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Quiz: Introduction to research

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  • Quiz: Introduction to research

The following revision quiz is a good practice of key vocabulary related to research methods in psychology. The quiz focuses on sampling techniques, experimental designs, evaluation of research methods and ethical considerations. 

Psychological terminology quiz

1. When testing the difference in memory skills for two groups, one group ended up having more non-native English speakers in it than the other.

This is a confounding variable - that is, it is something that the researcher could have controlled for, but did not. The name of this variable is "participant variability."

2. Participants were told that they would take part in a study on human attraction. They were then asked to formally agree to take part in the study.

Informed consent

3. When participants guess the hypothesis of a study and then act accordingly.

Demand characteristics

4. When participants are selected because they have a certain characteristic - for example, they are all smokers.

Purposive sampling

5. When a participant changes his/her behaviour simply because she is receiving a treatment.

Placebo effect

6. When the researcher reveals any deception used in a study and gives the participant the right to withdraw their data.

Debriefing

7. When neither the participants nor the person carrying out the research knows neither the hypothesis of the study nor which group is the control and which the treatment.

Double-blind control

8. When participants are chosen just because they are “in the right place at the right time.” For example - people who walk out of a grocery store in your neighborhood.

Haphazard sampling

9. When asked her opinion about immigrants in the Czech Republic, Hana gives a very positive response, even though she has often shared with her own friends that she is against immigration.

Social desirability effect

10. When a study that is done in a lab actually predicts what happens outside of the laboratory - in the real world.

Ecological validity

II. Experimental design

Please read the following study and then answer the questions which follow.

In order to test whether self-esteem has an effect on attraction, Kiesler & Baral carried out the following experiment. They administered a fake IQ test to a group of men. They then gave them fictitious scores. One group was told that they had scored “off the charts” – the highest scores ever seen on the exam. The second group was told that there must have been some misunderstanding because their scores were so low and that the researchers could not account for the errors. They are asked to redo the test in the near future. Scores are given individually. After the scores are given, the individual men wait in a waiting room for their pay for taking part in the study. During that time, a very attractive female walks into the room. The experimenters wanted to see if their self-esteem affected their willingness to engage in discussion with an attractive woman. They found that the men who had had a self-esteem boost (high scores) engaged in conversation with the women more quickly, and that they were more engaged in discussion than the men that were given low test scores.

Questions

1. Which type of design is this? Repeated Measures or Independent Samples? Explain your answer.

Independent samples. Each participant was given only one of the two conditions (treatments) - either the high self-esteem condition or the low self-esteem condition.

2. What is the independent variable in this study?

The IV is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher. In this case, it is the participant's level of self-esteem.

3. What is the dependent variable in this study?

The DV is what is measured. In this case, it is the time that it took the participants to engage in discussion with a beautiful woman.

4. What is one ethical concern about Kiesler & Baral’s study?

There are a few ethical concerns for this study. The most obvious is that the researchers deceived the participants. It is difficult to know what the personal effect would be on the individuals. The deception is seen as necessary in order to carry out the research, and the participants were debriefed as soon as they began to speak to the beautiful woman.

5. What are two variables/factors that could have affected the results of this study?

Self-esteem prior to the study, personal belief in the validity of IQ testing, or social skills with the opposite sex. Many students say "sexuality" - but this is not necessarily important in this study as gay men could be just as likely to strike up a conversation with the woman as heterosexual men.

6. What is one possible implication of this study?

One possible implication of this study is that when men have problems with social skills with the opposite sex, it may be important to work on their level of self-esteem.