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A: The influence that an observer has on the behavior under observation is called A) reactivity. B) observer bias. C) demand characteristics. D) expectancy effect.
- A: A sampling frame, the actual list of the elements in a population, can be considered a(n) ________________ of the population. A) operational definition B) dependent variable C) biased sample D) manipulation
- A: The tentative explanations scientists use to explain events that must be testable are called A) hypotheses. B) postulates. C) heuristics. D) axioms
- A: Whenever deception is used, the researcher has the responsibility to A) debrief the participant. B) inform the participant of the deception before the experiment begins. C) withhold information from the participant concerning the reasons for having used deception. D) avoid telling the participant about the deception before, during, and after the experiment.
- A: Which of the following is not a justification for using deception in research? A) when the researcher stands to gain in reputation for conducting the research B) when the research study is very important C) when no other methods for answering the research question are available D) when the deception would not influence participants' willingness to participate
- A: Animal review boards (IACUCs) are responsible for ensuring the welfare and humane treatment of animals used in research. Which of the following is not one of the issues that animal review boards decide? A) adequacy of the budget for carrying out the proposed research B) adequacy of the procedures for controlling pain C) adequacy of the experimental design for gaining important new information D) adequacy of the training of personnel who will be doing the testing and care of the animals
- A: Which problem occurs when respondents react to measurement by reporting what they think they should say, rather than what they actually believe? A) socially desirable responding B) an incorrect causal inference based on correlational data
C) a large margin of error D) a biased sample
- A: A sample is considered biased when the characteristics of the sample A) differ systematically from those of the target population. B) differ randomly from those of the target population. C) differ haphazardly from those of the target population. D) correspond well to those of the target population.
- A: In order to obtain data for a research project, a student asks classmates to complete a survey before class starts. The resulting sample of respondents can best be characterized as a A) convenience sample. B) random sample. C) stratified random sample. D) probability sample.
- A: One approach to the use of inferential statistics to decide whether an independent variable has a reliable effect on the dependent variable begins by assuming that the independent variable had no effect. This approach is called A) null hypothesis testing. B) alpha hypothesis testing. C) statistical error testing. D) significance level testing
- A: When a researcher claims that an independent variable has a statistically significant effect when the null hypothesis is really true, a_________ has occurred. A) Type I error B) Type II error C) experimenter effect D) demand characteristic
- A: Which of the following must be balanced in order to have an interpretable repeated measures (within- subjects) design experiment?
A) practice effects B) individual differences C) subject variables D) task variability
- A: Relative to an between groups design, a repeated measures (within-subjects) design is generally ______ sensitive in its ability to detect an effect of the independent variable.
c) Measures are intuitively devised and then applied as if they were direct indicators of a concept
d) Indicators are unambiguous quantities, whereas measures are subjective and value-laden
- a: What effect does increasing the sample size have upon the sampling error?
a) It reduces the sampling error
b) It increases the sampling error
c) It has no effect on the sampling error
d) None of the above
- a: Quantitative research has been criticised because:
a) The measurement process suggests a spurious and artificial sense of accuracy
b) The reliance on instruments and procedures makes it high in ecological validity
c) It underestimates the similarities between objects in the natural and social worlds
d) All of the above
- a: One of the preoccupations of quantitative researchers is with generalization, which is a sign of:
a) External validity
b) Internal reliability
c) External reliability
d) Internal validity
- a: Qualitative research is interpretive, which involves
a. extracting information from non-numerical data. b. using objective measurements. c. quantifying non-numerical data. d. observing in the natural environment
- a: Apart from the fact that it is "not a nice thing to do" (p133), what is an important ethical disadvantage of deceiving participants?
a) It can damage the professional reputation of the researcher and their discipline
b) It makes it more difficult to gain access to deviant or hidden populations
c) It means that records of personal data about the participants cannot be made anonymous
d) None of the above
- a: Cross cultural studies are an example of:
a) Case study design
b) Comparative design
c) Experimental design
d) Longitudinal design
- a: Survey research is cross-sectional and therefore:
a) High in replicability but low in internal validity
b) High in internal validity but low in reliability
c) High in ecological validity but low in external validity
d) None of the above
- a: In an experimental design, the dependent variable is:
a) The one that is not manipulated and in which any changes are observed
b) The one that is manipulated in order to observe any effects on the other
c) A measure of the extent to which personal values affect research
d) List all questions on one page and all answers on another
- a: Which of the following is a general rule of thumb for designing questions?
a) Always bear in mind your research questions
b) Never ask a closed question
c) Always use vignettes rather than open questions
d) Use ambiguous terms to put respondents at ease
- a: Leading questions should also be avoided because:
a) They suggest ways of answering and so may bias the results
b) They create a mismatch between the question and its possible answers
c) They involve negative terms and unnecessary jargon
d) They ask about several different things at the same time
- a: What is meant by the term "reactive effect"?
a) If people know they are being observed, they may change their behaviour
b) Research subjects may have a bad reaction to the drugs they are given
c) Researchers sometimes react to their informants' behaviour with horror
d) The categories on an observation schedule may not be mutually exclusive
- a: What is the difference between interval/ratio and ordinal variables?
a) The distance between categories is equal across the range of interval/ratio data
b) Ordinal data can be rank ordered, but interval/ratio data cannot
c) Interval/ratio variables contain only two categories
d) Ordinal variables have a fixed zero point, whereas interval/ratio variables do not
- a: Which of the following is not a type of purposive sampling?
a) Probability sampling
b) Deviant case sampling
c) Theoretical sampling
d) Snowball sampling
- a: What can be generalized from a purposive sample?
a) That the findings are true for broadly similar cases
b) That the findings are true for the entire population
c) That the opposite is true for people who are the opposite of those in the sample
d) That purposive sampling is better than probability sampling
- a: Which of the following is an advantage of qualitative interviewing relative to participant observation?
a) It allows you to find out about issues that are resistant to observation
b) It is more biased and value-laden
c) It is more likely to create reactive effects
d) None of the above
- a: The constructionist ontological position suggests that:
a) Social phenomena and their meanings are constantly being accomplished by social actors
b) Individuals are born into a world of rules and structures that they cannot change
c) Building and construction work presents an ideal opportunity to exercise the sociological imagination
b) more than one data collection method is used. c) more than one researcher studies the individual. d) a community is studied rather than an individual
- a: To enhance interpretive validity researchers' reports should include "low-inference descriptors" which means that they should
a) try to use participants' own words as much as possible. b) use very simplistic, easy to understand terminology. c) not make any interpretations regarding their findings. d) use multiple investigators before making their final report
- a: To gain access to an individual's inner world and understand their own unique life experience would be the primary goal of which of the following methods?
a) phenomenology b) ethnography c) mixed model d) experimental
- a: External validity in qualitative research
a) is less important than in quantitative research because researchers generally are not interested in generalizing their findings. b) is more important than in quantitative research because without generalization the qualitative approach is pointless. c) is defined completely differently than in quantitative research. d) is determined by strength of the cause and effect relationship between variables
- a: It is important that an ethnographic researcher focuses on describing their culture from the insider or ________ perspective, as well as from the outsider's or __________ perspective.
a) emic; etic b) etic; emic c) intrinsic; extrinsic d) extrinsic; intrinsic
- a: Which of the following is a method for reducing researcher bias in qualitative research?
a. reflexivity. b. reactivity.
c. confirmation seeking. d. methods triangulation
- a: Phenomenologists hoping to gain an understanding of the experiences of people that have been abducted by terrorists, would rely primarily on
a) face-to face interviews. b) participant observation. c) gathering of artifacts. d) collective case studies
- a: If a researcher were interested in a person's conscious experience resulting from the end of a marriage, the method of choice would be
a) phenomenological. b) ethnography. c) experimental. d) ex post facto
- B: Which of the following is the factor researchers manipulate so it is the only factor allowed to vary systematically in an experiment?
A) dependent variable B) independent variable C) internal validity D) external validity
- B: The results of an externally valid study are ones that
A) apply to a narrow range of subjects, conditions, and settings. B) apply to a wide range of subjects, conditions, and settings. C) are likely to replicate if the study is repeated. D) are likely to be difficult to interpret unambiguously.
- B: When a study is free of confoundings it is said to have
A) external validity. B) internal validity. C) integrity. D) reproducibility.
unrelated to each other. D) Spending more time watching TV causes students to do more poorly on a school achievement test.
- B: Which of the following threats to internal validity arises when an event other than the treatment produces a change in participants' behavior?
A) maturation B) history C) testing D) coincidence
- B: The goal of random assignment to experimental conditions is to
A) select different levels of a natural groups variable. B) balance individual differences variables across conditions. C) make sure the dependent variable does not differ across conditions. D) hold conditions constant across conditions.
- B: An overriding principle of the APA Ethical Standards for the care and use of animals in research is that the care of the animals by psychologists be as
A) inexpensive as possible. B) humane as possible. C) efficient as possible. D) convenient as possible.
- B: Which of the following characteristics of true experiments is most often lacking in quasi-experiments?
A) potential for contamination due to diffusion of treatments B) high degree of control, especially the ability to assign participants randomly to conditions C) appropriate comparison or "control" condition D) implementation of some type of intervention or treatment
- B: Under what conditions is it always unethical to deceive research participants?
A) when withholding information that might lead participants to act according to the instructions provided by the experimenter B) when deceiving participants to get them to participate in research in which they would not normally take part or in research that involves serious risk C) when deceiving participants places them at minimal risk by participating in the research
D) when concealing the true nature of the experiment might lead participants to behave as they normally would
- B: Which of the following is not a possible threat to internal validity due to contamination?
A) resentment B) experimenter effects C) rivalry D) diffusion of treatments
- B: When not everyone answers a mail survey it is reasonable to assume that those who do respond are different in important ways from those who do not respond. The term used to describe this problem in survey research is
A) inadequate response rate. B) response bias. C) selection bias. D) differential response rate.
- B: Test-retest reliability refers to
A) the average of all correlations among items on a measure. B) the correlation between scores on two administrations of a measure. C) the high correlation between scores on two measures designed to assess the same construct. D) the low correlation between scores on two measures designed to assess different constructs.
- B: The score appearing most frequently in a distribution is equal to the
A) mean. B) mode. C) median. D) standard deviation.
- B: In the between groups design the only factor that should differentiate the separate groups at the start of the experiment is the
A) dependent variable. B) independent variable. C) characteristics of the participants. D) conditions under which all subjects are tested.
- b: If you were conducting a study in which you created a research report that discussed the rituals and norms that were characteristic of the group of people you were studying and focused on how the group members
d) it focuses on theory testing
- b: The value of piloting a questionnaire is that it helps you to:
a) Test out your questions on some of the people who will be in the final sample
b) Identify and amend any problems in the question wording, order and format
c) Find out what a trained pilot would think of the subject matter
d) All of the above
- b: It may not be possible to use a probability sample to observe behaviour in public places because:
a) The findings of such studies are not intended to have external validity
b) It is not feasible to construct a sampling frame of interactions
c) It is difficult to gain access to such social settings
d) Researchers prefer not to use random samples whenever possible
- b: Dr. Drinkwater wants to describe what it is like to be Amish in the 21st century. He has befriended several members of a local Amish community who have invited him to come and live with them for the year. The best approach to this study would be to do
a) a phenomenological study. b) an ethnographic study. c) a collective case study. d) a correlational study
- b: What is the function of a contingency table, in the context of bivariate analysis?
a) It shows the results you would expect to find by chance
b) It summarises the frequencies of two variables so that they can be compared
c) It lists the different levels of p value for tests of significance
d) It compares the results you might get from various statistical tests
- b: In terms of report writing, quantitative studies focus on ___________ while qualitative studies focus on _________.
a. descriptive narratives; pictures and images b. statistical results; descriptive narratives c. statistical results; statistical results d. subject reality; objective results
- b: A phenomenologist who is interested in the effects of separation is most likely to ask of a person after a divorce
a) "How long were you married?" b) "How would you describe the feelings you are experiencing?" c) "How many children do you have?" d) "How do you like the divorce laws in this state?"
- b: Setting the p level at 0.01 increases the chances of making a:
a) Type I error
b) Type II error
c) Type III error
d) All of the above
- b: What is triangulation?
a) Using three quantitative or three qualitative methods in a project
b) Cross-checking the results found by different research strategies
c) Allowing theoretical concepts to emerge from the data
d) Drawing a triangular diagram to represent the relations between three concepts
- b: Which of the following is not a limitation of the focus group method?
a) The researcher has little control over how the discussion proceeds
c) Observer-as-participant
d) Complete observer
- b: When qualitative researchers focus on external validity they are likely to focus on __________.
a) theoretical generalization b) naturalistic generalization c) sample generalization d) laboratory generalization
- b: What is one of the main disadvantages of using the covert role in ethnography?
a) It can be hard to gain access to the social group
b) It is difficult to take notes without arousing suspicion
c) The problem of reactivity: people may change their behaviour if they know they are being observed
d) It is usually too time consuming and expensive to be a realistic option
- b: If a study is "reliable", this means that:
a) It was conducted by a reputable researcher who can be trusted
b) The measures devised for concepts are stable on different occasions
c) The findings can be generalized to other social settings
d) The methods are stated clearly enough for the research to be replicated
- b: A systematic literature review is:
a) One which starts in your own library, then goes to on-line databases and, finally, to the internet
b) A replicable, scientific and transparent process
c) One which gives equal attention to the principal contributors to the area
d) A responsible, professional process of time-management for research
- b: Which of the following is not a type of non-probability sampling?
a) Snowball sampling
b) Stratified random sampling
c) Quota sampling
d) Convenience sampling
- b: The qualitative research strategy places a value on:
a) Using numbers, measurements and statistical techniques
b) Generating theories through inductive research about social meanings
c) Conducting research that is of a very high quality
d) All of the above
- b: The standard error is a statistical measure of:
a) The normal distribution of scores around the sample mean
b) The extent to which a sample mean is likely to differ from the population mean
c) The clustering of scores at each end of a survey scale
d) The degree to which a sample has been accurately stratified
- b: In phenomenology research, a research participant's inner world is referred to as their
a) mental world. b) life world. c) experiential world. d) internal structure
- b: The case study of Phineas Gage is fascinating. In 1848 Gage was a railroad worker who was the victim of a horrible accident when an explosion caused a tamping iron to be shot through his skull. Gage survived but with several physical and psychological problems. The study of Gage after the accident provided scientists with
