Psychological Research Methods
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Course Introduction
Psychological Research Methods introduces students to the fundamental principles and techniques used in the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The course covers a range of research designs, including experimental, correlational, and observational methods, as well as essential concepts such as hypothesis formulation, operationalization of variables, data collection, and analysis. Emphasis is placed on understanding ethical considerations in research, developing skills in critically evaluating research literature, and learning to report findings clearly and accurately. Through hands-on activities and projects, students gain practical experience in designing studies, conducting experiments, and interpreting psychological data.
Recommended Textbook
Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences 5th Edition by James Jaccard
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Chapter 1: Introduction and Mathematical Preliminaries
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Sample Questions
Q1) In scientific research,the independent variable is the effect and the dependent variable is the cause.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) When the categories of a variable can be ordered on some continuum or dimension,that variable is said to be measured on at least a(n)_____ level.
A)nominal
B)ordinal
C)interval
D)ratio
Answer: B
Q3) Scientists use representative samples to obtain random samples.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) If you receive first place in a 5k run that means a ____________________scale of measurement was used.
Answer: ordinal
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Chapter 2: Frequency and Probability Distributions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Based on the Method of Presentation section of Chapter 2,the reason that a published manuscript does not typically report all types of frequency information is because
A)journal readers are expected to construct complete information from what is given B)it is assumed that just relative frequencies or percentages provide the most concise information about any given research area
C)journal space is costly and it is not economically or practically feasible D)researchers do not have enough time to provide complete information
Answer: C
Q2) A normal curve or distribution is ____________________nature.
Answer: theoretical
Q3) A frequency distribution cannot be created for qualitative data,because these variables are not measured on any mathematical scale.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) The y-axis is called the____________________.
Answer: Ordinate
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4
Chapter 4: Percentiles percentile Ranks standard Scores
and the Normal Distribution
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Sample Questions
Q1) If your standard score on the exam is -1,you are 1 point below the mean.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Percentiles are based on what scale of measurement?
A)Nominal
B)Ordinal
C)Ratio
D)All of these
Q3) A standard score of _____ indicates that the original score is equal to the mean.
A)0
B)+1.00
C)-1.00
D)1.96
Q4) All normal distributions reflect empirically real phenomena.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Jack told his mom that he was 1.2 standard units above the mean in his math class.What is his original score if the class mean was 78 and the SD=3?
Q6) A ____________________is based on a normal distribution.
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Chapter 5: Pearson Correlation and Regression: Descriptive Aspects
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Sample Questions
Q1) A scatterplot primarily is intended to show
A)the relationship between X and Y scores.
B)the frequencies of X and Y scores.
C)the correlation of X scores.
D)the correlation of Y scores.
Q2) For a perfect positive linear relationship,the z scores for the X and Y variables will tend to have _____.
A)opposite signs
B)all negative signs
C)only positive signs
D)the same positive or negative signs
Q3) Pearson correlation will detect linear and nonlinear relationships.
A)True
B)False
Q4) An r value of .20 always indicates a small correlation between two variables in the behavioral science literature.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
Q5) The range of the correlation coefficient is from -1.00 to ____________________.
Q6) Define the standard error of estimate and discuss how it is interpreted.
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Chapter 3: Measures of Central Tendency and Variability
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Sample Questions
Q1) When there is an even number of scores,the median is the _____.
A)most frequently occurring score
B)arithmetic average of the scores
C)arithmetic average of the two middle scores
D)arithmetic average of the two most extreme scores
Q2) The major problem with the mode as a measure of central tendency is that:
A)there can be only one modal score
B)there can be more than one modal score
C)the mode is insensitive to variability
D)the mode is insensitive to kurtosis
Q3) Based on the Method of Presentation section of Chapter 3,the symbol n indicates
A)the sample size in a particular group.
B)the total sample size in the study.
C)the population sample size.
D)the number of groups in the study.
Q4) The median is the point in the distribution of scores that divides the distribution into two equal parts.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A ____________________is more peaked and has less variability.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Estimation and Sampling Distributions
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what way is the sample variance a biased estimator of the population variance and how do we correct for this bias?
Q2) Two factors influence the size of the standard error of the mean: the _____ and the _____.
