LSP Research Methods & Psychological Theories 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In Piaget's theory, the process of modifying existing schemas to accommodate new information is called:
- Assimilation
- Equilibration
- Accommodation (Correct answer)
- Conservation
Correct answer: Accommodation
Accommodation occurs when existing cognitive schemas are altered or new schemas created to incorporate information that doesn't fit existing structures.
Question 2: A meta-analysis differs from a traditional literature review primarily by:
- Including only unpublished studies to reduce publication bias
- Using statistical methods to combine and quantify results across studies (Correct answer)
- Focusing exclusively on qualitative research findings
- Restricting analysis to randomized controlled trials
Correct answer: Using statistical methods to combine and quantify results across studies
Meta-analysis uses statistical techniques to pool effect sizes from multiple studies, yielding a quantitative summary of the overall evidence base.
Question 3: Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy proposes that depression is primarily maintained by:
- Unresolved unconscious conflicts from childhood
- Operant extinction of pleasurable behaviors
- The cognitive triad of negative views of self, world, and future (Correct answer)
- Neurobiological dysregulation of serotonin systems
Correct answer: The cognitive triad of negative views of self, world, and future
Beck's cognitive triad describes how depressed individuals hold systematic negative beliefs about themselves, their ongoing experiences, and their future.
Question 4: The Hawthorne effect refers to changes in participants' behavior that occur because:
- They are randomly assigned to experimental conditions
- They know they are being observed or studied (Correct answer)
- The independent variable was manipulated too strongly
- Baseline measures were taken too close to post-measures
Correct answer: They know they are being observed or studied
The Hawthorne effect occurs when participants alter their behavior simply due to awareness that they are being observed, threatening internal validity.
Question 5: In signal detection theory, the measure d' (d-prime) represents:
- The probability of a false alarm
- The observer's response bias toward saying 'yes'
- The observer's sensitivity independent of response bias (Correct answer)
- The hit rate minus the false alarm rate
Correct answer: The observer's sensitivity independent of response bias
D-prime (d') is a sensitivity index that measures the ability to discriminate signal from noise, independent of the observer's decision criterion.
Question 6: Attachment theory, developed by John Bowlby, proposes that infants form attachments primarily because:
- Caregivers provide food, reinforcing proximity-seeking
- An innate biological system promotes proximity to caregivers for survival (Correct answer)
- Social learning from observing attached peers
- Operant conditioning generalizes from feeding situations
Correct answer: An innate biological system promotes proximity to caregivers for survival
Bowlby's evolutionary-based theory holds that attachment is an innate behavioral system that promotes proximity to caregivers as a survival mechanism.
Question 7: When a researcher controls for the influence of a confounding variable through statistical adjustment rather than experimental manipulation, this procedure is called:
- Counterbalancing
- Stratified randomization
- Statistical covariance control (ANCOVA) (Correct answer)
- Blocking
Correct answer: Statistical covariance control (ANCOVA)
ANCOVA (Analysis of Covariance) statistically removes the variance attributable to a covariate, reducing error variance and controlling for confounds post hoc.
LSP Research Methods & Psychological Theories 4
In Piaget's theory, the process of modifying existing schemas to accommodate new information is called: