Research Methods in Psychology
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Course Introduction
Research Methods in Psychology introduces students to the fundamental techniques and principles used in psychological research. This course covers a range of methodologies, including experimental, correlational, and observational approaches, as well as qualitative and quantitative analysis. Students will learn about research design, sampling strategies, ethical considerations, data collection, and statistical interpretation. By engaging with real-world examples and conducting hands-on projects, students develop the skills necessary to critically evaluate psychological studies and design their own research, fostering a comprehensive understanding of how scientific knowledge in psychology is produced and evaluated.
Recommended Textbook Research Methods in Psychology 10th Edition by
John J Shaughnessy
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
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Q1) The statement of a research hypothesis includes
A) an explanation for why a particular behavior is under investigation.
B) a predicted outcome and an explanation for the outcome.
C) an overview of previous research findings regarding the topic.
D) all of these
Answer: B
Q2) In a recent criticism of the practice of clinical psychologists,all of the following suggestions were made except
A) reform clinical psychology training programs.
B) make science-centered education a central feature of clinical training programs.
C) make some clinical psychology training programs non-scientific to keep psychology balanced.
D) stigmatize the practice of clinical psychology that is not science-based.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Scientific Method
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Q1) Which of the following is a cognitive error that can cause confirmation bias because we perceive a relationship when none exists?
A) subjective reporting
B) covariation of cause and effect
C) spurious relationship
D) illusory correlation
Answer: D
Q2) An operational definition of a construct is
A) an intervening variable that connects independent and dependent variables.
B) a specific procedure for producing or measuring the construct.
C) reliable, because it is consistent.
D) valid, because it is truthful.
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following is a characteristic of the scientific method?
A) confirmation bias
B) intuitive definitions
C) systematic observation
D) circular hypotheses
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Psychological Research
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Q1) Describe the benefit and two major risks associated with the original obedience experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram,then identify three of the recent adaptations made by Jerry Burger in his replication of the obedience studies.
Answer: The benefit of the obedience studies was to determine the conditions under which people obey authority figures.Milgram wanted to understand what occurred in the Holocaust,when people's obedience resulted in massive atrocities.Burger sought to determine whether people obey authority figures in our present day.The two main risks associated with the Milgram study include deception and the high risk of psychological stress.Participants believed the "learner" was being shocked and they felt great stress as they obeyed the instruction to continue shocking the learner.Burger made several adaptations to lessen the risk in his obedience studies and make them acceptable to an IRB: participants were carefully screened prior to the study; participants were told they could withdraw at any time without penalty (and were paid prior to starting the study); a mild sample shock was used; the deception was explained immediately; a clinical psychologist conducted the experiment and stopped the experiment if a participant demonstrated excessive distress; and Burger stopped the experiment when participants reached 150 volts (rather than 450).
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Chapter 4: Observation
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Q1) Time sampling is not an effective method for sampling behavior that occurs infrequently.To observe behaviors in situations that occur infrequently,researchers choose
A) event sampling.
B) defined sampling.
C) random sampling.
D) field sampling.
Q2) Which of the following would be an example of coding a narrative record during the process of data reduction in qualitative data analysis?
A) calculating interobserver reliability
B) classifying behaviors from an observation record into different categories
C) displaying the data using a graph or a chart
D) obtaining a mean number of behaviors after classifying the behaviors into categories
Q3) In order to avoid the problem of ______,it is sometimes necessary to use ______.
A) reactivity; unobtrusive observation
B) observer bias; "blind" subjects
C) demand characteristics; "blind" observers
D) all of these
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Chapter 5: Survey Research
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Q1) Construct validity can be assessed by determining the degree to which similar measures of a construct
A) demonstrate correlations near zero.
B) are correlated.
C) show consistency over time.
D) all of these
Q2) The problem of selection bias in survey research is similar to the problem of ________ in research using archival data.
A) selection threat to internal validity
B) selective deposit
C) selective survival
D) spurious relationships
Q3) A survey researcher randomly selected individuals in Canada,Mexico,and the United States and mailed them a survey about North American trade policies.The researcher compared individuals' survey responses in these countries.This researcher used a
A) cross-sectional survey design.
B) successive independent samples design.
C) longitudinal survey design.
D) observational design.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Independent Groups Designs
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Q1) Random assignment to conditions works to balance participants' individual differences across conditions of the experiment by
A) matching individuals on key variables.
B) asking individuals to participate in each condition of the experiment.
C) forming groups based on an individual differences variable the researcher selects.
D) generating groups of participants that are equivalent, on average.
Q2) The nonsystematic (random)variation due to differences among subjects within each group is called
A) spurious variation.
B) nonsignificant variation.
C) inferential variation.
D) error variation.
Q3) The statistical technique that is used to analyze the results of several independent experiments is called A) F-test.
B) central tendency.
C) meta-analysis.
D) Cohen's d analysis.
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Chapter 7: Repeated Measures Designs
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Q1) The difference between repeated measurements to establish test-retest reliability and experiments using repeated measures designs is that in experiments with repeated measures designs
A) the reliability of measurement is not important.
B) a correlation coefficient would be used to determine consistency across measurements.
C) measurements occur only twice.
D) measurements are compared for different conditions of an independent variable.
Q2) Each of the three techniques that are used to balance practice effects in the incomplete repeated measures design conforms to a general rule that can be stated as
A) each condition must appear in only one ordinal position.
B) each condition must appear in the first ordinal position equally often.
C) each condition must appear in each ordinal position at least twice.
D) each condition must appear in each ordinal position equally often.
Q3) Provide brief answers to the following question regarding the repeated measures designs.
What techniques are used in the complete and incomplete repeated measures designs to balance practice effects?
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Chapter 8: Complex Designs
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Q1) .He is also interested in knowing whether high or low test-anxious individuals' performance is different for the computerized version of the two tests compared to the paper-and-pencil version of the tests.Within each anxiety group,he randomly assigns participants to either the computer version or the paper version of the GRE tests.Participants then complete both the verbal and quantitative tests of the GRE in the test version they've been assigned (computer or paper).Thus,each participant has two scores,a Verbal score and a Quantitative score. What kind of complex design is this ?
Q2) In a 2* 2 complex design experiment with a statistically significant interaction effect,the simple main effects analyses represent
A) an eta-squared analysis.
B) an analysis to reveal floor or ceiling effects.
C) a comparison of means considered two at a time.
D) the subtraction method.
Q3) In order to interpret the findings of a complex design experiment,researchers
A) compute an analysis of variance.
B) examine the means for each condition.
C) conduct simple main effects analyses when an interaction effect is present.
D) all of these
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Single-Case Research Designs
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Q1) A woman sought treatment for her symptoms of depression and anxiety.The psychologist,after checking his references for the best treatment given her symptoms,began twice-a-week cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.By the end of eight weeks,she reported that she was much better,and had only occasional symptoms of depression and anxiety,which she considered to be normal.The psychologist wrote a report describing the results of his study,stating that her improvement offers conclusive support for the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy. What type of research did this psychologist conduct?
Q2) Idiographic research,as represented by the case study method,has the potential to reveal
A) causal mechanisms underlying behavior.
B) contradictory effects in well-controlled treatment studies.
C) nuances and subtleties of individual behavior.
D) definitive evidence for the effectiveness of a particular treatment.
Q3) What two methodological problems dealing with the measurement of baselines apply to all single-case experimental designs?
Q4) Describe an advantage and a disadvantage of single-case experimental designs relative to multiple-groups designs.
Q5) Identify two advantages and two disadvantages of the case study method.
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Chapter 10: Quasi-Experimental Designs and Program Evaluation
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Q1) Strong evidence of a treatment effect in a time series with nonequivalent control group design is indicated by
A) discontinuity in the comparison group but not in the treatment group.
B) discontinuity in the treatment group but not in the comparison group.
C) discontinuity in both the treatment group and the comparison group.
D) discontinuity in neither the treatment group nor the comparison group.
Q2) A psychologist tests the effect of an incentive program (i.e.,positive reinforcement for desired behavior)in a residential treatment facility for delinquent youth.He randomly assigns one building of the large facility to receive the treatment.Residents in a second building serve as a control group.During the course of the one-month study,an event happens in the treatment group that forces full lockdown of the building for one week.The threat to internal validity the psychologist must consider is
A) selection.
B) history.
C) additive effect of selection and history.
D) contamination.
Q3) Distinguish between evaluation of outcome and evaluation of efficiency as these are used in program evaluation.
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Chapter 11: Data Analysis and Interpretation: Part
Idescribing Data, confidence Intervals, correlation
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Q1) Which of the following procedures would not be expected during the first stage of data analysis?
A) performing tests using inferential statistics
B) looking for outliers
C) visualizing the distribution with graphical displays
D) checking for errors
Q2) What does the "95" in a 95% confidence interval refer to?
Q3) Which of the following is not a major stage of data analysis?
A) getting to know the data
B) confirming what the data reveal
C) transforming the data
D) summarizing the data
Q4) When interpreting confidence intervals when there are three or more means,if the intervals do not overlap,we have evidence that
A) the differences among population means are inconclusive.
B) the population means differ.
C) the range of values for each interval is extreme.
D) the sample means do not differ.
Q6) Explain the phrase,"Correlation does not imply causation." Page 13
Q5) Why is a confidence interval also called a "margin of error"?
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Page 14
Chapter
Significance and the Analysis Story
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Q1) Null hypothesis significance testing uses the laws of probability to estimate the likelihood of an outcome by first assuming that
A) the null hypothesis is false.
B) an effect of an independent variable is present.
C) the population means are different.
D) only chance factors caused the outcome.
Q2) A researcher plans to conduct a study to compare two groups.Based on previous research,she anticipates a medium effect size.She does a power analysis with alpha level of .05.This power analysis tells her
A) the t-test outcome and degrees of freedom she should expect.
B) Cohen's d for her study.
C) the sample size she will need to observe a statistically significant finding.
D) the practical significance of her research.
Q3) The null hypothesis is the assumption that the independent variable
A) did not have an effect.
B) had an effect.
C) is a relevant variable.
D) is statistically significant.
Q4) What does NHST tell us when a "statistically significant" finding is obtained?
Page 15
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Chapter 13: Communication in Psychology
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Q1) About ______ percent of the manuscripts submitted for publication in American Psychological Association journals are accepted for publication.
A) 25
B) 33
C) 50
D) 75
Q2) Oral presentations differ from written presentations of scientific studies mainly in terms of
A) whether conclusions from statistical analyses are mentioned.
B) whether they are interesting.
C) the amount of details provided.
D) the use of figures or graphs.
Q3) The last step in writing a paragraph in a Results section is to
A) explain why the statistical tests were used.
B) state a brief conclusion regarding the statistical finding.
C) present the descriptive statistics in a verbal statement, table, or figure.
D) present the confidence interval in APA-format.
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