1. (p. 6-7) Explain why psychologists at the turn of the 20th century embraced an empirical approach to advance understanding about human behavior.
At the turn of the 20th century society was interested in pseudoscientific topics such as clairvoyance and telepathy. To establish the young field of psychology as a science, the early psychologists focused on behavior and mental processes that could be observed directly. By adopting an empirical approach, with its emphasis on direct observation and experimentation for answering questions, early psychologists were able to divorce psychology from pseudoscience.
Level: Conceptual
2. (p. 11-12) Define ethnocentric bias and provide an example from the field of psychology.
Ethnocentric bias is when we attempt to understand the behavior of individuals in a different culture through the framework or views of our own culture. An example of ethnocentric bias occurred when researchers studied the concept of agency, the ability to control one's environment and influence others, following Hurricane Katrina. Individuals higher in social status value control and agency, whereas individuals lower in social status value flexibility and resilience. People who stayed through the Hurricane Katrina, rather than flee, were judged as making bad choices. From their cultural perspective, however, they valued interdependence, strength, and faith as reasons for staying, rather than control and independence.
Level: Factual
3. (p. 13-14) Identify two ways in which psychological science takes place in a moral context, and the resource that psychologists use to guide the moral conduct of their research.
The first way that psychological science takes place in a moral context concerns the ethical behavior of researchers. They must maintain a high level of integrity and avoid scientific misconduct such as data fabrication, plagiarism, selective reporting of findings, failure to acknowledge contributions of others, misuse of funds, and unethical treatment of those involved in research. The second way in which psychological science takes place in a moral context relates to ethical dilemmas associated with the research process. For example, researchers confront questions concerning the use of deception in research and the use of animals for experimentation. The APA ethical principles guide researchers' ethical behavior and are used to resolve ethical dilemmas.
Level: Factual
4. (p. 17) Identify two reasons why it is important to go to the original source "i.e., a research report" when evaluating a media report of psychological findings.
Based on a media report, it is very difficult to know whether the research is (good) research. A second problem is that media reports are summaries of the original research and critical aspects of the method, results, or interpretation of the research may be missing in the summary. A third problem may be that what is presented in the media may not reflect any research at all, as sometimes occurs with self-help books.
Level: Conceptual
Multiple Choice Questions
5. (p. 3) One way that psychologists seek to improve people's lives is by
A. developing theories and conducting research.
B. relying on the medical model to understand human behavior.
C. using their intuition and common sense to answer questions about behavior.
D. shifting from behaviorism to a cognitive approach to psychology.
Level: Factual
6. (p. 4) The "scientific method" refers to
A. historical, social-cultural, and ethical contexts in which science takes place.
B. the specific procedures, measurements, and instruments used by psychologists to conduct research.
C. an abstract concept that describes the logic and methods used to answer questions.
D. the development of psychophysical methods for measuring thought processes.
Level: Factual
7. (p. 4-5) The most important characteristic of the scientific method is the
A. computer revolution.
B. empirical approach.
C. common-sense approach.
D. cognitive approach.
Level: Factual
8. (p. 6) Three ways in which we can characterize the context in which science occurs include
A. behavioral, cognitive, and neuroscience.
B. philosophical, hypothetical, and ethnocentric.
C. laboratory, field, and clinical.
D. historical, social/cultural, and moral.
Level: Factual
9. (p. 6) At the end of the 19th century, the young field of psychology was a subdiscipline of
A. medicine.
B. neuroscience.
C. philosophy.
D. theology.
Level: Factual
10. (p. 6) The development of psychophysical methods and reaction-time experiments at the end of the 19th century was important to the emerging field of psychology because these methods
