Writers Den

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT an empirical question?

Question 1 options:

Are women more talkative than men?

Is dieting an effective weight loss strategy?

Should we prohibit cell phone use while driving?

Does cognitive psychotherapy help depressed people?

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Question 2 (1 point)

The tendency to notice evidence that is consistent with our beliefs and ignore evidence that is inconsistent with
our beliefs is called _____.

Question 2 options:

wishful thinking

confirmation bias

skepticism

common sense

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Question 3 (1 point)

Two important attitudes of scientists are skepticism and _____.

Question 3 options:

emotional neutrality

mathematical ability

tolerance of uncertainty

religious agnosticism

What is an empirically supported treatment?

Question 4 options:

a psychological treatment that has been shown to work by scientific research

a psychological treatment that has not yet been tested

a psychological treatment that should work in theory but that does not work in practice

a psychological treatment that can, in principle, be tested

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Question 5 (1 point)

Researcher A says that people who got allowances as children are more financially responsible as adults
because they had more opportunity to learn how to handle money. Researcher B says that people who got
allowances as children are more financially responsible adults because they are responsible people in general …
which is why their parents gave the allowances in the first place. Which of the following best describes this state of
affairs?

Question 5 options:

The researchers share the same hypothesis but are proposing different phenomena.

The researchers agree on the phenomenon but disagree about the theory.

The researchers have the same theory but different hypotheses.

The researchers are taking different perspectives on the same theory.

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Question 6 (1 point)

Which of the following is an advantage of narrow theories over broad theories?

Question 6 options:

They are simpler.

They explain more phenomena.

They are less technical.

They make more precise predictions

A theory that explains a behavior primarily in terms of why it happens is which of the following?

Question 7 options:

a mechanistic theory

a typology

a functional theory

a hypothesis

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Question 8 (1 point)

In general, what do researchers conclude when their hypotheses are confirmed?

Question 8 options:

It is time to switch to a new research topic.

They have proven their theory.

Their theory now has more support.

Nothing because a hypothesis cannot ever be confirmed.

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Question 9 (1 point)

The variable sex (male vs. female) is measured at the nominal level.

Question 9 options:

True

False

Question 10 (1 point)

Intelligence is measured at the ratio level.

Question 10 options:

True

False

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Question 11 (1 point)

Imagine that a research methods instructor accidentally includes concepts on an exam that he did not
actually cover in the course. This is a problem with which of the following?

Question 11 options:

the exam’s face validity

the exam’s discriminant validity

the exam’s criterion validity

the exam’s content validity

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Question 12 (1 point)

Random selection and random assignment are the same thing.

Question 12 options:

True

False

Question 10 (1 point)

Intelligence is measured at the ratio level.

Question 10 options:

True

False

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Question 11 (1 point)

Imagine that a research methods instructor accidentally includes concepts on an exam that he did not
actually cover in the course. This is a problem with which of the following?

Question 11 options:

the exam’s face validity

the exam’s discriminant validity

the exam’s criterion validity

the exam’s content validity

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Question 12 (1 point)

Random selection and random assignment are the same thing.

Question 12 options:

True

False

Question 13 (1 point)

When will researchers typically abandon a theory?

Question 13 options:

when it is criticized by other researchers

as soon as a hypothesis based on the theory is disconfirmed

after several hypotheses based on the theory are disconfirmed

r approximately 10 to 15 years

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Question 14 (1 point)

Which of the following is the most common type of sample in psychological research?

Question 14 options:

a convenience sample

random sample

a haphazard sample

a stratified sample

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Question 15 (1 point)

There is a statistical relationship between two variables if which of the following is true?

Question 15 options:

One of the variables has a higher mean than the other.

The average level of one variable differs across levels of the other.

The variables are conceptually similar (e.g., intelligence and common sense).

all of the above

Question 16 (1 point)

Which of the following could NOT be the independent variable in an experiment?

Question 16 options:

sexual abuse

study strategy

room temperature

mood

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Question 17 (1 point)

Which of the following studies most clearly has the directionality problem?

Question 17 options:

a study on whether or not a person was sexually abused as a child and how paranoid he or she is as an adult

a study on the relationship between losing a limb and one’s self-esteem

a study relating college students’ study habits to their final exam performance

a study on the correlation between how much negative emotion a person has and how many physical symptoms he or she has

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Question 18 (1 point)

The most common source of research ideas in psychology is which of the following?

Question 18 options:

previous research

informal observations

government regulations

suggestions from friends

Question 19 (1 point)

What typically happens to a manuscript during the peer review process for a professional journal?

Question 19 options:

The researcher gets comments on the manuscript from his or her friends before submitting it for publication

The manuscript is posted on the Internet and voted on by a large group of evaluators.

The journal editor sends the manuscript to three experts for their comments before deciding whether to publish it.

The manuscript is published and the journal editor then publishes comments from readers.

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Question 20 (1 point)

Which of the following is the best example of a construct?

Question 20 options:

depression

number of siblings

height

annual income

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Question 21 (1 point)

A low test-retest correlation would probably not be a concern for a measure of which of the following?

Question 21 options:

mood

intelligence

extroversion

conscientiousness

Which of the following is a common measure of internal consistency?

Question 22 options:

test-retest correlation

split-half correlation

Cohen’s d

Cronbach’s alpha

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Question 23 (1 point)

Which of the following is generally true of measures created for use in scientific research?

Question 23 options:

They can be used without permission.

They are described in a published article.

They should be properly referenced in any published work.

all of the above

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Question 24 (1 point)

After using any psychological measure, it is always good practice to do which of the following?

Question 24 options:

write a thank you note to the creator of the measure

evaluate its reliability and validity based on the new data

publish the results in the Mental Measurements Yearbook

discuss participants’ responses with them

What are the two defining features of an experiment?

Question 25 options:

control of extraneous variables; statistical analysis of the results

statistical analysis of the results; a comparison of two groups

a comparison of two groups; manipulation of an independent variable

manipulation of an independent variable; control of extraneous variables