Test Bank for Social Psychology and Human Nature Comprehensive

3rd Edition by Baumeister (Sections 1)

In one of the first social psychological experiments ever conducted, researcher Norman
Triplett examined the records of teams of cyclists. He found that cyclists who raced
against each other ____ than those who raced alone (against the clock).

 a. were more aggressive after the race

 b. got into more accidents
 c. cycled more quickly
 d. enjoyed the race less

In one of the first social psychological experiments ever conducted, researcher Norman
Triplett built a "competition machine," in which children wind up a fishing reel. He found
that the children were able to wind more quickly when ____.

 a. they worked as a group side by side than when they worked alone
 b. they worked alone than when they worked as a group side by side
 c. they were explicitly asked to work as fast as possible
 d. they were explicitly asked to take their time to “get it right”

Based on early research by Norman Triplett, we should expect that children who work
on math problems alone will ____ than children who work on math problems side by
side with their classmates.

 a. work more slowly

 b. work more quickly
 c. second-guess themselves less
 d. second-guess themselves more

Based on early research by Norman Triplett with racing cyclists, we should expect that
people who exercise on rowing machines at gyms are more likely to ____ than people
who exercise on the same machines in the privacy of their homes.

 a. burn more calories

 b. burn less calories
 c. feel a sense of accomplishment
 d. feel a sense of failure
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In one of the first social psychological experiments ever conducted, researcher Max
Ringlemann observed men as they pulled on a rope either alone, as part of a small
group, or as part of a large group. He found that as the size of the group increased,
____.

 a. individual effort increased

 b. individual effort decreased
 c. the task took longer to complete
 d. the task took less time to complete

Suppose that you own a rowboat and enjoy going rowing on a nearby lake in the
summer. In June, you are planning to go rowing with two of your friends (three people
total in the boat), and in July, you are planning to go rowing with just one friend (two
people total in the boat). Will you put in more effort (row harder) on the three-person
trip or on the two-person trip?

 a. You will put in more effort on the three-person trip.

 b. You will put in more effort on the two-person trip.
 c. You will put in the same amount of effort on both trips.
 d. It is impossible to say—no research has examined this question.

Given Max Ringlemann's early research looking at group size and individual effort,
should we expect Student X to put in a different amount of effort depending on
whether she worked on a history project in a five-person group rather than a two-
person group?

 a. Yes, we should expect her to work harder in the five-person group.

 b. Yes, we should expect her to work harder in the two-person group.
 c. No, we should expect her to work equally hard in both groups.
 d. It is impossible to say; it appears that there are no predictable patterns
regarding group size and individual effort.

Early research in social psychology conducted by Max Ringlemann revealed that people
____ when they work as part of a group (e.g., pushing a car off of the road with two
other people) compared to when they work alone at the same task.

 a. do not work as hard

 b. work harder

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  c. feel like they are doing more work
 d. feel like they are doing less work

The first social psychological experiments and the publication of the first book to bear
the title Social Psychology both occurred around ____.

 a. 400 A.D.
 b. 1750
 c. 1900
 d. 1965

During the first half of the 20th century, who argued that attitudes were the most
important and useful concept in social psychology?

 a. Kurt Lewin
 b. Max Ringlemann
 c. Norman Triplett
 d. Gordon Allport

Who proposed the idea that behavior is a function of both the person and the situation
in the first half of the 20th century?

 a. Max Ringlemann
 b. Norman Triplett
 c. Kurt Lewin
 d. Gordon Allport

You want to ask your friend Maya to help you with your sorority’s float for the
competition in the homecoming parade next week. Maya is extremely reliable and
trustworthy, but she is totally swamped with her internship and upcoming midterm
exams. You decide not to ask her since she might be too busy to follow through.
According to Kurt Lewin’s analysis of human behavior, knowing that Maya is reliable is
an example of “____” information, and knowing she is busy is an example of “____”
information.

 a. person; situation
 b. situation; person
 c. social; nonsocial

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  d. nonsocial; social

In the history of psychology and social psychology, the late 1800s and early 1900s
marked ____.

 a. the very first social psychological experiments

 b. the era in which social psychology came into its own—breaking away
from behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis
 c. the beginnings of research in social cognition
 d. the beginnings of research in social neuroscience

When did social psychology begin to come into its own as a field?

 a. The 1950s and 1960s

 b. The 1970s and 1980s
 c. The 1990s
 d. The early 2000s

Milgram’s famous studies of obedience to authority were motivated by which historical

event?

 a. The Holocaust
 b. The fall of Communism
 c. The return of soldiers from Desert Storm
 d. The Great Depression

Today, both funded and unfunded studies conducted at universities must first obtain
____ approval.

 a. ABPP
 b. IRB
 c. APA
 d. ERB

Which of the following elements is particularly critical to include in a deception study,

but is not usually required in other types of studies?