A. were instrumental in the development of behaviorism in the 20th century.
B. helped psychology to become a quantifiable, laboratory-based science.
C. formed a foundation for the work of Sigmund Freud.
D. allowed researchers to provide information to the public about mental telepathy and clairvoyance.
Level: Conceptual
11. (p. 7) When using an empirical approach, psychologists focus on
A. behaviors and experiences that can be observed directly.
B. questions concerning sensation and perception.
C. using computers and other technology to understand people.
D. building an "empire" of psychological researchers around the world using the Internet.
Level: Factual
12. (p. 7) Most recently, the dominant psychological perspective for understanding people's behavior and mental processes is
A. computer and Internet psychology.
B. cognitive psychology.
C. clinical psychology.
D. behaviorism.
Level: Factual
13. (p. 7) An important factor in the advancement of cognitive psychology during the 20th century was the
A. development of brain imaging techniques.
B. award of the Nobel Prize to several important psychologists.
C. shift from spiritualism to behaviorism.
D. computer revolution.
Level: Factual
14. (p. 7) The broad trend that describes the historical development of scientific psychology may be characterized as
A. unchanging; current scientific psychology is much as it was at its inception.
B. a focus on a small, specific set of behaviors in order to establish the science as legitimate.
C. shifts in theoretical perspectives from behaviorism, to cognitive perspectives, to neuroscience emphases.
D. conflicted, with much disagreement about the role of spiritualism in psychology.
Level: Conceptual
15. (p. 7) Which of the following statements about the historical context of psychology is true?
A. By investigating a wide array of topics over time, psychologists have demonstrated the complexity of human behavior.
B. The theoretical perspective of behaviorism has dominated the science of psychology since its inception.
C. Topics and theoretical perspectives have changed very little in more than 100 years of psychological research.
D. Only a few key scientists have contributed important findings to the science of psychology.
Level: Factual
16. (p. 9) The social-cultural context in which research takes places influences psychological research by affecting
A. the change in theoretical perspectives from behaviorism to cognitive psychology.
B. the moral integrity of individual researchers.
C. the resources available for psychological research.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
17. (p. 9) Scientists choice of topics to study, resources available to support their research, and society's acceptance of their findings is most influenced by
A. their moral integrity.
B. the American Psychological Association.
C. the number of research articles found in a literature search.
D. the social and cultural context in which they work.
Level: Factual
18. (p. 10) A researcher's findings are criticized in the media because the findings are regarded as unacceptable to members of Congress. The research program is suspended. This is an example of the ____________ context of science.
A. historical
B. social-cultural
C. ethical
D. ethnocentric
Level: Applied
19. (p. 10) Public criticism of psychological research seems to occur primarily when
A. the research was poorly conducted.
B. the media seek to make a trivial topic more controversial than it is.
C. the research was conducted in a laboratory setting.
D. the research findings go against strongly held personal beliefs.
Level: Conceptual
20. (p. 11) The idea that psychological research involves "WEIRDOs" refers to
A. the fact that most research participants come from a specific social and economic background.
B. the need for more funding for research in clinical psychology.
C. the finding that Americans represent less than 5% of the world's population.
D. the suggestion that psychological findings are skewed when research is conducted on the Internet.
Level: Conceptual
21. (p. 11) When researchers fail to recognize how their own cultural experiences and values influence their interpretations of behavior observed in other cultures, what problem is said to occur?
A. egotistical bias
B. multimethod bias
C. ethnocentric bias
D. nomothetic bias
Level: Factual
22. (p. 12) One way that psychologists avoid ethnocentric bias is to
A. conduct cross-cultural research.
B. examine the role of agency in human behavior.
C. seek research participants who are "WEIRDOs."
D. conduct research on the Internet.
Level: Factual
23. (p. 11-12) A university researcher rates the degree of control and independence people demonstrate in response to a natural disaster. He determines that individuals with higher education make better choices following the disaster. The potential issue of _______________ may occur in this research.
A. multiculturalism
B. ethnocentric bias
C. agentic bias
D. principled ethics
Level: Applied
24. (p. 13) An example of a violation of scientific integrity is
A. using the number of scientific publications authored by a researcher to make decisions about professional advancement.
B. using a debriefing procedure following an experiment that involves deception.
C. using animal subjects in research.
D. selectively reporting research findings when making a claim about behavior.
Level: Factual
25. (p. 13) Data fabrication, plagiarism, and failure to acknowledge individuals who contributed to a research project
A. reflect the social and cultural context in which scientists conduct their work.
B. are behaviors that happen less often than people think.
C. represent violations of scientific integrity.
D. are easy to detect in research reports.
Level: Factual
26. (p. 13) Violations of scientific integrity include
A. using animals in research, misusing research funds, and deceiving participants in a research project.
B. fabricating data, reporting only the data that support the researcher's expectations, and failure to acknowledge people who contributed significantly to the research.
