Course Introduction
Experimental Psychology Study Guide Questions
Experimental Psychology explores the scientific methods and principles used to investigate psychological phenomena. This course focuses on the design, execution, and analysis of controlled experiments to understand human behavior, cognition, perception, and emotion. Students will learn how to formulate research questions, develop hypotheses, collect and analyze data, and interpret results within ethical guidelines. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking, the importance of replication, and the application of statistical tools in experimental research. Through laboratory work and practical assignments, students gain hands-on experience in conducting psychological experiments and presenting their findings.
Recommended Textbook
Research Methods in Psychology Evaluating a World of Information 3rd Edition by Beth Morling
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Chapter 1: Psychology Is a Way of Thinking
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Q1) Dr. White reads about a new theory that states that depression is caused by increased levels of estrogen in the womb. To test this theory, she conducted a study comparing the level of estrogen in amniotic fluid in individuals who were later diagnosed with depression with the level of those who did not develop depression. Dr. White found no differences between the groups in estrogen levels in the amniotic fluid. In this study, "depressed individuals will have higher estrogen levels" was the . A)theory
B)research question
C)hypothesis
D)data
Answer: C
Q2) Name three types of research data or information that people are exposed to every day, even if they are not psychologists.
Answer: Several answers are acceptable,including political polling data,websites (e.g. ,WebMD),advice columns in newspapers and magazines.
Q3) What are the three components of a good theory?
Answer: A good theory is falsifiable,supported by data,and parsimonious.
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Chapter 2: Sources of Information: Why Research Is Best and
How to Find It
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Q1) When reading an empirical journal article "with a purpose," which section should you read first?
A)Abstract
B)Introduction
C)Method
D)Discussion
Answer: A
Q2) A psychiatrist is testing a drug that treats depression. He has given the drug to all his patients, and all of them have experienced a decrease in depressive symptoms. Although this is interesting, his experience is limited because he does not have:
A)a reliable way to` measure depressive symptoms.
B)a comparison group that did not receive the drug.
C)a hypothesis.
D)psychotherapy to supplement the drug.
Answer: B
Q3) Name four examples of biases of intuition.
Answer: Examples of biases of intuition include: being swayed by a good story,the confirmation bias,the present/present bias,the availability heuristic,and the blind spot bias.
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Chapter 3: Three Claims, Four Validities: Interrogation Tools
for Consumers of Research
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Q1) To evaluate how well a study supports a frequency claim, you need to focus most on evaluating which of the following validities?
A)Construct validity and external validity
B)Statistical validity and external validity
C)Internal validity and external validity
D)Internal validity and construct validity
Answer: A
Q2) Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music. Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. How many variables are included in this study?
A)one
B)two
C)four
D)five
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Ethical Guidelines for Psychology Research
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Q1) All of the following are true of institutional review boards (IRBs) in the United States EXCEPT:
A)IRBs can be found in settings other than colleges and universities.
B)IRBs are mandated by federal law.
C)IRBs must have a psychologist as a member.
D)IRBs must have at least five members.
Q2) The use of debriefing in a study such as Milgram's obedience study appeals to which principle of the Belmont Report?
A)Principle of beneficence
B)Principle of integrity
C)Principle of respect for persons
D)Principle of justice
Q3) Why is it unethical to provide an incentive that is too large to refuse (for example, offering undergraduate students free tuition for a semester for participating in a study)?
A)It is unfair to other researchers who cannot afford to pay participants.
B)It unduly influences people into participating.
C)It is unfair to people who choose not to participate in the study.
D)It is not unethical to do this.
Q4) What are the two issues that need to be balanced in conducting ethical research?
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Chapter 5: Identifying Good Measurement
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Q1) Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions, and it takes 20 minutes to complete.
Dr) Sheffield decides to test the criterion validity of his measure. Dr. Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people that includes suspected problem gamblers and non-gamblers. Which of the following options below could he also do to get evidence for criterion validity?