A)sample standard deviation;sample variance
B)population size;variability of scores in the population
C)sample size;variability of scores in the population
D)sum of squares;error variance
Q3) A sum of squares around a sample mean will always have N - 2 degrees of freedom associated with it.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In statistics,the phrase _____ refers to the number of pieces of information that are "independent of each other" in that they cannot be deduced from one another.
A)degrees of freedom
B)degrees of deduction
C)degrees of independence
D)degrees of information
Q5) What is an unbiased estimator?
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Chapter 8: Hypothesis Testing: Inferences About a Single Mean
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Sample Questions
Q1) A researcher takes a very large,nationwide random sample of 7th grade students and computes a mean verbal ability score of 85.50 with a standard deviation of 8.35.From this information,she computes a standard error of the mean of 2.64.What are the upper and lower limits of the 95% confidence interval for the mean?
A)69.13 to 101.87
B)77.15 to 93.85
C)80.33 to 90.67
D)82.86 to 88.14
Q2) If an observed z or t score is greater than the critical value,we would reject the null hypothesis.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Increasing alpha can increase power,however the trade-off is that ____________________.is also increased.
Q4) When researcher states that an observed value will be higher or lower than a comparison value,she must provide a ____________________.alternative hypothesis.
Q5) What is the null hypothesis?
Q6) What are the assumptions of the one-sample t test?
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Chapter 6: Probability
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Sample Questions
Q1) If the probability of event A is .40 and the probability of event B is .35,what is the probability that event A or B will occur,if A and B are independent?
A).14
B).61
C).75
D)cannot be determined
Q2) Given a set of outcomes that are mutually exclusive and exhaustive,the sum of the probabilities of the outcomes will always equal:
A)100
B).01
C).10
D)1.0
Q3) The likelihood of observing each of two events is referred to as a:
A)hypothesis
B)binomial probability
C)conditional probability
D)joint probability
Q4) The ____________________ is the competing hypothesis to the null hypothesis.
Q5) What is the difference between a permutation and a combination?
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Chapter 9: Principles of Research Design and Statistical
Preliminaries for Analyzing Bivariate Relationships
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Q1) When studying the relationship between two variables,the investigator is essentially interested in determining how the different values of one variable are associated with the values of another variable.
A)True
B)False
Q2) _____ statistics tend to focus on medians,interquartile ranges,and ordinal level measures.
A)parametric
B)nonparametric
C)quantitative
D)qualitative
Q3) Which of the following levels of measurement can be appropriately analyzed with nonparametric statistics?
A)nominal
B)interval and ratio
C)nominal and ordinal
D)all of these
Q4) The robustness of statistical test is determined by sample size only.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Independent Groups T -Test
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Sample Questions
Q1) Like the standard error of the mean,the standard error of the difference is positively skewed.
A)True
B)False
Q2) If the researcher suspects that the strength of the relationship between two variables in the population is .45,what sample size should she use per group in a study involving two independent groups and an alpha level of .05,directional test,in order to achieve a power of .85?
A)4
B)5
C)6
Q3) The t statistic approximately follows a t distribution when (1)the samples are independently and randomly selected from their respective populations, (2)the scores in each population are normally distributed,and (3)the scores in the two populations have equal variances.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What is the standard error of the difference?
Q5) The degrees of freedom associated with independent Groups t-test is_________.
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Chapter 11: Correlated Groups T-Test
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Q1) In what sense are the correlated groups t test and the independent groups t test equivalent?
Q2) In most behavioral science research,the estimated standard error for the correlated groups t test is _____ than the estimated standard error for the independent groups t test applied to the same data.
A)more stable
B)less biased
C)larger
D)smaller
Q3) The degrees of freedom associated with correlated t-test is____________________.
Q4) In a correlated groups t-test the strength of the relationship as indicated by eta<sup>2</sup> suggest that the proportion of ____________________ in the dependent variable that is associated with the independent variable after the variability related to individual differences has been excluded or taken out.
Q5) Explain why it is possible to observe a strong relationship between two variables based on the value of eta-squared without obtaining a statistically significant t value.
Q6) The sampling distribution of the mean of difference scores indicates the amount of____________________.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: One-Way Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance
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Sample Questions
Q1) The sum of squares across subjects is a feature that differentiates the between-subjects and the repeated measures analysis of variance.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Degrees of freedom adjustment factors for violation of the sphericity assumption result in degrees of freedom for ____ that are _____ the traditional degrees of freedom.