C. plagiarism, selective reporting of research findings, and using number of scientific publications to make decisions about professional advancement.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
27. (p. 13) In order to make decisions about ethical dilemmas in research, psychologists consult
A. their attorneys.
B. the psychological research literature related to their topic.
C. the local, state, and federal agencies most relevant to their work.
D. the American Psychological Association's ethical principles.
Level: Factual
28. (p. 13) The ethical principles for research developed by the American Psychological Association
A. guide researchers regarding the ethical dilemmas that occur with human and animal research subjects.
B. forbid the use of animals in research investigations.
C. state that researchers may never deceive research participants about the nature of the investigation.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
29. (p. 13-14) A researcher interested in aggression told participants his experiment investigated whether paying attention to details would affect how things taste. One group of participants wrote down details from a 5-minute violent gun scene. The second group of participants wrote details while watching a high-speed car chase. Afterward, participants tasted and rated a sample of water with a drop of hot sauce in it as a measure of "taste sensitivity." They were then asked to prepare a sample of water for the next participant, and could put in as much hot sauce as they wanted. There was no "next participant;" the amount of hot sauce was a measure of aggression. The researcher predicted participants who watched the violent gun scene would add more hot sauce. The ethical issue most relevant to this experiment is
A. asking participants to write details about movie scenes.
B. deception.
C. using hot sauce as a measure of aggression.
D. cross-cultural bias.
Level: Applied
30. (p. 13) A key factor when "thinking like a researcher" is to
A. use common sense.
B. rely on intuition.
C. be skeptical.
D. trust human inference.
Level: Factual
31. (p. 15) In a recent criticism of the practice of clinical psychologists, all of the following suggestions were made except
A. reform clinical psychology training programs.
B. make science-centered education a central feature of clinical training programs.
C. make some clinical psychology training programs non-scientific to keep psychology balanced.
D. stigmatize the practice of clinical psychology that is not science-based.
Level: Factual
32. (p. 15) According to some clinical psychologists, the practice of present-day clinical psychology
A. relies too heavily on personal experience rather than empirically-supported treatments.
B. resembles the pre-scientific medical practice that took place in the 1800s and early 1900s.
C. does not make use of the latest scientific findings from psychological research.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
33. (p. 15-16) Which of the following statements is false?
A. Scientists are cautious about accepting claims about behavior until they see the findings published in psychology journals.
B. Psychological scientists often withhold judgment about findings because they recognize human behavior is complex.
C. Scientists recognize that researchers can make mistakes in their research.
D. Scientists strive to draw conclusions based on empirical evidence rather than subjective judgments.
Level: Factual
34. (p. 16) Scientific skepticism refers to the idea that
A. scientists accept explanations for phenomena as "true" until research is completed.
B. scientists automatically assume that common-sense interpretations of phenomena could not be true.
C. scientists do not trust anything or anyone.
D. claims about phenomena should be tested and claims that are untestable should be rejected.
Level: Factual
35. (p. 16) The strongest scientific evidence for a claim about behavior and mental processes
A. is consistent with common sense or intuition.
B. comes from converging findings from different studies.
C. is one that is published in a prestigious psychology journal.
D. shows the behavior to be the result of a single factor.
Level: Factual
36. (p. 16) When making a claim about behavior, thinking like a researcher is similar to making legal decisions (e.g., convicting a suspect) because
A. both require converging evidence from multiple sources.
B. in each, a solid piece of evidence is sufficient for being certain about a claim.
C. decisions are based on certainties, not probabilities.
D. none of the above
Level: Conceptual
37. (p. 17) A potential problem that arises when evaluating research findings presented in the media (e.g., television, magazines, online) is that
