Psychology Degree Research Methods and Ethics 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When is deception ethically permissible in psychological research according to APA guidelines?
- Whenever it increases participant engagement
- Only when the study has no risks whatsoever
- When the scientific value justifies it and a full debriefing follows (Correct answer)
- Deception is never permissible under APA ethics
Correct answer: When the scientific value justifies it and a full debriefing follows
APA permits deception only when the research has significant scientific value, cannot be done otherwise, and participants are fully debriefed afterward.
Question 2: In a factorial design with a 2×3 structure, how many conditions are there?
- 2
- 3
- 5
- 6 (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 6
A 2×3 factorial design has 2 levels of one factor and 3 levels of another, producing 2×3 = 6 conditions.
Question 3: A study finds that ice cream sales and drowning rates both rise in summer. This is an example of what?
- A causal relationship
- A spurious correlation due to a third variable (Correct answer)
- A negative correlation
- Reverse causation
Correct answer: A spurious correlation due to a third variable
Both variables increase because of hot weather (a confound), not because one causes the other.
Question 4: Which sampling method is most likely to yield a representative sample of U.S. adults?
- Convenience sampling from a university campus
- Simple random sampling from a national registry (Correct answer)
- Snowball sampling through social networks
- Purposive sampling of clinical populations
Correct answer: Simple random sampling from a national registry
Simple random sampling gives every member of the target population an equal chance of selection, minimizing systematic bias.
Question 5: What distinguishes a between-subjects design from a within-subjects design?
- Between-subjects designs always have more statistical power
- In within-subjects designs, each participant experiences only one condition
- In between-subjects designs, different participants are in different conditions (Correct answer)
- Between-subjects designs eliminate order effects
Correct answer: In between-subjects designs, different participants are in different conditions
Between-subjects designs assign different groups of participants to different conditions, unlike within-subjects where each person sees all conditions.
Question 6: What is the main advantage of a within-subjects design over a between-subjects design?
- It eliminates demand characteristics
- It reduces variability by controlling for individual differences (Correct answer)
- It avoids carryover effects
- It requires a larger sample size
Correct answer: It reduces variability by controlling for individual differences
Because the same participants serve in all conditions, individual difference variability is removed, increasing statistical power.
Question 7: A researcher conducts 20 independent hypothesis tests with α = .05 and finds two significant results. What is the primary concern?
- The sample size was too small
- Familywise Type I error inflation (Correct answer)
- The tests lacked statistical power
- The dependent variables were not reliable
Correct answer: Familywise Type I error inflation
Running many tests increases the probability of false positives; corrections like Bonferroni are used to control familywise error rate.
Psychology Degree Research Methods and Ethics 3
When is deception ethically permissible in psychological research according to APA guidelines?