Chapter 1: Thinking Critically
with Psychological Science
Naturalistic observations are
conducted in order to:
A.
B.
C.
D.
describe behavior.
explain behavior.
predict behavior.
control behavior.
Which of the following correlation
coefficients indicates the strongest
relationship between variables?
A.
B.
C.
D.
positive .05
negative .25
positive .75
negative .95
Critical Thinking Questions
After watching their favorite team
lose a game, Emma and her friends
commented to each other about
how they had always known the
loss was inevitable. Psychologists
call this:
A.
B.
C.
D.
overconfidence.
the false consensus effect.
the hindsight bias.
an illusory correlation.
Dr. Anderson conducts an experiment to see
whether exposure to helpful models leads to
helping behavior in young children. Of the forty
girls and boys in his study, half are exposed to
helpful models while the other half watch the
same models not engaged in helping behavior. In
this experiment, the dependent variable is:
A.
B.
C.
D.
the gender of the children.
helpful or non-helpful models.
the age of the children.
helping behavior.
Which of the following is the best
way to generate a random sample
of students for a research study?
A. mail out a questionnaire that students could
voluntarily complete and return
B. stand by the door of the library and ask
people who pass by to answer your questions
C. offer extra credit for students in a particular
classroom who choose to participate
D. use a table of random numbers to pick
participants from a student listing
A significant disadvantage of the
correlational approach is that it:
A. does not provide evidence of cause and
effect.
B. cannot be used to examine relationships
between variables that exist naturally.
C. does not aid in the process of prediction.
D. does not provide information about how two
variables are related.
Fitzpatrick concluded that there was a
statistically significant difference
between the scores of the
experimental and control groups. In
other words,
A. the difference is highly meaningful and important to
scientists.
B. the results are replicable.
C. the scores differed by five points or more.
D. it is unlikely that the difference occurred by chance.
Ethical issues in research (movie)
• How do we balance the need for research on
new drugs to benefit millions with the right to
individual research participants?
Death of a subject: The ethics of mental
health research (movie)
• What, if any, recommendations would you
make to the hospital for running experimental
drug tests?
• Are persons with severe mental illness ever
capable of giving, “Informed consent”? If not,
how do we test new drugs designed to treat
severe psychological disorders?
Do people prefer to be together or isolated
when fearful?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Schachter’s Affiliation Experiment (movie)
Independent variable?
Fear – Why is it the independent variable?
Dependent variable ?
Affiliation – Why is it the dependent variable?
How was random assignment used?
Why was random assignment used?
Schachter’s affiliation experiment cont.
• Is the use of deception ethical?
– Why or why not?
• How did he counter the effects of deception?
• What are the advantages of an experiment
over correlational research?
Why do people help? (Movie)
•
•
•
•
Why did these two office workers help?
Do we have a biological instinct to help?
Do we have a survival instinct?
What about the terrorists? Instincts?
Why do people help? Cont.
• How does the social environment - parents,
schools, communities foster helping or killing?
• What motivated Mike and John?
• Is human nature basically good or evil, or
neither (being molded by the environment)?