question archive The following items will assess your understanding of research methods in Social Psychology
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The following items will assess your understanding of research methods in Social Psychology. Indicate what you think is the BEST answer to each of the questions below. You will earn points based on your score: Score 8-10 (5 pts); Score 6-7 (4 pts); Score 4-5 (3 pts); Score 2-3 (2 pts) and Score 0-1 (1 pt).
1. Consider the following example:
A researcher wants to conduct a study to examine the effects of frustration on aggression. She predicts that people who are frustrated behave more aggressively than people who are not frustrated. To test this prediction, she gives half of her participants a task that is impossible to solve and the remaining half an easy task to solve. She then observes the participants’ verbal behavior to assess how aggressive they are towards a confederate after they work on each of the tasks.
a. What are the variable(s) or construct(s) of interest in this study? (1 pt) ___________________________ _________________________________________________
b. Describe how at least one of these constructs is being operationalized. Indicate the construct and then indicate the operational definition of this construct (1 pt)
______________________________________________________________________________
Provide another operational definition for the construct you described above. In other words, how could you operationalize this construct differently from the way the researcher did? (1 pt)
______________________________________________________________________________
Is the researcher using a non-experimental or experimental research design? (1 pt)
___________________________________________
e. Is there a variable that has a number of levels associated with it? (1 pt) YES NO
If you answered “yes”, which variable (construct) is it (don’t just say independent or dependent variable, be specific) and how many levels does it have? (1 pt)
______________________________________________________________________________
Circle the letter of the item you feel is the best answer to the following questions.
2. Construct validity is the extent to which:
the results of the research are generalizable to the general population
the independent and dependent variables correspond to the relevant theoretical constructs
cause and effect relations are evident in the relevant theoretical constructs
the research is constructed on valid methodology
Some variables cannot be manipulated and it would be unethical to manipulate others. Both are reasons that researchers might:
decide against doing a correlational study
rethink their research question
do an experimental study
choose nonexperimental over experimental methods
Random assignment is used in experiments to help ensure:
external validity
demand characteristics
construct validity
internal validity
In conducting their research, one primary goal social psychologists have is:
to understand the causal principles underlying behavior
to explain counterintuitive phenomena
to describe “abnormal” behavior
all of the above