A. those reporting the findings have little financial stake in the public's acceptance of the findings.
B. important aspects of the research method are likely not reported.
C. the findings may be from research studies conducted in other countries.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
38. (p. 17) Suppose a friend tells you about psychological research findings she read about on the Internet, and because of the findings she is convinced that she should try some new communication techniques in her relationship. You tell her you are skeptical because
A. it isn't known whether the research was conducted in a scientific manner.
B. it's better to read the original research report before forming a conclusion.
C. some important information about the research may not have been reported on the Internet.
D. all of these
Level: Applied
39. (p. 18) An important first step when evaluating psychological research reported in the media is to
A. go to the original source in which the research was reported.
B. determine whether the research was reported both online and in printed material (e.g., magazines).
C. search the psychological research literature for related information.
D. decide whether the report describes a survey or an experiment.
Level: Factual
40. (p. 18) A psychology student watches a television program that mentions research on newborn infants' ability to recognize their parents' voices. To learn more about this study, the student should
A. search the Internet for more information about infants.
B. contact the producer of the television program for more information.
C. locate and read the original research article that describes the research.
D. ask parents if their children recognized their voices as infants.
Level: Applied
41. (p. 19-20) A student conducts a search of the psychological literature and discovers that other researchers have investigated the same question. The student should
A. be encouraged that others have thought the question is important.
B. recognize that many researchers contribute to answering a research question.
C. understand that science is cumulative—current research builds on previous research.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
42. (p. 19-20) Which of the following statements is false regarding searching the psychological literature before beginning a research project?
A. The process of conducting a literature search can provide a wealth of ideas for research projects.
B. The process of conducting a literature search should be discouraging for a researcher who finds that other researchers have investigated the same or similar ideas.
C. The process of conducting a literature search reminds researchers that science is a cumulative endeavor, with current research building on previous research.
D. The process of conducting a literature search is much less tedious than it used to be without computers.
Level: Conceptual
43. (p. 20) Before beginning a research project, researchers should search the psychological literature about their topic
A. in order to develop research hypotheses.
B. to demonstrate that no one has had a similar idea.
C. to choose a different research project if the study or a similar one has already been done.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
44. (p. 20) A research question may be considered important when
A. the findings from the study are likely to be completely unique.
B. a review of research literature reveals that no one has investigated the question.
C. the findings from the study will likely advance the science of psychology.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
45. (p. 20) A student plans to seek advice from psychology instructors about whether she has selected a good research question. Which of the following questions should she ask to help identify whether her research question is a good one?
A. Would I be the first person to try to answer this research question?
B. What are the likely outcomes if I carry out this project?
C. Is it possible to do this research without having to read previous studies on this topic?
D. none of these
Level: Applied
46. (p. 21) Prior to conducting a research project, scientists form a ___________, a tentative explanation for the phenomenon they seek to investigate.
A. subjective judgment
B. theory
C. heuristic
D. hypothesis
Level: Factual
47. (p. 21) The statement of a research hypothesis includes
A. an explanation for why a particular behavior is under investigation.
B. a predicted outcome and an explanation for the outcome.
C. an overview of previous research findings regarding the topic.
D. all of these
Level: Factual
48. (p. 23) Which of the following statements is false?
A. No single research methodology is likely to answer all of psychology's questions.
B. Any one method or measure of behavior is likely flawed or incomplete.
C. Researchers gain a more complete understanding of behavior by emphasizing one particular method when investigating their research question.
D. A multimethod approach to a research question allows researchers to overcome the flaws associated with any one particular method.
Level: Conceptual
49. (p. 23) The "multimethod approach" to research in psychology refers to the
A. many questionnaires researchers use to measure people's attitudes and opinions.
B. historical, social-cultural, and moral context of research.
C. multiple theoretical perspectives within psychology, including behaviorism and cognitive psychology.
D. multiple strategies available to psychologists to answer research questions.
Level: Factual
50. (p. 23) Two students each conduct a study to answer a research question about study skills and test performance. One student conducts a survey and the other student conducts an experiment. In terms of psychological science, their use of different methods for answering the research question is consistent with
A. a multimethod approach.
B. the steps of the research process.
C. thinking like a researcher.
D. the social-cultural context of doing research.
