ASPPB Research Methods & Psychological Foundations 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A researcher asks participants to rate their anxiety before and after a mindfulness intervention without a control group. The design is best described as:
- True experimental design
- Quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design (Correct answer)
- Randomized controlled trial
- Cross-sectional survey design
Correct answer: Quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design
Without random assignment to a control condition, the single-group pre-test/post-test design is quasi-experimental and cannot rule out alternative explanations.
Question 2: According to the gate control theory of pain, pain perception is modulated by:
- Only the intensity of the nociceptive stimulus
- Neural gates in the spinal cord that can be opened or closed by various signals (Correct answer)
- Exclusively psychological factors such as anxiety and attention
- The density of pain receptors at the site of injury
Correct answer: Neural gates in the spinal cord that can be opened or closed by various signals
Melzack and Wall's gate control theory proposes that neural mechanisms in the spinal cord act as gates that regulate pain signals traveling to the brain.
Question 3: In a 2×3 factorial ANOVA, the maximum number of possible effects (main effects plus interactions) is:
- 2
- 3 (Correct answer)
- 5
- 6
Correct answer: 3
A 2×3 factorial ANOVA yields three effects: two main effects (one per factor) and one two-way interaction, totaling three.
Question 4: Demand characteristics in research refer to:
- Researcher behaviors that unintentionally influence participant responses
- Cues that lead participants to guess the study's hypothesis and adjust their behavior accordingly (Correct answer)
- The minimum sample size required to detect an effect
- Confounds introduced by the measurement instrument itself
Correct answer: Cues that lead participants to guess the study's hypothesis and adjust their behavior accordingly
Demand characteristics are cues in the experimental environment that hint at the hypothesis, prompting participants to respond in ways they believe are expected.
Question 5: Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model places immediate family interactions in which system?
- Macrosystem
- Exosystem
- Mesosystem
- Microsystem (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Microsystem
The microsystem is the innermost layer containing direct, face-to-face interactions such as those within the family, school, or peer group.
Question 6: Which of the following best exemplifies a confounding variable?
- A variable that is manipulated by the experimenter
- A variable that is measured as the outcome of interest
- An uncontrolled variable that co-varies with the independent variable and affects the dependent variable (Correct answer)
- A variable used to match participants across experimental conditions
Correct answer: An uncontrolled variable that co-varies with the independent variable and affects the dependent variable
A confounding variable varies systematically with the independent variable and also influences the dependent variable, making it impossible to isolate the treatment effect.
Question 7: The concept of 'heritability' in behavioral genetics refers to:
- The proportion of a trait that is genetically determined in an individual
- The proportion of variance in a trait within a population attributable to genetic differences among individuals (Correct answer)
- The likelihood that a genetic disorder will be passed to offspring
- The degree to which twins share the same environment
Correct answer: The proportion of variance in a trait within a population attributable to genetic differences among individuals
Heritability is a population-level statistic estimating what proportion of individual differences in a trait are due to genetic variation, not a statement about any one person.
ASPPB Research Methods & Psychological Foundations 5
A researcher asks participants to rate their anxiety before and after a mindfulness intervention without a control group.
The design is best described as: