Describe the advantages and disadvantages of convenience sampling.
> Under what circumstances is it advisable to switch to a between-subjects design instead of using a within-subjects design?
> A researcher has a sample of 30 rats that are all cloned from the same source. The 30 rats are genetically identical and have been raised in exactly the same environment since birth.
> Explain how the purpose of a correlational study differs from the purpose of an experimental study.
> What characteristic differentiates a pretest–posttest design from a time-series design?
> A researcher has demonstrated that a new noncompetitive physical education program significantly improves self-esteem for children in a kindergarten program. a. What additional information can be obtained by introducing participant motor skill ability as
> A two-factor analysis of variance is used to evaluate the significance of the mean differences for the two-factor research study shown in the following table. The study is evaluating the effects of sugary versus nonsugary snacks on the activity level of
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define each of the following terms: Scatter plot Linear relationship Pearson correlation Monotonic relationship Spearman correlation Statistical significance of a correlation Regression Third-varia
> A researcher would like to use a factorial study to compare two programs designed to help people stop smoking. The smoking behavior of each participant will be measured at the beginning of the program, at the end of the program, and again four months aft
> Explain what is meant by the concept that main effects and interactions are independent.
> Describe the similarities and differences between a research proposal and a research report.
> Suppose a researcher conducts a two-factor study comparing two treatments (I and II) for college graduates versus adults with no college experience. The structure of the study is shown in the following matrix. a. If the results show that college graduate
> In a classic study, Shrauger (1972) examined the effect of an audience on performance for two groups of participants: high self-esteem and low self-esteem individuals. The participants in the study were given a problem-solving task with half of the indiv
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define the following terms: Two-factor design Single-factor design Levels Three-factor design Higher-order factorial design
> Explain how holding a participant variable such as gender constant prevents the variable from becoming a confounding variable and can help reduce the variance within treatments. Identify the problem with using this method.
> A researcher wants to describe the effectiveness of a new program (compared to the old program) for teaching reading to elementary school children. Describe how this study could be done as a posttest-only nonequivalent control group design. Next, describ
> Explain why partial counterbalancing is sometimes necessary.
> Describe the circumstances in which counterbalancing is used and explain what it is trying to accomplish.
> Time-related factors and order effects can threaten internal validity for some within-subjects experiments. Describe the kind of study for which these factors can be a problem and explain how they can be a confounding variable in some within-subjects des
> Describe the characteristics of a within-subjects experimental research design.
> Describe the disadvantages of a multiple-treatment design, compared to a two-treatment design, for a within-subjects experiment.
> Identify the circumstances in which it is useful to write a research proposal before conducting the actual research study. In each case, explain why the proposal would be useful.
> Describe the basic characteristics of a pre–post design and explain why these designs are not true experiments.
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define the following terms: Individual differences Differential effects History Instrumentation Order effects Maturation Statistical regression Interrupted time-series designs Single-case, or sing
> Describe how individual differences can produce large variance within treatments and explain why this is a problem in a between subjects experiment.
> A sociologist would like to describe the characteristics of people who live and work in small towns (population less than 2,000). (a) Explain how this question might be answered using qualitative research. (b) Explain how the question might be answered u
> Selection bias and individual differences are both potential problems dealing with the participants in a study. a. Identify which of these is a threat to internal validity and which is a threat to external validity, and describe how each one is a threat.
> Identify the advantages of a multiple-group design compared to an experiment with only two groups.
> Describe some of the problems that can arise when the participants in one treatment condition of a between-subjects experiment are allowed to communicate with participants in a different condition.
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define the following terms: Within-subjects design Repeated-measures design Practice Fatigue Contrast effect Complete counterbalancing Partial counterbalancing Latin square Participant attrition
> A recent survey at a major corporation found that employees who regularly participated in the company fitness program tended to have fewer sick days than the employees who did not participate. However, because the study was not a true experiment, you can
> Define extraneous variable and explain how extraneous variables can become confounding variables.