A)IV and error;less than or equal to B)total and subject;less than or equal to C)IV and error;greater than D)total and subjects;greater than
Q3) The assumption that the variance of the population difference scores for any two conditions is the same as the variance of the population difference scores for any other two conditions is known as the non-homogeneous differences assumption.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Under what circumstances might repeated measures analysis of variance actually be less powerful than between-subjects analysis of variance?
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Chapter 14: Pearson Correlation and Regression: Inferential Aspects
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Sample Questions
Q1) Regression with multiple predictors is called ____________________.
Q2) Suppose a school psychologist found a correlation between SAT scores of students who graduated from her school and their GPAs at the end of the first year in college.The correlation,r = .82,was based on a sample of 55 students whose SAT scores ranged from 450 to 550.The next year,one for her students made a 625 on the SAT and she wants to predict that students future GPA.Which of the following statements is true?
A)her prediction may be incorrect
B)her prediction will definitely be correct
Q3) The use of the slope as an index of effect size only makes sense when the correlation between Y and X is:
A)relatively low
B)relatively high
C)0
D)+1.00 or -1.00
Q4) The nature of the relationship between two correlated variables is determined through examination of the sign of the correlation coefficient observed in the sample.
A)True
B)False
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Chi-Square Test
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Sample Questions
Q1) The interpretation of the obtained value for the fourfold point correlation coefficient/Cramer's statistic is similar to _____.
A)a Pearson correlation coefficient
B)eta-squared
C)omega-squared
D)Tukey HSD
Q2) For the example in question 11,which is the more appropriate statistical test to analyze the data?
A)independent groups t test.
B)one-way between subjects analysis of variance
C)Pearson correlation coefficient
D)one-way within subjects analysis of variance
Q3) Summarize the steps involved in computing expected frequencies.
Q4) For the chi-square goodness-of-fit test,statisticians generally recommend that the lowest expected frequency of any category be somewhere between 5 and 10 if only two categories are involved and about 5 if more than two categories are involved.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the assumptions of the chi-square test?
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Chapter 16: Nonparametric Statistics
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Sample Questions
Q1) When one or both sample sizes are smaller than 10 and the independent variable has two and only two values and is between-subjects in nature,then the data can be analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The null hypothesis of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test can be stated in words as follows:
A)The rank sum for each group will be equal,and any differences are due to sampling error.
B)The expected value for each rank sum will be equal to the average of the rank sums for the positive and negative differences.
C)The expected value for difference scores will be less than the average of the rank sums for the positive and negative differences
D)The rank sum for each group will be less than the total rank sum.
Q3) When the null hypothesis is rejected using a nonparametric statistic applied to more than two groups,how is the nature of the relationship between the independent and dependent variables assessed?
Q4) What is meant by the phrase "outlier resistant"?
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Chapter 17: Two-Way Between-Subjects Analysis of Variance
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Q1) In order to determine whether there is a relationship between the IV and the DV in a two-way ANOVA,the ____________________ statistic is calculated.
Q2) When an interaction effect is statistically significant,the nature of the interaction can be determined using simple main effects analysis or interaction comparisons.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The manner in which we choose to state an interaction is arbitrary.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Factorial designs can be used to study
A)the joint effects of two dependent variables on an independent variable.
B)the joint effects of two independent variables on a dependent variable.
C)the effect of a single dependent variable with two or more levels on an independent variable
D)the effect of a single independent variable with two or more levels on a dependent variable.
Q5) Discuss the robustness of the F tests in two-way analysis of variance.
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Q6) In a two-way ANOVA,there are two ____________________,and one interaction.
Chapter 18: Overview and Extension: Statistical Tests for More Complex Designs
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Q1) The calculation of eta<sup>2</sup>_____when the statistical test is not significant.
A)is not necessary
B)is misleading
C)can be useful
D)redundant
E)None of these
Q2) Statistics that allow you to evaluate your data and generalize to the population are called_____.
A)inferential statistics
B)descriptive statistics
C)reliable
D)statistical power
E)None of these
Q3) If means are the focus,then a _____ test is usually the analysis of choice.
A)chi square
B)log-linear
C)parametric
D)nonparametric
Q4) Compare and contrast Parametric and Nonparametric statistical tests.
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