Which of the following is NOT an empirical question?

Question 1 (2 points)

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?
Save

Question 2 (2 points)

Which of the following is most clearly an example of an applied research question?
Question 2 options:
Is the tendency to take physical risks related to extroversion?
Do people’s scores on a paper­and­pencil measures of empathy predict whether they will help a disabled
person cross the street?
How does damage to the amygdala affect people’s experience of fear?
Does the color of a recycling bin affect how much people recycle?
Save

Question 3 (2 points)

The tendency to notice evidence that is consistent with our beliefs and ignore evidence that is inconsistent with
our beliefs is called _____.
Question 3 options:
wishful thinking
confirmation bias
skepticism
common sense
Save

Question 4 (2 points)

Two important attitudes of scientists are skepticism and _____.
Question 4 options:
emotional neutrality
mathematical ability
tolerance of uncertainty
religious agnosticism
Save

Question 5 (2 points)

What is an empirically supported treatment?
Question 5 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

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 6 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.

Save

Question 7 (2 points)

Which of the following is the best example of a phenomenon?
Question 7 options:
Smiling is a fundamental human behavior.
Sam, a male waiter, drew a smiley face on a check and got a particularly poor tip.
Smiling people put us in a good mood, causing us to be more likely to help smiling people.
Smiling people are generally evaluated more positively than non­smiling people.
Save

Question 8 (2 points)

When will researchers typically abandon a theory?
Question 8 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
after approximately 10 to 15 years
Save

Question 9 (2 points)

Which of the following is a categorical variable?
Question 9 options:
eye color
IQ
number of lifetime sexual partners
shoe size
Save

Question 10 (2 points)

Which of the following is the most common type of sample in psychological research?
Question 10 options:
a convenience sample
random sample
a haphazard sample
a stratified sample
There is a statistical relationship between two variables if which of the following is true?
Question 11 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
Save

Question 12 (2 points)

When you want to show that Variable X has a direct effect on Variable Y, what is the best kind of study to conduct?
Question 12 options:
a nonexperimental study
an experiment
an observational study
a survey
Save

Question 13 (2 points)

Which of the following could NOT be the independent variable in a true experimental design?
Question 13 options:

sexual abuse
study strategy
room temperature
test score
Save

Question 14 (2 points)

Which of the following studies most clearly has the directionality problem?
Question 14 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 correlation between losing a limb and one’s self­esteem.
A study relating college students’ study habits to their final exam performance.
A study on the relationship between how much negative emotion a person has and how many physical
symptoms he or she has.
Save

Question 15 (2 points)

Which of the following reference citations has the best APA­style format?
Question 15 options:
Unknown. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed., second printing).
Washington, DC.
American Psychological Association. Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (2009).
Author: Washington, DC
American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association
(6th ed., second printing). Washington, DC: Author.
No Author. (2009). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, DC: Author.

Question 16 (2 points)

Which of the following rules about APA style is correct?

Question 16 options:
You must use a sans­serif font.
Times New Roman is an acceptable font.
The entire paper has once­inch margins, except for the reference list, which has 0.5 inch margins.
The entire paper is double­spaced, except for the reference list, which is single spaced.
Save

Question 17 (2 points)

Which of the following in­text citations is formatted correctly in APA style?
Question 17 options:
Williams studied the effect of sleep deprivation on exam performance (2008).
Williams (2008) studied the effect of sleep deprivation on exam performance.
Sleep deprivation has a negative effect on exam performance (Williams, J. S., 2008).
Sleep deprivation has a negative effect on exam performance (Williams).
Save

Question 18 (2 points)

Which of the following is the best example of a construct?
Question 18 options:
depression
number of siblings
height
annual income
Save

Question 19 (2 points)

Which of the following variables is measured at the ratio level?
Question 19 options:

religion
intelligence
self­esteem
number of siblings
Save

Question 20 (2 points)

A low test­retest correlation would probably not be a concern for a measure of which of the following?
Question 20 options:
mood
intelligence
extroversion
conscientiousness

Question 21 (2 points)

Internal consistency is not relevant for which of the following measures?
Question 21 options:
the Rosenberg Self­Esteem Scale
a rating of one’s happiness on a 1­to­10 scale
the Beck Depression Inventory
a standard intelligence test
Save

Question 22 (2 points)

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 22 options:
the exam’s face validity

the exam’s discriminant validity
the exam’s criterion validity
the exam’s content validity
Save

Question 23 (2 points)

What are the two defining features of an experiment?
Question 23 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
Save

Question 24 (2 points)

Which of the following researchers probably worries most about the external validity of her studies?
Question 24 options:
Dr. Colfax is a behavioral neuroscientist who studies the functions of the amygdala.
Dr. Dumbrowski is a personality psychologist who is interested in genetic effects on personality.
Dr. Zamora is a cognitive psychologist who studies basic memory processes.
Dr. Prentice is a consumer psychologist who works for the Target Corporation.
Save

Question 25 (2 points)

Which of the following is true?
Question 25 options:
Good experiments eliminate all extraneous variables.
Every extraneous variable is also a confounding variable.

Every confounding variable is also an extraneous variable.
Every variable other than the independent and dependent variable is either an extraneous variable or a
confounding variable (but not both).

Question 26 (2 points)

Why are confounding variables a problem?
Question 26 options:
They provide an alternative explanation for any observed difference between conditions.
They reduce internal validity.
They make it difficult to tell if the independent variable was responsible for the effect on the dependent
variable.
All of the above.
Save

Question 27 (2 points)

In an experiment, the participants’ ages would be a confounding variable if which of the following were true?
Question 27 options:
The sample included both very old and very young participants.
Each condition included both very old and very young participants.
Participants in one condition were older on average than participants in another condition.
Age was the independent variable.
Save

Question 28 (2 points)

Imagine that you are a participant in an experiment on the effects of morning exercise on mathematics performance.
If this study uses a within­subjects design, which of the following would you do?
Question 28 options:
One day you take a math test after having exercised in the morning; another day you take a math test after not
having exercised in the morning.

Either you exercise in the morning and then take a math test or you do not exercise in the morning and then
take a math test.
You take a math test and then tell the researcher whether or not you exercised that morning.
All of the above are valid within­subjects designs.
Save

Question 29 (2 points)

A researcher is conducting a study in which the dependent variable is mental concentration. If it is a within­subjects
design with lots of different conditions, then which of the following is most likely to be a problem for the
researcher?
Question 29 options:
practice effect
fatigue effect
context effect
floor effect
Save

Question 30 (2 points)

Guillermo conducts an experiment with two conditions using a within­subjects design. If he is counterbalancing,
what does this mean?
Question 30 options:
Some participants are presented with multiple stimuli under Condition A; others are presented with multiple
stimuli under Condition b.
Participants in one condition receive the treatment; participants in the other condition receive a placebo.
Half the participants are in Condition A followed by Condition B; the rest are in Condition B followed by
Condition A.
There are an equal number of men and women in Condition A and Condition B.