A)Give the measure to a group of people attending Gamblers Anonymous meetings
B)Correlate the measure with a behavior, such as amount of money lost in a casino during the past year
C)Ask the participants to give their opinion on whether the measure is valid
D)Give a measure of alcohol addiction to the same group of clients
Q2) Imagine that you are trying to measure people's stress. Provide an example of measuring stress using a self-report measure, a physiological measure, and a behavioral measure.
Q3) Name the three types of internal reliability and the four types of validity.
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Chapter 6: Surveys and Observations: Describing What
People Do
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Q1) Why might question order affect how people respond to a survey or poll?
A)People cannot understand multiple questions.
B)People are lazy.
C)People may try to appear consistent.
D)People are easily confused.
Q2) Which of the following increases accurate responding?
A)Nay-saying response sets
B)Fence sitting
C)Reverse-worded questions
D)Acquiescence
Q3) There are several ways to decrease socially desirable responding. Choose one of these and explain why it decreases this response tendency.
Q4) Faking good is also known as:
A)fence sitting.
B)acquiescence.
C)socially desirable responding.
D)nondifferentiation.
Q5) What is an advantage of open-ended questions? What is a disadvantage?
Q6) Explain why observational methods are typically seen by most psychologists as ethical. Page 8
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Chapter 7: Sampling: Estimating the Frequency of
Behaviors and Beliefs
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Q1) A sample is to as a population is to .
A)part; entire
B)external; internal
C)people; groups
D)participants; researchers
Q2) Why do studies that use probability samples have excellent external validity?
A)They also ensure excellent internal validity.
B)They study every member of the population of interest.
C)They use a larger number of measures.
D)All members of the population are equally likely to be represented in the sample.
Q3) Another term for probability sampling is:
A)purposive sampling.
B)convenience sampling.
C)random sampling.
D)cluster sampling.
Q4) A representative sample is most necessary for which type of claim (frequency, association, or causal)? Why?
Q5) Explain why bigger samples are not always better samples.
Q6) What is the difference between random sampling and random assignment?
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Chapter 8: Bivariate Correlational Research
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Q1) Bivariate association claims' failure to meet the criteria of temporal precedence and internal validity means that cannot be .
A)covariance; established
B)construct validity; interrogated
C)hypotheses; tested
D)causal inferences; made
Q2) Dr. Moynihan conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of panic attacks a person experienced in the past month, the number of nightmares experienced in the past month, and people's levels of neuroticism (a personality trait characterized by instability, anxiety, and worry). She collects a convenience sample of 50 community college students (25 males, 25 females). Below are her findings.
A (number of panic attacks in the past month and neuroticism): r =.03, not sig.
B (number of panic attacks in the past month and number of nightmares in the past month): r =.14 (p = .05)
C (number of nightmares in the past month and neuroticism): r = .48 (p = .003).
State two questions that you might ask if you were to interrogate the construct validity of Dr. Moynihan's study.
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Chapter 9: Multivariate Correlational Research
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Q1) Why would a researcher interested in making a causal claim NOT do an experiment?
A)Experiments are very expensive and the researcher might not have grant funding.
B)There may be ethical limitations of manipulating a variable.
C)Laboratory space is required for experiments and the researcher might not have a lab.
D)Experiments take longer to do than other types of studies.
Q2) Which of the following studies is an example of a longitudinal design?
A)Dr. Finn's study in which he measured job commitment in a group of Japanese factory workers and in a group of Mexican factory workers
B)Dr. Stabler's study in which he measured people's frequency of playing video games in ninth grade and their aggressive behaviors in 12th grade
C)Dr. Benson's study in which she measured people's spatial manipulation ability in August and measured their ability again in May after they had taken two semesters of art classes
D)Dr. Tutola's study in which he measured the daily stress of a group of married men and the daily happiness of their spouses
Q3) How do multiple regression designs help rule out third variables?
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Chapter 10: Introduction to Simple Experiments
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Q1) Name three advantages of within-groups designs.
Q2) Generally, what is the main priority for experimental studies?
A)Construct validity
B)External validity
C)Internal validity
D)Statistical validity
Q3) Which of the following phrases describes a manipulated variable?
A)"Participants wrote down how many text messages they had sent the day before."