> For each of the following, identify the section of a research report that would probably contain the desired information: How many individuals participated in the study, and what are their characteristics? Why was the study done? Did the study use any
> Briefly explain how a participant characteristic, such as personality, could be a confounding variable in a between-subjects experiment.
> In a between-subjects design, each individual score is obtained from a separate participant. a. Briefly explain why this is an advantage. b. Briefly explain why this is a disadvantage.
> At the beginning of this chapter (p. 186), we described a study comparing the effectiveness of studying material printed on paper to studying material displayed on a computer screen (Ackerman & Goldsmith, 2011). Explain why this study is an example of a
> Describe the advantages of a two-group design compared to an experiment with more than two groups.
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define the following terms: Within-subjects design Between-subjects design Independent-measures design Random assignment Variance within treatments, or variance within groups Differential attrit
> Explain how the process of randomly assigning participants to treatment conditions should prevent a participant variable such as age or gender from becoming a confounding variable.
> What is the novelty effect, and how does it affect a study’s external validity?
> Identify the two characteristics needed for a research study to qualify as an experiment.
> Explain how a researcher using simple random sampling can still obtain a biased sample.
> It has been demonstrated that students with high self-esteem tend to have higher grades than students with low self-esteem. Does this relationship mean that higher self-esteem causes better academic performance? Does it mean that better academic performa
> Explain the distinction between naturalistic observation and participant observation, and describe the situations in which participant observation may be particularly useful.
> By manipulating the participants’ experiences, it is possible to examine how people’s performance and attitudes are influenced by success and failure. To do this, researchers can give some participants a feeling of success and others a feeling of failure
> For each of the following scenarios, identify which research strategy is used: descriptive, correlational, experimental, or nonexperimental. (Note: For now, do not differentiate between nonexperimental and quasi-experimental studies. The distinction betw
> Describe how participant reactivity can be a threat to external validity; that is, how can participant reactivity limit the ability to generalize research results?
> Describe how experimenter bias can be a threat to internal validity; that is, how can experimenter bias provide an explanation for the scores in one condition being higher than the scores in a second condition?
> Can a research study be an experiment without a control group? Can a study be an experiment without controlling extraneous variables?
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define the following terms: Third-variable problem Directionality problem Confounding variable Random process Placebo Mundane realism Experimental realism
> Explain how inter-rater reliability is established.
> Suppose that a social scientist has developed a questionnaire intended to measure the quality of romantic relationships. Describe how you could evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire.
> Explain the difference among the terms research strategy, research design, and research procedure.
> What information should be included in the abstract of an APA-style research report?
> What is the primary threat to internal validity for a study that compares different groups of participants?
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define each of the following terms: Descriptive research strategy Linear relationship Curvilinear relationship Positive relationship Negative relationship Correlational research strategy Experiment
> Explain the advantages and disadvantages of a stratified random sample compared with a proportionate stratified random sample.
> Explain the role of voluntary participation in informed consent.
> For each of the following, identify which of the three basic principles of the Belmont Report is being violated: a. A researcher recruit’s poor minorities to be participants in a risky experiment b. A researcher tricks people into participating by sugges
> Describe what it means to say that science is empirical, public, and objective, and explain why each of these principles is important.
> Describe the relative strengths and weaknesses of self-report measures compared to behavioral measures.
> Select one construct from the following list: Happiness ……………... hunger Exhaustion ……………. motivation Creativity ……………… fear Briefly describe how it might be measured using: (a) An operational definition based on self-report (e.g., a questionnaire) (b) A
> For each of the following scenarios, identify which sampling method is used: a. The State College is conducting a survey of student attitudes and opinions. The plan is to use the list of all registered students and then select every 10th name on the list
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define each of the following terms: Target population Accessible population Law of large numbers Sampling methods, or sampling techniques, or sampling procedures Simple random sampling Systematic s
> Describe how time, event, or individual sampling is done during behavioral observation, and explain why sampling may be necessary.