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  a. IRB approval
 b. demand characteristics
 c. complete debriefing
 d. informed consent

Dr. Puni does not want the participants in his study to be aware of his hypothesis. What
will he strive to reduce in his study?

 a. The margin of error

 b. Divergent validity
 c. Measurement validity
 d. Demand characteristics

In the 1950s and 1960s, mainstream psychology was divided between two main
theoretical camps: ____.

 a. trait theory and behaviorism

 b. Freudian psychoanalysis and humanism
 c. humanism and trait theory
 d. behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis

In the 1950s and 1960s, mainstream psychology was divided between ____.

 a. behaviorism and existentialism

 b. Freudian psychoanalysis and existentialism
 c. behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis
 d. existentialism and the phenomenological approach

Behaviorism seeks to explain human behavior in terms of ____.

 a. basic biological drives such as hunger and thirst

 b. broad environmental influences such as historical time period and
geography
 c. culture
 d. learning principles such as rewards and punishments

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How are social psychologists generally similar to behaviorists?

 a. They both tend to favor experiments and the scientific method.

 b. They are both interested in the mind, thoughts, and emotions.
 c. They are both originally rooted in psychoanalytic theory.
 d. They are both interested in the unconscious mind.

Social psychologists are generally similar to Freudian psychoanalysts in that they both
____.

 a. are more interested in abnormal behavior than in normal behavior

 b. tend to favor experiments and the scientific method
 c. are primarily interested in external behaviors rather than the internal
workings of the mind
 d. have an interest in thoughts and feelings as well as behaviors

While social psychologists are interested in a wide variety of topics, three themes that
have become increasingly important during the last 30 years are ____.

 a. psychoanalysis, meditation, and hypnosis

 b. economic behavior, political behavior, and criminal behavior
 c. social cognition, biological influences on behavior, and the self
 d. personality measurement, organizational behavior, and spirituality

Which topic has been of the MOST interest to social psychologists during the last 30
years?

 a. Social cognition—concerned with how people think about other people

and how people think about the social world in general
 b. Behaviorism—concerned with basic principles of learning such as reward
and punishment
 c. The idea that modern life makes people vulnerable to alienation and
exploitation
 d. The idea that people act less on the basis of firm moral principles than
they do on the basis of conformity, or "following the crowd"

Following the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, social psychology’s focus on conflict
____.

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  a. remained unchanged
 b. emphasized racial/ethnic conflict
 c. lessened
 d. increased

Social psychology is best defined as the study of ____.

 a. how we learn to behave in accordance with the rules of society

 b. how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are affected by other people
 c. how cultures are created
 d. how societies and social groups work

As a rule, social psychologists are MOST interested in ____.

 a. normal adult human beings

 b. severe mental illness
 c. normal childhood development
 d. diagnoses in abnormal behavior

In social psychology, the "ABC triad" consists of ____.

 a. attitudes, beliefs and commitments

 b. ambiances, biology, and culture
 c. affects, behaviors and cognitions
 d. attributions, boundaries, and corrections

In psychology, an "affect" is most similar to ____.

 a. an emotion or mood
 b. a belief or attitude
 c. a behavior or reaction
 d. a motivating force or drive

Which of the following is an example of an "emotion"?

 a. A case study

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  b. A nervous twitch
 c. Happiness
 d. Political activism

When psychologists talk about "cognitions," they are typically referring to ____.

 a. unconscious motivations
 b. thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes
 c. abnormal thoughts or experiences (e.g., delusions)
 d. emotions or feelings

Which of the following is the best example of "cognition"?

 a. Enduring an auditory hallucination

 b. Having a hunger pang
 c. Thinking that you are a valuable employee
 d. Exhibiting a nervous twitch

Martin believes that his blue coat is warmer than his red coat. Ted thinks that he might
want to have kids sometime in the next few years. Yesi remembers playing baseball
with her friends as a child. These are all examples of ____.

 a. delusions
 b. schemas
 c. affects
 d. cognitions

When attempting to explain a person's behavior, what do social psychologists tend to

assess first?

 a. The person's unconscious motivations

 b. The person's personality
 c. The person’s situation
 d. The person's childhood

Social psychology focuses especially on the power of ____.

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  a. genetics
 b. reinforcement
 c. situations
 d. unconscious

Ed just stole $50 from his parents. In assessing Ed’s motives, which of the following
questions would a social psychologist be MOST likely to ask?

 a. Is Ed unconsciously motivated to hurt his parents?

 b. Is Ed a person with a weak moral character?
 c. Does Ed have friends or other role models who are also stealing?
 d. Is Ed mentally healthy enough to realize what he has done?

Roger holds a number of negative stereotypes about women; specifically, he thinks that
most women are manipulative, vain, and lazy. In trying to understand why Roger holds
these stereotypes, which of the following questions would a social psychologist be
MOST likely to ask?

 a. Does Roger feel so intimidated by women that he expresses these

negative stereotypes in order to "cover up" his deep-seeded lack of self-esteem?
 b. Did Roger have a difficult relationship with his mother as a young child
that might have fostered negative attitudes toward all women?
 c. Does Roger have a physical brain abnormality?
 d. Has Roger been exposed to these stereotypes in the media, or has he
perhaps had a few limited (but negative) interactions with women that might
have helped to perpetuate these stereotypes?