B)"Researchers recorded whether participants volunteered to help the student in need or did not volunteer."
C)"Participants were placed in the high tempo music condition, the low tempo music condition, or the no music condition based on which color card they randomly drew from a deck."
D)"Researchers recorded the length of time participants took to complete the anagrams."
Q4) What is a design confound? What type of validity is threatened by design confounds, and how is it threatened? Explain why not all problems in a study are necessarily confounds.
Q5) Name three disadvantages of within-groups designs.
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Chapter 11: More on Experiments: Confounding and Obscuring Variables
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Q1) Which of the following is true of instrumentation threats?
A)They are the same as testing threats.
B)They occur only when using mechanical instruments (e.g., blood pressure cuffs, scales).
C)They can be avoided with counterbalancing.
D)They are only problematic in observational research.
Q2) Which of the following threats to internal validity would result in group differences prior to the start of the study?
A)Design confound
B)Selection effect
C)Order effect
D)Maturation effect
Q3) A researcher's attempt to control sounds, smells, and even temperature in a testing environment is meant to reduce which of the following?
A)Between-group variance
B)Situation noise
C)Weak manipulations
D)Demand characteristics
Q4) Explain how within-group variance can obscure between-group differences.
Page 14
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Chapter 12: Experiments With More Than One Independent
Variable
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Q1) Imagine that you read the following passage in a popular magazine. Should you conclude that the original article found evidence of an interaction? Why is or isn't there evidence of an interaction?
"One study had participants watch a crime show. Half the participants watched a documentary of a murder that took place in rural Virginia, while the other half watched a movie adaptation of the same murder. The effect of viewing a crime show on people's fear of being a victim of crime depends on the participants' sex, with women in general being more fearful regardless of which show they saw, whereas men reported more fear after watching the documentary."
Q2) You read an article that states, "How well you remember different types of information depends on the context in which you learned them." Based on this information, what else is true about this study?
A)The influence of context on memory depends on the type of information presented.
B)You remember information best only when it's presented in a specific context.
C)There is no effect of context on memory.
D)There is an effect of information type on memory.
Q3) State the three types of factorial designs.
Q4) Provide two reasons a researcher would want to conduct a factorial study.
Page 15
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Chapter 13: Quasi-Experiments and Small-N Designs
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Q1) Dr. Fletcher is interested in whether joining a fraternity/sorority causes people to become more concerned about their attractiveness and appearance. He recruits a group of 55 freshmen (25 males, 30 females) who are planning to go through fraternity/sorority recruitment on his campus. After they join, he gives them a measure of attractiveness concern/appearance concern (the Body Concern Scale).
In addition to measuring the group of participants who joined a fraternity/sorority, Dr. Fletcher decides to give the same measure to another group of 55 participants who decided to not join a fraternity/sorority. This type of design is known as a(n):
A)interrupted time-series design.
B)nonequivalent control group design.
C)nonequivalent groups interrupted time-series design.
D)reversal design.
Q2) Which of the following is a within-groups quasi-experimental design?
A)Interrupted time-series design
B)Nonequivalent control group design
C)Matched group factorial design
D)Multiple regression design
Q3) List the three differences between small-N and large-N designs.
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Chapter 14: Replication, Generalization, and the Real World
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Q1) According to the textbook, what is the problem with WEIRD samples?
A)They are not very representative of the world's population.
B)They are not good for theory-testing mode.
C)They are not used frequently enough.
D)They are not very easy to measure.
Q2) Which of the following MUST be done before meta-analyses can occur?
A)Only direct replications
B)Cultural psychology replications done on the topic
C)Collection of the scientific literature on a topic
D)Publication of the topic in the popular media
Q3) Responsible journalists do which of the following as it pertains to discussing replicability?
A)They report only on studies that have been directly replicated.
B)They report findings only from meta-analyses.
C)They provide readers with a sense of the entire literature as well as recent studies.
D)They provide readers with statistical values from each study.
Q4) Explain how a study can be important but lack a diverse, random sample and a real-world setting. What type of study is likely to have neither of these?
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