Psychology Degree Research Methods and Ethics Questions and Answers — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A psychologist tells participants they are taking part in a study on visual perception. In reality, the study is measuring conformity by observing how participants react to a group of confederates giving obviously incorrect answers. According to APA ethical guidelines, what is the most critical procedure the psychologist must perform after the participant completes the task?
- Obtain a waiver of consent from the IRB.
- Provide a detailed debriefing explaining the deception. (Correct answer)
- Pay the participant an agreed-upon amount for their time.
- Ensure all collected data remains anonymous.
Correct answer: Provide a detailed debriefing explaining the deception.
When deception is used in research, it is an ethical mandate to conduct a debriefing as soon as is feasible. The debriefing involves explaining the true purpose of the study, revealing the nature of the deception, and correcting any misconceptions the participant may have.
Question 2: A researcher is concerned that the observed effects in their experiment might be due to a factor other than the independent variable, such as the time of day the experiment was run. This concern relates directly to the study's:
- Internal validity (Correct answer)
- External validity
- Inter-rater reliability
- Construct validity
Correct answer: Internal validity
Internal validity refers to the degree of confidence that the causal relationship being tested is trustworthy and not influenced by other factors or variables. A threat to internal validity exists if an extraneous factor (a confounding variable), like the time of day, could plausibly explain the results instead of the manipulated independent variable.
Question 3: A study finds a strong positive correlation (r = +0.85) between the number of books in a child's home and their scores on a standardized reading test. Based solely on this result, which of the following is the only scientifically justified conclusion?
- Having more books in the home causes children to become better readers.
- Children who are better readers cause their parents to buy more books.
- As the number of books in the home increases, reading test scores tend to increase. (Correct answer)
- A third factor, such as parental socioeconomic status, causes both the number of books and the high reading scores.
Correct answer: As the number of books in the home increases, reading test scores tend to increase.
A correlation describes a statistical association between variables, but it does not prove causation. The only valid conclusion from the correlation is that the two variables tend to change together in the same direction. Inferring a cause-and-effect relationship (options A and B) or assuming a specific third variable (option D) without further experimental evidence is not justified.
Question 4: A market researcher is analyzing the annual income of 100 residents in a small town. The data includes one billionaire who recently moved in. In this situation, which of the following would be the most appropriate measure of central tendency to describe the 'typical' resident's income?
- Mean
- Median (Correct answer)
- Mode
- Range
Correct answer: Median
The mean (average) is highly sensitive to extreme outliers, and the billionaire's income would drastically inflate it, providing a misleading picture of the typical income. The median, which is the middle value in a sorted dataset, is robust against outliers and would provide a more accurate representation of the central tendency of the majority of residents.
Question 5: A cognitive psychologist designs an experiment to test the effect of a new memory-enhancing drug on recall ability. One group receives the drug, while a control group receives a placebo. The psychologist then measures the number of words each participant correctly recalls from a list. In this experiment, what is the dependent variable?
- The type of pill administered (drug or placebo).
- The participants' pre-existing memory ability.
- The number of words correctly recalled. (Correct answer)
- The difficulty of the word list.
Correct answer: The number of words correctly recalled.
The dependent variable is the outcome that the researcher measures to see if it is affected by the independent variable. In this case, the psychologist is measuring the recall scores, which are believed to *depend* on whether the participant took the drug or the placebo.
Question 6: What is the primary purpose of using a double-blind research design in a clinical trial for a new medication?
- To ensure the sample is representative of the general population.
- To minimize the effects of both participant expectations and experimenter bias. (Correct answer)
- To satisfy the ethical requirement of informed consent before the study begins.
- To increase the statistical power of the data analysis.
Correct answer: To minimize the effects of both participant expectations and experimenter bias.
In a double-blind study, neither the participants nor the researchers interacting with them know who is receiving the actual treatment versus the placebo. This procedure controls for participant bias (e.g., the placebo effect) and experimenter bias (e.g., unintentionally treating groups differently or interpreting data in a biased way).
Psychology Degree Research Methods and Ethics Questions and Answers
A psychologist tells participants they are taking part in a study on visual perception.
In reality, the study is measuring conformity by observing how participants react to a group of confederates giving obviously incorrect answers.
According to APA ethical guidelines, what is the most critical procedure the psychologist must perform after the participant completes the task?