Most social psychologists perform research by ____.

 a. engaging in historical analyses

 b. conducting case studies (individual interviews)
 c. conducting experiments
 d. using nonexperimental observational methods

Which of the following fields is best defined as "the study of human culture—the shared
values, beliefs, and practices of a group of people"?

 a. History

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  b. Political science
 c. Social psychology
 d. Anthropology

Which of the following fields is MOST concerned with understanding different human
cultures?

 a. Economics
 b. Political science
 c. Social psychology
 d. Anthropology

Anthropologists would posit that social psychologists cannot understand human

behavior fully unless they understand the ____.

 a. genetic makeup of the populations under study

 b. relationship between humans and animals
 c. biological basis of the behavior
 d. cultural context in which that behavior occurs

The social psychological theory known as “social exchange theory” is based MOST
obviously on which of the following other social sciences?

 a. Economics
 b. History
 c. Political science
 d. Anthropology

Which of the following fields is concerned with the production, distribution, and
consumption of goods and services?

 a. Anthropology
 b. History
 c. Economics
 d. Political science

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With which of the following social sciences has social psychology had the LEAST
interaction until recently?

 a. Sociology
 b. Anthropology
 c. Economics
 d. History

Laela is interested in studying how our thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the
groups to which we belong. Laela’s work will MOST closely intersect with which other
social science?

 a. Economics
 b. Sociology
 c. Neuroscience
 d. History

Johnna is examining how attitudes predict voting behavior. Her research will MOST
likely involve an intersection of social psychology and what other social science?

 a. Anthropology
 b. Sociology
 c. Political science
 d. Economics

Political science is BEST described as the study of ____.

 a. organizations and institutions, especially governments

 b. human societies and groups that form those societies
 c. past events
 d. human culture

Which of the following fields is BEST defined as "the study of human societies and the
groups that form those societies"?

 a. Anthropology
 b. Political Science

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  c. Sociology
 d. Psychology

Dr. Otten studies the relationship between crime rates and childrearing practices. Dr.
Otten is MOST likely a(n) ____.

 a. anthropologist
 b. economist
 c. sociologist
 d. social psychologist

Although sociologists and social psychologists are both interested in group behavior,
sociologists tend to focus on ____, whereas social psychologists tend to focus on ____.

 a. individual members within the group; the group as a single unit

 b. the group as a single unit; individual members within the group
 c. how groups are unique; how various groups are similar to one another
 d. how various groups are similar to one another; how groups are unique

According to the simile in your text, if psychology is like a tree, then social psychology is
like ____.

 a. the stump
 b. one of the branches
 c. a leaf
 d. a root

What do we call the field that combines the interests of social and biological
psychology?

 a. Neuroscience
 b. Physiological psychology
 c. Social neuroscience
 d. Social cognition

Which of the following fields is LEAST focused on what happens in the brain, nervous
system, and other bodily processes?

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  a. Biological psychology
 b. Physiological psychology
 c. Neuroscience
 d. Social neuroscience

At what point in the history of social psychology did social psychologists become
interested in the biological aspects of social behavior?

 a. 1960s
 b. 1970s
 c. 1980s
 d. 1990s

How has the textbook described the historical relationship between clinical psychology
and social psychology?

 a. Clinical psychology grew out of social psychology.

 b. Both clinical psychology and social psychology grew out of cognitive
psychology.
 c. The two fields have historically been at odds and argued with one
another.
 d. The two fields have historically exchanged ideas and viewpoints.

Within psychology, ____ typically focus on "abnormal" behavior (e.g., mental disorders
and behavioral disorders).

 a. only clinical psychologists

 b. both clinical psychologists and personality psychologists
 c. only personality psychologists
 d. psychologists from all branches of psychology

Dr. Kay researches the effectiveness of different therapies for treating severe anxiety
disorders. He is MOST likely a ____.

 a. personality psychologist
 b. clinical psychologist
 c. cognitive psychologist

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  d. Freudian psychoanalyst

Which branch of psychology is primarily concerned with thought processes (e.g., how
memory works and what people notice)?

 a. Developmental psychology
 b. Social psychology
 c. Cognitive psychology
 d. Biological psychology

In recent years, what has emerged as an important subfield of social psychology that
explores the ways in which people think about social situations?

 a. Cognitive sociology
 b. Social cognition
 c. Cognitive psychology
 d. Socioneurology

Which of the following topics would a cognitive psychologist be MOST likely to study?

 a. The heritability of depression

 b. Male-female differences in sexual behavior
 c. How people learn to memorize complex musical compositions
 d. Altruistic behavior among chimpanzees

Which of the following topics is a personality psychologist MOST likely to study?

 a. The development of schizophrenia

 b. Gender differences in the acquisition of language skills
 c. Individual differences in leadership ability
 d. Cross-cultural differences in mating and courtship behaviors

Until recently, what was the relationship between developmental and social psychology?

 a. The two subfields mutually influenced each other.

 b. Developmental psychology tended to draw more on social psychology.

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  c. Social psychology tended to draw more on developmental psychology.
 d. The two fields had relatively little influence on each other.

