One approach to gaining knowledge is known as and involves using reasoning to acquire Knowledge

1 – One approach to gaining knowledge is known as and involves using reasoning to acquire Knowledge

1. Determinism
2. Logic of discovery
3. Rationalism
4. Naturalism

2.Which of the following is the best example of using inductive reasoning?

1. Developing a hypothesis based on an established theory
2. Developing a theory of aggression based on your observation of children
3. Deducing that video games will contribute to a specific child’s aggression
4. Developing a theory based on intuition

3.Which of the characteristics of scientific research indicates the reliability of operational Definitions?

1. Meta-analysis
2. Control
3. Placebo
4. replication

4.Why do scientists favor operationalizing terms used in their research?

1. They reduce research questions to manageable, albeit ambiguous, levels.
2. They minimize ambiguity by requiring empirical referents.
3. It allows them to avoid less “scientific” concepts like emotions.
4. They lead to multiple definitions of the same concept.

5.Theory plays an important role in science. Which of the following is NOT generally seen as a function of Theory?

1. stating a scientist’s philosophy about the world
2. summarizing a group of related facts into a coherent statement
3. integrating groups of facts into a whole
4. generating new hypotheses for experiments

6.After research shows that anxiety can be reduced through a new type of cognitive therapy, therapists begin using the technique more frequently. This illustrates which of the following objectives of psychological research?

1. Explanation
2. control or influence
3. Description
4. prediction

7.A psychology professor surveyed college students on his campus to determine their attitudes toward binge drinking. His work fulfilled which objective of science?

1. Description
2. Explanation
3. Prediction
4. control

8.“Good” candidates for becoming scientists are those who have all of the following characteristics EXCEPT

1. Curiosity.
2. Obstinacy.
3. Patience.
4. objectivity.

9.Which of the following is a problem researchers face when gaining knowledge or information from an authority?

1. An authority can sometimes be hard to reach by phone or email.
2. Those with authority don’t have time to deal with individuals who have less knowledge than they do.
3. Information or facts might be inaccurate if the authority is not an expert in the area of inquiry.
4. none of the above

10.Tom was experiencing dizziness just before he ate his lunch and noted that after he started eating, his dizziness disappeared. From this he inferred that dizziness was due to a lack of nutrition and whenever someone complained of dizziness, he encouraged them to eat. His inference that dizziness is due to lack of nutrition demonstrates what reasoning process?

1. Deduction
2. hypothesis testing
3. Induction
4. naturalism

11.Pseudoscientific beliefs are characterized by all of the following EXCEPT

1. making statements that cannot be refuted.
2. failing to attempt to verify or refute claims and beliefs.
3. supporting claims with testimonials.
4. having a set of claims and beliefs that have accumulated over time and that changes overtime.

12.The idea that most phenomena have multiple causes and new evidence can help our understanding of the causal process exemplifies which of the following objectives of psychological research?

1. Prediction
2. Explanation
3. Control
4. pseudoscience

13.Control is an objective of psychological science. In this context, control refers to

1. our ability to manipulate conditions that affect behavior in order to change behavior.
2. our ability to override peoples’ free will and make them do what we want them to do.
3. our ability to explain the effects of extraneous factors on behavior.
4. our ability to give a complete description of what a certain behavior looks like.

14.In a classic study by Jellinek (1946) research participants who thought they were drinking alcohol (but were not) behaved in a drunken manner very similar to participants that did in fact drink alcohol. This finding is a good illustration of

1. multiple operationalism.
2. the placebo effect.
3. Meta-analysis.
4. the impact of an extraneous variable.

15.Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development was initially based on his observation of children. This is an illustration of the idea that empirical observations generate theories and has been referred to as

1. logic of discovery.
2. logic of justification.
3. logic of theory development.
4. logic of empirical observation.

Chapter 2 – Multiple Choice

1.Dr. Smarsh wants to find out how many students on his campus are affiliated with different spiritual/religious groups. He sends out a survey to students through their email and has them report this information. Which of the following describes the type of information Dr. Smarsh is asking for from students?

1. Manipulation
2. Constant
3. Method
4. variable

2.Several recent studies have found that moderate drinkers of alcohol have lowered levels of heart disease risk than non-drinkers. It has been hypothesized that moderate drinking may reduce stress which in turn may lead to a reduction in the risk of heart disease. In this example lowered stress levels would be considered a(n)________ variable.

1. Independent
2. Dependent
3. Extraneous
4. mediating

3.Bob has determined that lightning precedes (comes before) thunder. Which of the criteria for making the claim of causation does this confirm?

1. Criterion 1
2. Criterion 2
3. Criterion 3
4. none of the criteria

4.Experimental research, as opposed to nonexperimental research, allows us to make statements about cause-and-effect relationships. Why is this so?

1. Experimental research involves studying only how two variables covary.
2. Experimental research uses statistical analysis.
3. In experimental research, we can observe the effects of manipulating variables under controlled conditions.
4. Experimental research uses objective observations.

5.As noted in your text, one disadvantage of the experimental approach is the inability to:

1. control extraneous variables
2. establish cause and effect
3. assess the effects of variables that cannot be manipulated
4. make objective observations

6.What is the main difference between experimentation done in a field setting and experimentation done in a laboratory?

1. in field experimentation, variables are not manipulated
2. in field experimentation, no attempt is made to control extraneous variables
3. in field experimentation, the setting is “real life” and not contrived
4. in field experimentation, one can study only a small number of people

7.A(n) ________ variable is a variable that varies by degree or amount.

1. Quantitative
2. Dependent
3. Categorical
4. Mediating
5. 8. _______is data that originally was used for a different research project and was stored in a way that others can use it.
6. Observations
7. archived data
8. Documents
9. Physical data

9.Which of the following methods of data collection is subject to reactivity?

