Social Psychology Research Methods
Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Social Psychology Research Methods introduces students to the scientific techniques used to investigate how individuals thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others. The course covers the fundamentals of research design, including experimental and correlational approaches, ethical considerations, sampling, measurement, and statistical analysis commonly used in social psychology. Students will critically evaluate classic and contemporary studies, learn how to construct and test hypotheses, and gain hands-on experience designing, conducting, and interpreting social psychological research, equipping them with the skills necessary to contribute to empirical understanding in the field.
Recommended Textbook
Research Methods in Psychology Evaluating a World of Information 1st Edition by Beth Morling
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Chapter 1: Psychology Is a Way of Thinking
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is an example of basic research?
A) An industrial-organizational psychologist who is interested in the components of job commitment
B) A clinical psychologist who examines the effectiveness of drama therapy in helping children who have been abused
C) An educational psychologist who examines how mind-set ("intelligence is innate" or "intelligence can be achieved") affects academic performance
D) An experimental psychologist who examines people's ability to perceive a "sweet" taste
E) All of the above are examples of applied research
Answer: D
Q2) What are the three components of a good theory?
Answer: Students should state the three components (falsifiable,supported by data,and parsimonious).
Q3) Name the two aspects that improve the journal-journalism cycle.
Answer: Students should mention that journalists should choose studies that are important (and not just eye-catching or sensational)and that they should accurately report on/describe the research study,ensuring that they fairly describe the study.
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Chapter 2: Sources of Information: Evaluating,Finding,and Reading Information
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Sample Questions
Q1) What does it mean that behavioral research is probabilistic?
A) Conclusions drawn from behavioral research are probably true.
B) It means that behavioral research involves probability sampling.
C) Inferences drawn from behavioral research are not expected to explain all cases.
D) Behavioral research requires multiple studies to be convincing.
E) All of the above apply.
Answer: D
Q2) Diego is interested in examining the relationship between a person's attachment style and his or her relationship satisfaction.He finds 65 studies that have examined this topic.He combines the results of all these studies and calculates an effect size.His research is most accurately described as:
A) A meta-analysis
B) A review journal article
C) An empirical journal article
D) A chapter in an edited book
E) A PsychWiki
Answer: A
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4
Chapter 3: Three Claims,Four Validities: Interrogation Tools
for Consumers of Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Refer to Research Study 3.3 above to answer the following question. Quinn's concern is addressing which of the following?
A) The study's operational validity
B) The study's statistical validity
C) The study's internal validity
D) The study's external validity
E) The study's construct validity
Answer: D
Q2) Stefan wants to make a causal claim in his dissertation.Which of the following is necessary?
A) He must make a frequency claim first.
B) He must manipulate his two variables.
C) He must measure his two variables.
D) He must conduct an experiment.
E) None of the above are necessary.
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Ethical Guidelines for Psychology Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Prior to research being conducted,a research proposal must be submitted for IRB approval in all of the following cases EXCEPT:
A) An anonymous survey about attitudes toward college athletics
B) An anonymous study looking at gang behavior in recent parolees
C) A confidential study examining sleep patterns in newborns
D) A confidential study examining sexual behavior in mentally handicapped individuals
E) All of the above must be approved by an IRB
Q2) Refer to Research Study 4.2 above to answer the following question. Which of the ethical standards of the American Psychological Association (APA)guidelines is most important to psychologists conducting research? Name two components of this standard that Dr.Van Ryan must consider as she plans her study.
Q3) Which of the following is a reason that psychologists might fabricate or falsify their data?
A) They feel pressure to publish findings.
B) They are convinced of the correctness of their own hypotheses.
C) Research success has implications for promotion within their department.
D) Both a and b are reasons.
E) All of the above are reasons.
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6
Chapter 5: Identifying Good Measurement
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) Establishing construct validity would probably be most important for which of the following?
A) A measure of blood pressure
B) A measure of the number of seizures a person has per week
C) A measure of religiosity
D) A measure of obesity
E) All of the above
Q3) Name the three types of reliability and the four types of validity.
Q4) Refer to Research Study 5.3 above to answer the following question. For each student described above,indicate whether the operational definition of her variable is self-reported,observational,or physiological.
Q5) Explain why many people feel that physiological measurements are the best way to operationalize a variable but why they may not,in fact,be the best.
Q6) Imagine that you are trying to measure people's stress.Create a quantitative definition of stress that is ordinal,interval,and ratio.
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Chapter 6: Describing What People Do:
Surveys,Observations,and Sampling
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Q1) Refer to Research Study 6.1 above to answer the following question. In the above scenario,what is Dr.Kramer's population?
A) All students at the university
B) All psychology majors
C) All students he has ever taught
D) All students in his Research Methods course
E) None of the above
Q2) Dr.Gahan decides to create a questionnaire asking about people's attitudes toward immigration (a socially sensitive topic).He should be most concerned about which of the following?
A) People self-reporting more than they can know
B) Fence sitting
C) Faking good
D) Both a and c
E) Both b and c
Q3) Explain the two reasons nonrandom samples are sometimes acceptable.
Q4) State three ways that a researcher could reduce observer effects/reactivity in a study and why each one is effective.
Q5) Explain why bigger samples are not always better samples.
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Chapter 7: Bivariate Correlational Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Draw a scatterplot for the following three associations:a.A curvilinear associationb.A positive association with a large effect sizec.A zero association
Q2) Refer to Research Study 7.1 above to answer the following question. In evaluating Dr.Oswald's study,you question the construct validity of the study.Which of the following questions would you be asking?