The study of how people change across their lives from conception to death is the
purview of ____.

 a. developmental psychology
 b. cognitive psychology
 c. clinical psychology
 d. biological psychology

Dr. Gem studies individual differences in introversion (a trait similar to shyness). Dr.
Gem is MOST likely a _____ psychologist.

 a. social
 b. personality
 c. clinical
 d. developmental

Which of the following branches of psychology is MOST closely affiliated with social
psychology?

 a. Developmental psychology
 b. Clinical psychology
 c. Personality psychology
 d. Biological psychology

The top research journals in social psychology have substantial overlap, content-wise,
with which of the following?

 a. Developmental psychology
 b. Clinical psychology
 c. Personality psychology
 d. Biological psychology

In recent years, the line between social psychology and ____ has become especially
blurred.

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  a. developmental psychology
 b. biological psychology
 c. clinical psychology
 d. personality psychology

According to the textbook, what is one major reason people study social psychology?

 a. It is fun and interesting, and can help make the world a better place.
 b. It provides an important foundation for understanding clinical psychology.
 c. It helps people overcome their personal problems.
 d. It is an easy topic to understand.

According to the textbook, the key distinction between philosophy and psychology is the
fact that psychology ____.

 a. is concerned with observable phenomena (e.g., behaviors) rather than

unobservable phenomena (e.g., thoughts)
 b. is concerned with unobservable phenomena (e.g., thoughts) rather than
observable phenomena (e.g., behaviors)
 c. primarily relies on the scientific method
 d. primarily relies on the case study method

According to the textbook, psychology can be thought of as a kind of "experimental

philosophy" because psychology ____ while relying on the experimental method.

 a. addresses many of the same questions that interest philosophers

 b. is as popular today as philosophy was in ancient times
 c. also grew out of the mathematical sciences
 d. is also a highly controversial field

Social scientists who focus on concrete problems—such as how to boost literacy rates in
schools or how to increase energy conservation—are known as ____.

 a. counselors
 b. applied researchers
 c. industrial-organizational (I/O) psychologists

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  d. social workers

Dr. Hon is a researcher who studies methods for increasing condom usage among
sexually active teens. Dr. Hon would probably be BEST described as a(n) ____.

 a. personality psychologist
 b. applied researcher
 c. social worker
 d. developmental psychologist

Applied researchers are BEST defined as social scientists who ____.

 a. work in "real life" settings—such as in workplaces, schools, or zoos

 b. focus on concrete problems—such as how to boost literacy rates or how
to increase water conservation
 c. seek to "test out," or apply, others' theories rather than develop their own
theories
 d. study the process of research itself—how researchers go about selecting
research questions, conducting studies, and reporting findings

Many areas of study in social psychology evoke a lot of passion from the researchers
invested in that arena. Although doing research to make the world a better place is
great motivation, one of the hazards of this motive is that ____.

 a. only correlational studies can be conducted

 b. ideals and political beliefs may cloud scientific judgment
 c. the research is hard to replicate
 d. the research will not be reported accurately

When social psychologist Kurt Lewin said that "there is nothing so practical as a good
theory," he meant that ____.

 a. many theories are overly abstract; a good theory should be based on

directly observable facts
 b. many theories are overly abstract; a good theory should make predictions
about directly observable phenomena
 c. although they may seem impractical, theories can be very important in
helping to stimulate practical ideas and practical research

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  d. he was opposed to overly theoretical work and a major proponent of
applied research

Which of the following would a basic researcher MOST LIKELY study?

 a. A theory that explains the causes of aggression

 b. The plight of welfare mothers
 c. Why people don’t wear seat belts
 d. How to get people to conserve electric power

Basic research is to applied research as ____ is to ____.

 a. general; specific
 b. specific; general
 c. hard; easy
 d. easy; hard

Consider the following two American adages, which seem to contradict one another:
"Birds of a feather flock together" and "opposites attract." The authors of the textbook
would probably say that ____.

 a. this contradiction is an anomaly since Americans tend to be extremely

single-minded in their "common sense" views about social psychology
 b. most people in the U.S. probably believe one of these adages to be true—
but not both—since most people have very clear personal theories about social
psychology
 c. the contradiction is not surprising at all, since "common sense" theories
are often poorly defined, i.e., most people would probably say that both of these
things are true (if you asked them at different times)
 d. most people would not see the contradiction if it were pointed out to
them, since the average person is not a strong logical thinker

According to the textbook, "common sense" theories about social psychology are ____.

 a. almost always wrong

 b. often misleading or contradictory
 c. very often correct

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  d. very often correct when they have to do with dyadic (two-person)
relationships, but usually wrong when they have to do with group behavior

The scientific method used by social psychologists is ____.

 a. conceptually the same as the scientific method used by clinical

psychologists, biologists, and chemists
 b. conceptually the same as the scientific method used by clinical
psychologists, but fundamentally different from the scientific method used by
biologists, chemists, and other "hard scientists"
 c. fundamentally different from the scientific method used in other fields
 d. conceptually the same as the scientific method used by clinical
psychologists, biologists, and chemists—except for the fact that social
psychologists do not usually use statistical significance testing

The first step in the scientific method is to ____.

 a. state a problem for study

 b. state a hypothesis
 c. determine the research sample
 d. collect data

The scientific method consists of approximately ____ basic steps.

 a. three
 b. five
 c. nine
 d. twelve

Dr. Shar wants to test her theory that people feel less stressed after exercising. She
measures students’ stress levels and then has them perform 30 minutes of moderate
exercise on a treadmill. After the treadmill segment, she measures their stress levels
again. This is an example of a(n) ____ design.

