for external validity. 16. The larger population in which we are ultimately interested is called the (a) accessible population (b) ad hoc population (c) random population. (d) target population 17. Extremely high control in laboratory settings (a) is always accomplished (c) may lead to diminished external validity (b) is not useful. (d) is crucial in case studies. 18. The population that is used primarily because they are available to us at either a university or hospital is called (a) accessible population (b) ad hoc population (c) random population (d) target population 19. In correlational research, the variables being associated are the (a) behavioral variables (b) confounding variables (c) independent variables (d) dependent variables 20. An example of a problem statement at the experimental level of constraint would be? (a) Will depressed patients who are in an antidepressant group improve on their depressive symptoms relative to those depressed patients who are randomly assigned to a placebo group? (b) Are there gender differences with respect to the prevalence of depression? (c) Are self-esteem levels associated with depression? (d) Will depressed patients be more likely to improve with their depression if they take antidepressant medications? 21. Automation of research procedures is used to enhance/control for what effects to internal validity? (a) subject effects (b) experimenter effects (c) general control procedure (d) sampling error 22. What would be an example of an objective measure in psychology? (a) increased blood pressure to stressful stimuli (b) increased scores on the perceived stress scale (c) measuring depression levels after a stressful life event (e.g., failing this exam) (d) asking subjects to write about their stress such as through expressive writing paradigm 23. A study examining changes in individuals over an extended period of time is called a: (a) longitudinal design (b) non-equivalent groups design (c) cross-sectional design (d) correlational design 24. Which of the following examples below would best represent automation of procedures in psychology? (a) using a research script for the experimenter during a study (b) using a computer to generate stimuli and record responses (c) blinding research subjects to the nature of the hypothesis (d) using multiple observers during the experiment 25. Which hypothesis states that any observed differences might be due to extraneous factors that have systematic effects on the dependent measures? (a) statistical hypothesis (b) causal hypothesis (c) confounding variable hypothesis (d) alternative hypothesis 26. Which type of validity refers to the degree to which researchers are able to generalize their results to other participants, conditions, and places? (a) internal validity (b) construct validity (c) external validity (d) predictive validity 27. Which of the following differentiates quasi-experimental designs from true experimental designs? (a) the use of sampling units (b) the use of outcome measures (c) the use of randomization (d) the manipulation of treatment conditions 28. Asking newly diagnosed HIV-patients which risky sexual practices they engaged in prior to their diagnosis is an example of which experimental design? (a) single-group, posttest-only design (b) single-group, pretest-posttest design (c) ex post facto design (d) randomized control group pretest-posttest design 29. A design in which an independent variable operates in combination with other independent variables is known as a: (a) Factorial design (b) Posttest-only control-group design (c) Between-subjects design (d) Ex post facto design 30. Between-groups variance is a function of (a) experimental variance only. (b) experimental effects and confounding variables. (c) error variance only. (d) general variance. 31. An example of a problem statement at the differential level of constraint would be? (a) Will depressed patients who are in an antidepressant group improve on their depressive symptoms relative to those depressed patients who are randomly assigned to a placebo group? (b) Are there gender differences with respect to the prevalence of depression? (c) Are self-esteem levels associated with depression? (d) Will depressed patients be more likely to improve with their depression if they take antidepressant medications? 32. Which of the following is an example of a negative correlation? a. Men with high testosterone levels are more prone to violence b. People who exercise regularly live longer than those who do not c. The more children watch TV, the less they read d. There is no relationship between amount of violent crime and whether the state has a death penalty 33. In a t-test, a significant difference between two means occurs at what p-value ________ (a) p < .05 (b) p < .5 (c) p < .10 (d) none of the above 34. A small p-value (e.g., p = .01) automatically means that you have a (a) large effect (b) moderate effect (c) small effect (d) cannot be determined from this information 35. A study that takes children at ages 2, 4, and 6 and then examines changes in cognition within these three age groups would be __________ research? (a) longitudinal (b) cross-sectional (c) time-series (d) quasi-longitudinal 36. Which of the following is definitely not characteristic of quasi-experimental designs? (a) randomization (b) experimental group (c) control group (d) repeated measurement 37. A researcher develops a new treatment program for alcoholism. He allows participants to choose whether they want to be in the experimental or the control group. Which threat to internal validity is the study least able to rule out? (a) selection (b) history (c) maturation (d) instrumentation 38. A sampling plan is created in which each member of the population has an equal probability of being selsected. This is called a(n) _______ plan? (a) quota sampling (b) simple random sampling (c) stratified random sampling (d) area probability sampling 39. A public opinion pollster divides the population into subpopulations of males and females, and of Democrats and Republicans. She then takes a random sample from each of these subpopulations. This approach is called? (a) quota sampling (b) simple random sampling (c) stratified random sampling (d) area probability sampling 40. What does randomization refer to in experimental research? (a) selecting a sample at random from a larger population (b) manipulating a random sample of variables with an experiment (c) ensuring that each subject has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition (d) randomly determining which experimenter will conduct which experimental condition 41. A research design in which there is only one group, and that group is measured only after the delivery of a treatment/stimulus, is called the _____? (a) ex post facto design (b) one group pre-post study (c) single-group post-test study (d) factorial design 42. A study is conducted in where there is only one group, and that group is measured both before and after the treatment. This research design is called the ________? (a) Solomon design (b) one group pre-post study (c) single-group post-test sudy (d) factorial design 43. A 6-week study is conducted in where there is only one group, and that group is measured for weight loss both before and after receiving a new medication for the treatment of obesity. This research design is \"most\" vulnerable to which of the following threats to internal validity? (a) history (b) maturation (c) placebo (d) selection 44. ________ occurs when we choose subjects that do not represent the population at large on characteristics such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, etc... (a) reduced statistical power (b) sampling error (c) reduced internal validity (d) enhanced external validity 45. Correlation coefficients range from _________? (a) 0 to 1 (b) -1 to 0 (c) 1 to 10 (d) -1 to +1 46. A graph is created in which the X variable is plotted along one axis and the Y variable is plotted along the other axis. Each data point is then represented as a dot in this graph. This kind of graph is called a _____? (a) partial plot (b) multivariate plot (c) scatter plot (d) median-split plot 47. A correlation coefficient reflects the degree of ________relationship between two variables? (a) linear (b) curvilinear (c) positive (d) negative 48. Which statistic would be used to analyze the relationship between continuous variables? (a) Pearson r (b) Spearman rho (c) Phi coefficient (d) T-test 49.When you are assessing whether or not an operationalization can predict something it theoretically should predict with respect to a construct, this is called: (a) content validity (b) predictive validity (c) face validity (d) convergent validity 50. Cues given off by a researcher that communicate to participants how they should behave are called (a) behavioral artifacts b) demand characteristics c) social desirability d) obedience to authority