Psychological Research Methods Flashcards

A researcher wants to investigate if a new type of cognitive therapy improves symptoms of depression. One group of patients receives the new therapy, while another group receives the standard therapy. The researcher measures depression levels before and after the eight-week treatment period. In this study, what is the independent variable?

Answer: The type of therapy received (new vs. standard).

The independent variable is the factor that the researcher manipulates or changes to observe its effect on another variable. In this scenario, the researcher is directly controlling which type of therapy the participants receive, making it the cause being investigated.

Which of the following is a primary threat to the internal validity of a quasi-experimental design?

Answer: The lack of random assignment to treatment and control groups.

Internal validity refers to the degree to which a study can establish a cause-and-effect relationship. Quasi-experimental designs, by definition, do not use random assignment. This means pre-existing differences between the groups (selection bias) could be responsible for any observed outcomes, rather than the intervention itself, thus threatening internal validity.

A developmental psychologist sits in a public park and discreetly records the frequency of cooperative behaviors among children playing, without interfering with their activities. This research method is best described as:

Answer: Naturalistic observation.

Naturalistic observation involves watching and recording the behavior of subjects in their natural environment without any manipulation or intervention by the researcher. The psychologist is observing the children in their typical play setting to capture genuine behaviors.

Before participating in a research study, individuals are given a document that outlines the study's purpose, procedures, potential risks and benefits, and their right to withdraw at any time. This crucial ethical procedure is known as:

Answer: Informed Consent.

Informed consent is the ethical process of ensuring that research participants are fully aware of the nature of the research, including its purpose, risks, and benefits, before they voluntarily agree to participate.

In inferential statistics, what does a p-value represent?

Answer: The probability of obtaining the observed results, or more extreme results, if the null hypothesis were true.

The p-value is a measure of statistical significance that indicates the likelihood of observing the study's results (or more extreme results) purely by chance if there were no real effect (i.e., if the null hypothesis were true). A small p-value (typically < .05) suggests the results are unlikely to be due to chance, leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis.

A researcher administers a new anxiety questionnaire to a group of participants. One month later, the researcher administers the same questionnaire to the same participants and finds that their scores are highly consistent between the two sessions. This indicates that the questionnaire has good:

Answer: Test-retest reliability.

Test-retest reliability is a measure of consistency over time. If a measure produces similar results for the same individuals at two different time points, it is considered to have high test-retest reliability, indicating stability.