 a. factorial
 b. between-subjects
 c. within-subjects
 d. survey

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"An idea or explanation for something that is based on known facts but not yet proven"
is known as a(n) ____.

 a. hypothesis
 b. theory
 c. ad hoc test
 d. independent variable

A hypothesis is BEST described as a(n) ____.

 a. worldview
 b. educated guess
 c. random guess
 d. post-hoc explanation (an explanation that has the benefit of hindsight
knowledge)

What is a hypothesis?

 a. A statistical procedure
 b. An established scientific fact
 c. A testable prediction
 d. A type of sample

Dr. Brown conducts an experiment to examine the effects of mentorship programs on

children's academic achievement. She finds that children who are given mentors receive
significantly higher grades than children who are not. The result is statistically
significant at the .05 level. What does this mean?

 a. The finding probably occurred by chance; mentorship programs probably

DO NOT really improve academic achievement.
 b. The finding probably did NOT occur by chance; mentorship programs
probably DO boost academic achievement.
 c. The finding was larger than expected; mentorship programs appear to be
even more effective than Dr. Brown suspected.
 d. The finding was smaller than expected; mentorship programs appear to
be less effective than Dr. Brown suspected.

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In social psychology, researchers typically test hypotheses using the ____ confidence
level.

 a. 80%
 b. 85%
 c. 90%
 d. 95%

Social psychologists routinely test research hypotheses using the .05 level of
significance. This means that so-called "significant" findings are actually "flukes" about
____ of the time.

 a. .05%
 b. 1%
 c. 5%
 d. 20%

If a researcher tested 1000 people and found that women received significantly higher
scores on the verbal portion of the SAT than did men, this would mean that ____.

 a. among the sample that was tested, women's scores were definitely higher
than men's (even if the difference is very small)—though there might not be a
difference in the population at large
 b. among the sample that was tested, women's scores were at least 5%
higher than men's—though there might not be a difference in the population at
large
 c. in the population at large, women's scores are likely higher than men's
(even if the difference is very small)
 d. in the population at large, women's scores are likely higher than men's—
by a score difference of at least 5%

According to the textbook, if you conduct a research study, write up all of the results in
a paper, and submit the paper to a top academic journal, you have a ____ chance of
getting your paper published in one of the best social psychology journals.

 a. 0-1%
 b. 10-20%
 c. 50%

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  d. 60-70%

Social psychologists typically derive ____ based on ____.

 a. hypotheses; theories
 b. hypotheses; observations
 c. observations; hypotheses
 d. observations; theories

If you conduct a study and predict that X causes Y, then X is the ____.

 a. internal variable
 b. external variable
 c. independent variable
 d. dependent variable

If you conduct a study and predict that A causes B, then B is the ____.

 a. internal variable
 b. external variable
 c. independent variable
 d. dependent variable

Dr. Khanmohamed is conducting a research project with young children to examine the
effect of the exposure to different cultural groups on the development of empathy. The
independent variable in this research is ____.

 a. young children
 b. exposure to different cultural groups
 c. empathy
 d. the development of empathy

Dr. Tsuei is studying the effects of sleep deprivation on interpersonal skills. He is testing
the interpersonal skills of 20-25 year-old males who have been sleep deprived for 24
hours, 36 hours, or 48 hours. In this study, the dependent variable is the ____.

 a. age of the research participants

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  b. interpersonal skills of the research participants
 c. length of time that the research participants are deprived of sleep
 d. type of interpersonal skills test used in the study

Suppose that you conducted an experiment to test the effects of violence in TV shows
on the aggressiveness in children. The dependent variable in this study would be ____.

 a. how violent the TV shows were

 b. how many hours of violent shows the children needed to watch before
they became violent
 c. how violent the parents of the children were
 d. how aggressive the children were

Which of the following would be the BEST operational definition for tiredness?

 a. An increase in fantasies about sleeping

 b. The number of hours since one has last slept
 c. Irritability, poor motor skills, and weak concentration
 d. How tired someone looks

In the context of research, an operational definition of a variable is a precise description

of ____.

 a. how the variable will be defined (i.e., how it will be manipulated or

measured)
 b. how data from the variable will be statistically analyzed
 c. what the variable is expected to "do" according to the research hypothesis
(i.e., what results are expected from the variable)
 d. how the variable has been defined by researchers in past studies

Suppose that you are conducting an experiment to see whether receiving negative
feedback from an authority figure will increase eating behavior. After writing an essay,
half of your research participants are given negative feedback from a professor, and
half are given encouraging feedback. All participants are then placed in a room with a
large container of cookies and their eating behavior is observed. In this study, an
operational definition for the dependent variable might be ____.

 a. whether participants received critical or encouraging feedback

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  b. the number of words in each participant's essay
 c. the number of cookies each participant ate
 d. how many minutes the professor spent giving each participant feedback

A(n) ____ is someone who works for a researcher by serving as an "actor" in the
research (e.g., pretending to be another research participant, and being mean to other
research participants in order to see how participants respond to meanness).

 a. confederate
 b. allied respondent
 c. infiltrator
 d. behaviorist

In psychology, the word "confederate" is used to refer to ____.