A) How did Dr. Oswald recruit her participants?
B) Which statistic did Dr. Oswald compute?
C) How reliable is the measure of daily stress?
D) Does the number of friends cause people to experience less stress?
E) How long did the study take to conduct?
Q3) Refer to Research Study 7.2 above to answer the following question. Imagine that Dr.Moynihan is concerned about curvilinear relationships.Which of the three relationships is most likely to be affected by a curvilinear relationship? How should Dr.Moynihan check for this type of relationship? Why would this be effective?
Q4) Refer to Research Study 7.2 above to answer the following question. 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 8: Multivariate Correlational Research
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Sample Questions
Q1) Refer to Research Study 8.1 above to answer the following question. Of the correlations listed,how many are cross-sectional correlations?
A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) Four
E) Five
Q2) All of the following are true of betas and correlation coefficients EXCEPT:
A) Betas describe the relationship between two variables just as correlations coefficients can
B) Both betas and correlation coefficients can tell you something about the strength of a relationship
C) Both betas and correlation coefficients can tell you something about the direction of a relationship
D) Betas from an analysis can be compared with other beta coefficients from the same analysis just as correlation coefficients can
E) All of the above are true of betas and correlation coefficients
Q3) How do multiple regression designs help rule out third variables?
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Chapter 9: Introduction to Simple Experiments
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Q1) Explain why experiments are better than your own personal experience at making causal claims.
Q2) For which of the following reasons might a researcher choose a pretest/posttest design?
A) To ensure that random assignment made the treatment/comparison groups equal
B) To determine how groups change over the course of the experiment
C) To avoid selection threats
D) Both a and b
E) All of the above
Q3) When conducting an experiment,what is provided by the independent variable?
A) A comparison group
B) Evidence of covariance
C) Proof of temporal precedence
D) Confirmation of internal validity
E) Both a and b
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 advantages of within-groups designs.
Q6) Name three disadvantages of within-groups designs.
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Chapter 10: More on Experiments: Confounding and Obscuring Variables
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Q1) Which of the following cannot be found in a one-group,pretest/posttest design?
A) A random sample
B) A valid measure
C) A comparison group
D) A manipulation
E) None of the above can be found in this type of design
Q2) Name the three threats to internal validity that can occur in studies regardless of the use of a comparison group.Why doesn't a comparison group help in these cases?
Q3) Refer to Research Study 10.3 above to answer the following question. Imagine in Dr.Paddock's study that only 90 of the original participants completed the measure of homesickness during Week 7 (10 participants had left the university and were unavailable).What kind of threat to internal validity does this pose? How does this affect her conclusion that her treatment for homesickness worked?
Q4) Refer to Research Study 10.3 above to answer the following question. What is a comparison group? What kind of comparison group could Dr.Paddock add to her study to address several threats to internal validity? (In other words,what would this comparison group do/not do?)Explain why this addition would help address threats to internal validity.
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Chapter 11: Experiments With More Than One Independent
Variable
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Q1) Explain why researchers care about interactions more than main effects.
Q2) Refer to Research Study 11.3 above to answer the following question.
Using factorial notation,describe Dr.Lopez's study.Given this information,how many main effects and interactions will Dr.Lopez need to examine?
Q3) Provide two reasons a researcher would want to conduct a factorial study.
Q4) Which of the following is NOT necessary for a study to be a crossed factorial design?
A) There are at least two independent variables.
B) The study examines every possible combination of independent variables.
C) The data result in a crossover interaction.
D) All of the above are necessary.
E) None of the above are necessary.
Q5) Refer to Research Study 11.3 above to answer the following question.
Using the data table alone,discuss whether Dr.Lopez should conclude that an interaction exists in his study.
Q6) Refer to Research Study 11.3 above to answer the following question.
Provide a graph of the possible interaction in Dr.Lopez's study and discuss whether Dr.Lopez should conclude that an interaction exists in his study.
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Chapter 12: Quasi-Experiments and Small-N Designs
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Q1) In small-N designs,each participant is treated:
A) With multiple interventions
B) By a clinical psychologist
C) As a data point
D) As a separate experiment
E) All of the above
Q2) Explain how interrogating the statistical validity of a small-N design is different from interrogating the statistical validity in a large-N design.
Q3) Refer to Research Study 12.1 above to answer the following question. In addition to measuring the body concern of the participants who joined a fraternity/sorority both immediately before and immediately after they join,Dr.Fletcher measures them for the three weeks before and the three weeks after.This type of design is known as a/an:
A) Nonequivalent control group design
B) Nonequivalent groups interrupted time-series design
C) Interrupted time-series design
D) Stable-baseline design
E) Multiple-baseline design
Q4) List three small-N designs and explain how these designs address maturation.
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Chapter 13: Replicability,Generalization,and the Real World
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Q1) In a previous correlational study,Dr.Lafayette has found that owning dogs is associated with lower levels of daily stress in a sample of returning war veterans.Which of the following would constitute a shift from theory-testing mode to generalization mode?
A) Conducting a study on the same sample of war veterans, this time using a different measure of daily stress
B) Conducting a study examining the stress reduction in dogs
C) Conducting an experimental study in which he assigns people to own a dog or not
D) Conducting a study using a sample of elderly participants from a local retirement home
E) All of the above would be studies done in generalization mode
Q2) Explain why external validity is the priority in generalization mode but not in theory-testing mode.
Q3) Replication-plus-extensions can add which of the following?
A) A participant variable
B) A situational variable
C) A conditional variable
D) Both a and b
E) All of the above
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