Psychology Degree Psychological Research Methods 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which of the following is a key advantage of longitudinal research over cross-sectional research?
- It requires fewer resources and time
- It allows examination of developmental changes within the same individuals over time (Correct answer)
- It eliminates all cohort effects
- It always yields larger samples
Correct answer: It allows examination of developmental changes within the same individuals over time
Longitudinal designs track the same participants over time, enabling true developmental change to be observed rather than inferred from age comparisons.
Question 2: In signal detection theory, a 'hit' refers to:
- Correctly identifying a stimulus as absent when it is absent
- Incorrectly reporting a stimulus as present when it is absent
- Correctly identifying a stimulus as present when it is present (Correct answer)
- Failing to detect a stimulus that is present
Correct answer: Correctly identifying a stimulus as present when it is present
A hit is a correct detection — the participant correctly reports a signal when the signal is actually present.
Question 3: The Hawthorne effect refers to participants:
- Becoming fatigued over the course of a long experiment
- Changing their behavior because they know they are being observed (Correct answer)
- Responding to placebo treatments as if they were real
- Dropping out of a study before it ends
Correct answer: Changing their behavior because they know they are being observed
The Hawthorne effect describes behavior changes that occur simply because participants know they are being watched or studied.
Question 4: Which sampling method gives every member of a population an equal chance of being selected?
- Convenience sampling
- Purposive sampling
- Simple random sampling (Correct answer)
- Quota sampling
Correct answer: Simple random sampling
Simple random sampling ensures every population member has an equal probability of selection, making it the gold standard for representativeness.
Question 5: Cronbach's alpha is used to assess:
- Test-retest reliability
- Inter-rater reliability
- Internal consistency reliability (Correct answer)
- Predictive validity
Correct answer: Internal consistency reliability
Cronbach's alpha measures internal consistency — how well items on a scale correlate with each other and measure the same construct.
Question 6: A researcher studying PTSD in veterans recruits participants solely from VA hospitals. The biggest threat to validity this creates is:
- Demand characteristics
- Sampling bias limiting generalizability (Correct answer)
- Instrumentation error
- Regression to the mean
Correct answer: Sampling bias limiting generalizability
Recruiting from VA hospitals may produce a non-representative sample of veterans, limiting external validity and generalizability of findings.
Question 7: What distinguishes a quasi-experiment from a true experiment?
- Quasi-experiments lack a dependent variable
- Quasi-experiments do not involve random assignment to conditions (Correct answer)
- Quasi-experiments cannot measure cause and effect at all
- Quasi-experiments always use qualitative methods
Correct answer: Quasi-experiments do not involve random assignment to conditions
Quasi-experiments manipulate an independent variable but lack random assignment, reducing control over confounds compared to true experiments.
Psychology Degree Psychological Research Methods 4
Which of the following is a key advantage of longitudinal research over cross-sectional research?