 a. a research assistant who poses as a participant during the course of a

research study in order to help create a certain situation
 b. a research participant who is purposely disruptive during a study (e.g., a
participant who lies on questionnaires or refuses to complete an experimental
task)
 c. a statistician or data analyst
 d. a prototypical research participant (i.e., the "confederate response" is a
term used to refer to the "average response" or "mean response")

In one well-known social psychological study, research participants were asked to make
very easy perceptual judgments ("Is Line A longer than Line B?"). The catch was that
they were asked to do this while sitting around a table with people who continually
gave incorrect responses—people who appeared to be other regular research
participants. In reality, however, the other people at the table were not real participants
at all; they were actually actors who were working for the experimenter and just posing
as participants. The question in this research was whether or not the real research
participant would conform to the group's opinion (even though the group's opinion was
obviously wrong) or whether the real participant would stick to the right answer. In
psychological jargon, the "actors" in this study would be referred to as ____.

 a. confederates
 b. participant players
 c. activators

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  d. role testers

Suppose that you are working as a research assistant for a social psychologist. To assist
her with a research study, the social psychologist asks you to stand in a laboratory
waiting room with research participants, act as though you are a research participant
yourself, and then pretend to have an epileptic seizure. (The social psychologist is
interested in how many people will try to help you.) In other words, your task is to be a
____ in the research.

 a. confederate
 b. mundane realist
 c. reactant
 d. dependent variable

Dr. Zink and Dr. Vasquez are designing a new study. They have come up with a good
hypothesis for the study, but they are having trouble thinking of operational definitions
for their variables. In other words, they are concerned that their research might be low
in ____.

 a. internal validity
 b. external validity
 c. construct validity
 d. face validity

Suppose that you are planning to conduct a study to look at the effect of pet ownership
on empathy, but that you cannot find any good measures of empathy (all of the
measures that you find seem to fall short of your understanding of what empathy is, or
to miss the mark completely). Unless you can find a measure that you are satisfied
with, your research may end up being low in ____.

 a. internal validity
 b. external validity
 c. construct validity of the cause
 d. construct validity of the effect

If a researcher conducts an experiment in which the independent variable is poorly

defined (i.e., has a poor operational definition), then the experiment can be said to
have ____.

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  a. low internal validity
 b. low external validity
 c. low construct validity of the cause
 d. low construct validity of the effect

True experiments have two key features that make them different from other studies.
First, in a true experiment, the researcher manipulates (varies) one or more
independent variables. Second, the researcher makes use of

 a. statistical testing.
 b. random assignment.
 c. interactions.
 d. priming.

Dr. Taylor is conducting a study to test the effect of a new drug on people's ability to
concentrate at work. His research sample consists of 100 US adults. During a 14-week
period, half of the sample is administered the drug and the other half is administered a
placebo, and participants' concentration abilities are continually tracked. In the context
of this study, if Dr. Taylor uses random assignment, it means that ____.

 a. his study will be high in external validity

 b. the 100 adults in his study are likely to be representative of the larger
population of interest
 c. each research participant has an equal chance of being assigned to each
level of the independent variable (e.g., the placebo group or the drug group)
 d. his research findings are likely to be statistically significant

Dr. Pow is interested in whether exposure to TV advertisements has a different impact

on girls' self-image than it does on boys' self-image. To examine this question, she
conducts a quasi-experiment. Why doesn't Dr. Pow conduct a true experiment instead?

 a. She cannot conduct a true experiment, because people cannot be

randomly assigned to be "girls" or "boys."
 b. She cannot conduct a true experiment, because self-image is not directly
observable.
 c. She could conduct a true experiment if she wanted to, but she probably
has a very small sample size, so in this case a quasi-experiment is better.

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  d. She could conduct a true experiment if she wanted to, but she is probably
interested in "real-life" TV exposure (and probably doesn't want to manipulate
this variable).

Researchers tend to use quasi-experimental research designs when they are able to
manipulate an independent variable but NOT able to ____.

 a. use random sampling

 b. use random assignment
 c. perform statistical tests on their results
 d. use more than 20 research participants

A study is said to have internal validity if the researcher can be relatively confident that
____.

 a. the same results would occur if the experiment were replicated

 b. changes in the independent variable caused changes in the dependent
variable
 c. the operational definitions used in the study were chosen well
 d. the sample was representative of the broader population of interest

In a ____, the researcher is able to manipulate an independent variable but NOT able
to use random assignment.

 a. field experiment
 b. quasi-experiment
 c. correlational study
 d. case study

What is the main advantage of an experiment over a correlational study?

 a. Research participants are always representative of the population.

 b. The researcher is better able to draw conclusions about cause and effect.
 c. The researcher is able to study phenomena within their natural context.
 d. The researcher can use a much smaller sample size and still find a
statistically significant result.