1. Questionnaires
2. Interviews
3. focus groups
4. all of the above

10.Tammy decided to explore public health data to find the percentage of individuals who have contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as part of her thesis on program evaluation of educational materials available to college students on STDs. This is an example of using

1. correlational data
2. qualitative data
3. interview data
4. existing data
5. 11. ________ observation is done in the real world, while ________ observation is done in a controlled environment.
6. Laboratory; naturalistic
7. Event; time-sampling
8. Participant; complete
9. Naturalistic; laboratory

12.Which of the following is a strength of a face- to- face interview over a paper and pencil questionnaire?

1. high measurement validity
2. high reactivity
3. opportunity for clearing up ambiguity in responses
4. less expensive

13.Dr. Frasier is a developmental research psychologist who is interested in providing evidence that children process word information (DV) differently depending on their age (IV). Which of the following designs can Dr. Frasier conduct?

1. qualitative research design
2. nonexperimental research design
3. mixed method design
4. true experimental design

14.Although we cannot establish causality from nonexperimental quantitative research, statistical techniques are available to help clarify relationships. One of these is known as ________ and involves identifying multiple variables that are related to a single outcome either directly or indirectly (through mediating variables).

1. path analysis
2. Triangulation
3. multiple covariance
4. test of inference

15.Ramon determines that in his neighborhood “amount of ice cream consumed” and “number of violent crimes” are positively correlated — the more ice cream consumed; the more crimes are committed. He concludes that something in ice cream leads people to commit violent crimes. What has Ramon overlooked?

1. the “third variable” problem as some other variable could lead to an increase in both ice cream consumption and violent crime
2. the reactive effect as the people in his neighborhood were probably aware that he was observing them, and altered their behavior toward what they thought he wanted to see
3. his observations are qualitative and therefore inappropriate
4. he collected his data only after-the-fact

Chapter 3 – Multiple Choice

1. 1. Nettles is interested in determining the factors that increase productivity in the workplace. After reading the section in your book on sources of research ideas, which source is Dr. Nettles drawing from?
2. Theory
3. practical issues
4. everyday life
5. past research

2.Overlooking research ideas because of personal preferences or demographic influences is called in research ideas.

1. Testability
2. Objectivity
3. Manipulation
4. Bias

3.When preparing to conduct a literature review for your research idea, it is a good idea to do which of the following?

1. define your objectives during the search
2. familiarize yourself with the campus library
3. define your topic area and keywords for your search
4. all of the above

4.When planning a research project, scientists usually review the literature (published papers, books, etc.) on their topic of interest. Which of the following is NOT a standard reason to do so?

1. to understand the current state of knowledge about your topic
2. to see whether the study you plan to do has already been done
3. to learn about methodological approaches to and problems with studying your topic
4. to find out about funding sources for your study

5.The electronic bibliographic database that is devoted to psychological research is

1. Medline.
2. PsycINFO.
3. CINAHL
4. ERIC
5. 6. In order to make his psychological literature search particularly fast and efficient, Carl should use a computerized database such as
6. PsycINFO.
7. Medline.
8. Internet Explorer
9. LexisNexis.

7.Why do scientists hold and attend annual or semi-annual professional conferences?

1. to catch up on very recent and/or on-going research
2. to meet each other personally, in order to better judge each other’s work
3. to get away from teaching commitments
4. to bypass having to read the literature

8.A research problem states the issue to be studied in question form. A scientific hypothesis

1. states the predicted relationship between/among variables.
2. specifies the procedure that the experimenter will use to answer the question.
3. is another name for the research problem.
4. states what statistics will be used to answer the research problem.

9.Which of the following sequences is the one suggested by the text?

1. get research idea, review the literature, determine feasibility of study, formulate the research problem, formulate the hypothesis, collect the data
2. get research idea, formulate the hypothesis, review the literature, determine feasibility of study, formulate the research problem, collect the data
3. get research idea, review the literature, formulate the research problem, formulate the hypothesis, determine feasibility of study, collect the data
4. get research idea, review the literature, determine feasibility of study, formulate the hypothesis, formulate the research problem, collect the data

10.Why is the statement “What type of parenting is best for children?” not a good research question?

1. parenting is a very personal issue and should not be open to research
2. research on children is unethical
3. it does not specify the methods to be used to answer the question
4. it is not sufficiently specific

11.According to Kerlinger (1973) and as presented in your text, a good research problem must meet several criteria. Which of the following is NOT among them?

1. It should be open to empirical investigation.
2. It should be stated in the form of a question.
3. It should suggest some relationship between/among variables.
4. It must apply to multiple species.

12.Below are four examples of research problems. Which one conforms to your textbook author’s definition of a good research problem?

1. Why do women take psychology courses?
2. What is the relation between drug therapy and depression symptoms?
3. Are people better off believing in an afterlife, or should they just be concerned about their behavior in this life?
4. Men are stronger than women.

13If you find an article that you would like to use for your research but are unable to locate it in your library or through electronic collections provided by your library, your next step should be to

1. drive to the nearest “research” library where you will likely find the article.
2. search through your library’s microfiche files.
3. use inter-library loan.
4. search again using broader search terms.

14.The internet and world wide web can be useful when conducting a literature review. What should you be most concerned with when using the web or internet in your search?

1. reliability of the information
2. appearance of the information
3. validity of the information
4. nothing, the internet is perfect

15.One source of ideas for research is past research. Why would someone do a research project based on research someone else has already done?

1. often, the technology has changed so rapidly that older studies are no longer valid
2. too many published articles used qualitative research methods when experiments were really required
3. journals like to publish replication studies
4. often, the results of a study create more questions than it answers