> Summarize the major APA ethical standards concerning the care and use of animals in research.
> Describe in your own words the criteria that the IRB uses to evaluate proposed research.
> Explain the difference between passive and active deception.
> What constitutes fraud, and what are some reasons for its occurrence?
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define each of the following terms:
> For each of the following operational definitions, decide whether you consider it to be a valid measure. Explain why or why not. Decide whether you consider it to be a reliable measure. Explain why or why not. (a) A researcher defines social anxiety in t
> How does a full-text database differ from other databases?
> According to the gambler’s fallacy, if a coin toss results in heads three times in a row, then the probability of tails increases for the fourth toss. Describe how you would use the empirical to evaluate this claim.
> Define primary and secondary sources and explain how each plays a role in the process of finding a research idea.
> Briefly explain what an operational definition is and why operational definitions are sometimes necessary.
> Create an example of a citation for each of the following: a. A single author cited in parentheses: b. Two or more authors cited as the subject of a sentence c. Seven authors cited in parentheses d. The second citation of a study with three authors as
> In addition to the key words, you should be able to define each of the following terms:
> In this chapter, we identified four scales of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio. (a) What additional information is obtained from measurements on an ordinal scale compared to measurements from a nominal scale? (b) What additional informa
> In addition to the key words, you should also be able to define each of the following terms:
> List the five sections typically found in a research article, and describe briefly what each should contain.
> What are the five steps of the scientific method?
> In this chapter, we identified the method of authority, the rational method, and the empirical method as techniques for acquiring information. For each of the following, choose one of these three methods and describe how you could use it to answer the qu
> Based on the following descriptions of studies, determine whether each of the studies can be classified as basic or applied research. (a) A researcher conducts a study to determine whether there is a significant increase in job satisfaction if employees
> Suppose that you are debating whether to hitchhike across country or take the bus. Explain how the rational method could help you make a decision.
> Describe why you might be cautious about using the Internet to find answers to medical questions.
> Determine whether each of the following hypotheses is testable and refutable. If not, explain why.
> At the beginning of Chapter 2, we described a study by Jones, Jones, Thomas, and Piper (2003) demonstrating that alcohol increases the perceived attractiveness of opposite-sex individuals. Write a sentence that presents this result as a statement of fact
> Is the following hypothesis testable, refutable, and positive? Explain your answer.
> Construct a frequency distribution histogram or polygon for the set of scores presented in the following frequency distribution table: F 8 2 7 4 6. 7 6 4 3 3 1
> Suppose that you wake up in the morning with all the symptoms of a head cold. You take a cold pill and eat a big bowl of your mother’s chicken soup. By midday your cold symptoms are gone, and you are feeling much better. Can you conclude that the chicken
> A linear relationship falls more or less along a straight line, and is measured by Pearson’s r. A relationship that is consistently one-directional, either consistently positive or consistently negative, is called a monotonic relationship. It is measured
> Define the concept of “stability” within a phase, and explain why it is important.
> In a single-case study consisting of a series of phases, how long should each phase be and what factor determines that it is time to change phases?
> What elements are required for a single-case research study to qualify as an experiment?
> What is the purpose for determining a set of behavior categories and creating a list of specific behaviors to define each category before making behavioral observation?
> Identify the appropriate statistical test for each of the following nonexperimental and quasi-experimental designs. a. A differential design: b. A cross-sectional design comparing children at ages 10, 14, and 18: single
> Explain why an ABAB reversal design is inappropriate for a treatment that has a permanent or long-lasting effect.
> Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) conducted a series of studies comparing the effectiveness of taking classroom notes on laptops versus writing longhand. In one study, students were instructed to use their normal classroom note-taking strategy using either
> Describe the three ways identified in the text to find or develop a new research idea from existing research report(s).
> Explain why the main effects in a factorial study may not provide an accurate description of the results.
> Describe the pattern that would appear in a scatter plot showing the data points for each of the following correlations: r = –0.9 and r = +0.3.