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Which of the following research designs allows researchers the MOST control over the
variables they are studying?

 a. Quasi-experiments
 b. Laboratory experiments
 c. Field experiments
 d. Correlational studies

If a study is high in internal validity, then the researcher can be fairly certain that
changes in the ____ were indeed due to changes in the ____.

 a. construct validity of the cause; construct validity of the effect

 b. independent variable; dependent variable
 c. external variable; internal variable
 d. hypothesis; theory

When a researcher conducts an experiment and is fairly certain that changes in the
independent variable caused changes in the dependent variable, that experiment is said
to be high in ____.

 a. construct validity
 b. construct validity of the effect
 c. internal validity
 d. external validity

Suppose that a cereal manufacturer tried out a new cereal box design for a few
months, and—during the same time period—notices that its sales have tripled. One of
the cereal executives, Mr. Correl, boasts that the new cereal box must have sparked the
increase in sales. But another executive, Mr. Scien, points out that the increase could be
due to the new advertising campaign that the company is using, or to new distribution
practices that have taken hold, or to the fact that more and more people are eating
cereal these days. That is, Mr. Scien suggests that the company's "test" of the new
cereal box design is low in ____.

 a. operationality
 b. generalizability
 c. internal validity
 d. external validity

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Jackson is interested in the effects of violent movies on aggressive behavior. He has
some participants in his study watch Grand Torino (his “violent” movie) and others
watch Marley and Me (his “nonviolent”movie). Unfortunately, in addition to these
movies being very different in their violence level, they also differ in a lot of other ways
(one is a comedy, the other isn’t, and so forth). This means that Jackson’s study has a
____.

 a. factorial design
 b. confound
 c. nonrandom assignment
 d. random assignment

When the effects of two variables cannot be separated, ____ has been said to occur.

 a. confounding
 b. random assignment
 c. an interaction
 d. a main effect

Using more than one exemplar of a stimulus (such as more than one violent video
game in a study investigating violent video content on aggression) is known as ____.

 a. stimulus sampling
 b. meta-analysis
 c. factorial design
 d. the interaction effect

Mariah wants to study the effects of arousal and cost on helping behavior. She has two
experimental conditions of high versus low arousal, and combines that with two
experimental conditions with high and low cost of helping. This creates four possible
conditions: high arousal/high cost, high arousal/low cost, low arousal/high cost, and low
arousal/low cost. She then measures which condition results in the highest rate of
helping behavior. Mariah has employed ____.

 a. a factorial design
 b. a meta-analysis
 c. a correlational approach
 d. mundane realism

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When an experiment includes more than one independent variable, it is using a(n)
____.

 a. meta-analysis
 b. factorial design
 c. main effect
 d. interaction effect

In an experiment on the effects of communication on cooperation, researchers

observed higher rates of cooperation if members were able to communicate with each
other prior to doing the cooperative task than if they were not allowed prior
communication. This illustrates a(n) ____ effect of communication on cooperation.

 a. meta-analytic
 b. correlational
 c. main
 d. interaction

The effect of a single independent variable by itself, ignoring the effects of other
independent variables, is called a(n) ____.

 a. correlation coefficient
 b. confound
 c. interaction effect
 d. main effect

An interaction effect refers to the ____.

 a. joint effects of more than one independent variable

 b. effect of a single independent variable by itself
 c. linear relationship between two variables
 d. probability that differences between two variables are due to a statistical
fluke

Xavier does a study in which he compares group brainstorming to individual

brainstorming in face-to-face versus computer-mediated (i.e., chat room)
communication conditions. He finds that groups are generally less productive at
brainstorming than individuals, but that in chat room conditions, the difference is much

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less. The fact that the effect of the group versus individual condition depends on which
communication medium was used illustrates a(n) ____.

 a. statistically significant result

 b. correlation coefficient
 c. main effect
 d. interaction effect

Suppose that a researcher asked you to answer a series of incredibly personal questions
about your sexual life. You might (justifiably) feel annoyed and intruded upon, and find
yourself being rude to the researcher, or even purposely giving the researcher incorrect
information. Your response would be an example of ____.

 a. experimental realism
 b. confederate behavior
 c. mundane realism
 d. reactance

The term "reactance" is used to refer to the tendency for people to ____.

 a. revert to simplistic, childlike ways of dealing with situations when they are
under stress
 b. try to "look good" or say the "right" thing when their behavior is being
observed
 c. pretend to feel the opposite of how they are really feeling when they are
ashamed or embarrassed about their true feelings
 d. have an unpleasant emotional response when others are trying to restrict
their freedom

In which of the following situations would Igor be MOST likely to experience reactance?

 a. He is out on a first date with an attractive person and trying to make a

good impression.
 b. He comes home and finds his older brother reading his journal—where he
has written deep, dark secrets that he does not want anyone to see.
 c. He sleeps through an important job interview, and only has himself to
blame.

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  d. He finds out that his mother has cancer, but that she has been hiding it
from him for several years because she didn't want him to worry about her.

When experiments are conducted outside of the laboratory, in real-world settings, they
are called ____.

 a. correlational studies
 b. field experiments
 c. quasi-experiments
 d. deception studies

Can correlational studies or experiments ever be conducted outside of the laboratory?

 a. No, both of these types of studies are always performed in the lab.
 b. Correlational studies can be conducted inside the laboratory or out in the
"real world," but experiments are always conducted in the lab.
 c. Correlational studies are always conducted in the "real world" (not the
lab) and experiments are always conducted in the lab (not the "real world").
 d. Both correlational studies and experiments can be performed in the lab or
in the "real world;" when experiments are performed in the "real world" they are
called field experiments.

