1. Which of the following is NOT an empirical question?
a. Are women more talkative than men?
b. Is dieting an effective weight loss strategy?
c. Should we prohibit cell phone use while driving?
d. Does cognitive psychotherapy help depressed people?
2. Which of the following “commonsense” beliefs is incorrect?
a. People use only 10% of their brainpower.
b. Students learn best when teaching styles are matched to their learning styles.
c. Low self-esteem is a major cause of psychological problems.
d. all of the above
3. Two important attitudes of scientists are skepticism and _____.
a. emotional neutrality
b. mathematical ability
c. tolerance of uncertainty
d. religious agnosticism
4. Which of the following is most likely to be the population in a psychological research study?
a. 60 introductory psychology students
b. all students at the University of Michigan
c. all introductory psychology students
d. adult humans
5. Which of the following is the most common type of sample in psychological research?
a. a convenience sample
b. a random sample
c. a haphazard sample
d. a stratified sample
6. There is a statistical relationship between two variables if which of the following is true?
a. One of the variables has a higher mean than the other.
b. The average level of one variable differs across levels of the other.
c. The variables are conceptually similar (e.g., intelligence and common sense).
d. all of the above
7. Which of the following is NOT one of the general moral principles discussed in the textbook?
a. avoiding deception
b. acting with integrity
c. weighing risks against benefits
d. seeking justice
8. Research that suggested that there was a relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism highlights which of the following ethical issues?
a. Research on medical issues should be left to medical professionals.
b. Research participants should never be deceived.
c. Psychological research can have negative effects on society.
d. The scientific community often shuns researchers who publish unpopular results.
9. The principle of informed consent requires which of the following?
a. Participants read and sign an informed consent form.
b. Researchers tell participants about their hypotheses before the study begins.
c. Participants must have a minimum of seven days to think about whether or not they will participate.
d. Participants are told everything that might be expected to affect their decision to participate.
10. Which of the following describes Zajonc’s famous theory of social facilitation and inhibition?
a. observation by others àarousal àenhancement of dominant response
b. observation by others àevaluation apprehension à increased motivation or withdrawal
c. observation by others àmemories of past successes or failures à better or worse performance
d. observation by others àanxiety àfaster or slower performance
11. How does a framework differ from a theory?
a. A framework is usually more specific than a theory.
b. A framework is usually more general than a theory.
c. A framework cannot be tested but a theory can.
d. A framework can be tested but a theory cannot.
12. Which of the following is the best example of a phenomenon?
a. Smiling people are generally evaluated more positively than non-smiling people.
b. Sam, a male waiter, drew a smiley face on a check and got a particularly poor tip.
c. Smiling people put us in a good mood, causing us to be more likely to help smiling people.
d. Smiling is a fundamental human behavior.
13. Measurement is best defined as which of the following?
a. directly comparing one individual to a standard reference individual
b. the assignment of scores to individuals so the scores represent some characteristic of the individuals
c. the use of an established measuring instrument such as a ruler or scale to describe an individual
d. an objective method of counting individuals
14. Working memory capacity can be measured by doing which of the following?
a. scanning people’s frontal lobes
b. having people repeat back a string of digits
c. asking people about their earliest childhood memories
d. all of the above
15. What is it called when a researcher measures the same construct in different ways?
a. multiple measurement
b. exploratory research
c. inconsistent assessment
d. converging operations
16. Which of the following variables is measured at the ratio level?
a. number of siblings
b. intelligence
c. religion
d. self-esteem
17. Which of the following researchers probably worries most about the external validity of her studies?
a. Dr. Prentice is a consumer psychologist who works for the Target Corporation.
b. Dr. Dumbrowski is a personality psychologist who is interested in genetic effects on personality.
c. Dr. Zamora is a cognitive psychologist who studies basic memory processes.
d. Dr. Colfax is a behavioral neuroscientist who studies the functions of the amygdale.
18. Which of the following is true?
a. Every confounding variable is also an extraneous variable.
b. Every extraneous variable is also a confounding variable.
c. Every variable other than the independent and dependent variable is either an extraneous variable or a confounding variable (but not both).
d. Good experiments eliminate all extraneous variables.
19. Which of the following independent variables would most likely require a manipulation check?
a. amount of light in the room
b. noise level in the room
c. number of items on an exam
d. participants’ moods
20. A researcher is interested in the effects of drinking different amounts of alcohol on a person’s ability to perform a mental arithmetic task. Which of the following would be a problem for this researcher if she wanted to use a within-subjects design with counterbalancing?
a. She would be unable to control participants’ levels of intelligence.
b. There would be a severe fatigue effect.
c. There would probably be placebo effects.
d. She would probably have to test each participant on two different days.