Suppose that a researcher decided to study everyday altruism towards men versus
towards women by leaving (fake) fully addressed college applications in airport lobbies
(identical except with male versus female applicant names), and then tracking the
number of people who send in the application. What kind of study of this?

 a. A laboratory study
 b. A field experiment
 c. A correlational study
 d. A quasi-experiment

Researchers often attempt to design studies that will be high in both experimental
realism and mundane realism. However, ____.

 a. experimental realism is generally considered to be far more important.

 b. mundane realism is generally considered to be far more important.

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  c. most researchers acknowledge that experimental realism is really only
important when one is conducting a true experiment.
 d. most researchers acknowledge that mundane realism is almost impossible
to achieve.

If an experiment gets participants psychologically involved and engaged, but the setting
does not resemble the real world, then the experiment would be said to be ____.

 a. low in experimental realism and low in mundane realism

 b. low in experimental realism and high in mundane realism
 c. high in experimental realism and low in mundane realism
 d. high in experimental realism and high in mundane realism

If an experiment does NOT get participants psychologically involved and engaged, even
though the setting of the experiment closely resembles the real world physically, then
the experiment would be said to be ____.

 a. low in experimental realism and low in mundane realism

 b. low in experimental realism but high in mundane realism
 c. high in experimental realism but low in mundane realism
 d. high in experimental realism and high in mundane realism

Suppose that you are a research participant in a laboratory study that is looking at fear
and social support. The researcher shows you an extremely scary movie and then asks
you whether you feel like talking to anyone (and if so, who) once the movie is over.
Although you are in a laboratory setting the whole time, which does not resemble "real
life" at all, you become engrossed in the procedures of the study and almost forget that
you are in a study. Thus, in your experience, this study is ____.

 a. low in experimental realism and low in mundane realism

 b. low in experimental realism and high in mundane realism
 c. high in experimental realism and low in mundane realism
 d. high in experimental realism and high in mundane realism

Compared to laboratory experiments, field experiments tend to be ____.

 a. low in internal validity and low in external validity

 b. low in internal validity and high in external validity

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  c. high in internal validity and low in external validity
 d. high in internal validity and high in external validity

When findings from a study are likely to generalize to other people and other settings,
the study is said to have ____.

 a. external validity
 b. internal validity
 c. construct validity
 d. mundane realism

If a study is high in external validity, then ____.

 a. the findings are likely to generalize to other people and other settings
 b. the researcher can confidently conclude that there is a cause-and-effect
relationship between the variables in the study
 c. participants are exposed to only one level of the independent variable
 d. participants are exposed to all levels of the independent variable

Zhao’s research interest is to determine if poverty causes one to be more politically

liberal. However, he cannot randomly assign people to conditions of poverty versus
wealth because (aside from the practical difficulty) it would be unethical to do so. Zhao
will have to ____.

 a. conduct a field experiment

 b. take a correlational approach
 c. do a meta-analysis
 d. develop a factorial design

Dr. Hurtado and Dr. Yashari have recently conducted a study and found a positive
correlation between music-listening and dancing ability: People who listen to lots of
music tend to be excellent dancers. The correlation is statistically significant. Can they
conclude that listening to music causes people to be better dancers? Why or why not?

 a. Yes, because there is a positive correlation

 b. Yes, because there is a statistically significant correlation
 c. No, because the evidence is correlational, not experimental

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  d. No, because the correlation probably does not hold true for deaf people

If you know that achievement is positively correlated with life satisfaction, then you can
conclude that ____.

 a. one of two things MUST be true: either achievement causes life

satisfaction OR life satisfaction causes achievement
 b. a third variable (such as commitment or passion) MUST cause both
achievement and life satisfaction
 c. as achievement increases, happiness also increases
 d. the relationship between the two variables must be statistically significant

There is a moderately strong, positive relationship between different forms of prejudice:

People who are prejudiced against Group X also tend to be prejudiced against Group Y.
Given this information, we should expect the correlation between anti-Jewish prejudice
and anti-Asian prejudice to be about ____.

 a. .04
 b. 0.4
 c. 4.0
 d. 40

Psychologists typically use a statistic called ____ to denote the strength and direction of
the relationship between two variables.

 a. a p-value
 b. lambda
 c. coefficient alpha
 d. a correlation coefficient

Correlation coefficients are statistics used to denote ____.

 a. the amount of variability in a dataset

 b. the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables
 c. the degree to which the difference between two arithmetic means is likely
to have been due to chance
 d. the strength of the relationship among three or more variables

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Suppose that there is a perfect negative correlation between the amount of money that
Jane spends and the amount of money that she has in her bank account: for every
dollar that she spends, she has exactly one less dollar in her bank account (assuming
no interest, fees, or credits). Thus the correlation between Jane's spending and savings
can be represented as ____.

 a. r = -100
 b. r = -1.00
 c. r = 0.00
 d. r = 100

When there is no relationship between two variables, the correlation coefficient is ____.

 a. -100
 b. -1
 c. 0
 d. +1.0

Correlation coefficients are used to describe the relationship between two variables.
They are usually denoted using the letter ____.

 a. n
 b. p
 c. r
 d. q

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