Form A
Exam I - Winter, 2000

NOTE: Answer key is at the end.

Instructions:
1. For each item pick the BEST answer.
2. Take your time. Read each item carefully and avoid careless mistakes. There is no extra credit for finishing early.
3. When you finish, turn in your answer sheet as instructed and KEEP this exam. Be sure to get your answer key.
4. Remember that this is a test of your knowledge of the course material, and the answer sheet is to be entirely your own work. Your copy of this exam AND the answer sheet are BOTH coded, and therefore you must turn in an answer sheet marked for your form of the exam.

Good luck.

1. Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in:
   1. 1879
   2. 1887
   3. 1895
   4. 1901

2. According to the text, psychology can be called a science because psychologists rely on
   1. strong rational processes when forming conclusions about human behavior and mental processes.
   2. careful observation and experimentation when studying psychological processes.
   3. other sciences such as biology when drawing conclusions about human behavior and mental processes
   4. the ideas of great scientists from other areas of study such as biology and sociology.

3. In the video "Secrets of the Psychics," James Randi attempted to
   1. increase awareness of the impressive power that psychics possess.
   2. disprove claims of people with reported psychic abilities.
   3. identify similarities between psychics and psychologists.
   4. identify differences between psychics and psychologists.

4. Which of the following measure of central tendency is influenced most by extreme scores (outliers)?
   1. correlation
   2. mean
   3. median
   4. mode

5. In class, psychology was defined as the
   1. science of thought
   2. science of the mind
   3. science of animal and human mental capacities
   4. science of behavior

6. As noted in lecture, a psychologist who values and uses the scientific method would most likely possess which one of the following characteristics?
   1. a strong need to prove his/her theory correct
   2. a belief in his/her scientific instincts
   3. an attitude of critical thinking.
   4. an ability to simplify complex problems

7. Which of the following best describes the hierarchy of research designs from strongest to weakest as discussed in class?
   1. experiment, correlational study, observational study, quasi-experiment
   2. experiment, quasi-experiment, correlational study, observational study
   3. experiment, observational study, quasi-experiment, correlational study
   4. experiment, quasi-experiment, observational study, correlational study

8. According to lecture, what is one reason psychological research is conducted on lower animals?
   1. Researchers have more control over an animal's environment.
   2. The long-range goal of psychology is to explain and predict the behavior of lower animals.
   3. Experimental research with lower animals is the only way of establishing cause and effect relations among psychological processes of interest.
   4. Psychological research is no longer conducted on lower animals.

9. A group of researchers conducted an experiment that investigated the influence of a new drug on headaches. The findings indicated that the number of daily headaches was reduced significantly for individuals who received the drug. In conducting the data analyses, the researchers learned that 25 of 30 people who received the drug began using relaxation techniques the same week they began taking the drug. The relaxation techniques would be a (an) ____________ in the experiment.
   1. independent variable
   2. dependent variable
   3. placebo
   4. confound

10. Iva reads that kombucha fungus will cure her many ills. She starts drinking a brew of kombucha every day. She also begins a vegetarian diet and an exercise program. Three weeks later she exclaims, "That kombucha drink really improved my health!" You suggest that perhaps the vegetarian diet and/or the exercise were the source of her improvement. Your comment best demonstrates which component of critical thinking according to the text.
   1. Considering overgeneralization
   2. Asking good questions
   3. Identifying alternative explanations
   4. Examining the evidence

11. According to lecture, Sigmund Freud developed a theory of ____________ that had many positive and negative contributions.
   1. functionalism
   2. structuralism
   3. psychoanalysis
   4. behaviorism

12. According to the text, psychologists emphasize four important goals

   1. describing, explaining, predicting, and changing behavior
   2. describing, evaluating, predicting, and confronting behavior
   3. describing, explaining, predicting, and confronting behavior
   4. evaluating, predicting, confronting, and changing behavior

13. According to the discussion about the video on psychic phenomena during lecture, ____ out of every 4 people report having some type of unexplainable experience.
   1. 1
   2. 2
   3. 3
   4. 4

14. What is one major limitation of correlational studies?
   1. They are difficult to conduct.
   2. They are of little use in early research efforts in a new area.
   3. They cannot answer questions about associations (relations) among study variables.
   4. They tell nothing about cause and effect.

15. According to your text, what was the most important contribution of John B. Watson?
   1. Watson was the first psychologist to use introspection to study mental events in the laboratory.
   2. Watson was the first researcher who systematically studied unconscious motives.
   3. Watson's emphasis on studying observable behavior led to many practical applications in psychology.
   4. Watson's emphasis on the importance of studying constructs such as thought led to the cognitive revolution in psychology.

16. Which of the following best describes a limitation of true experiments?
   1. True experiments do not have limitations.
   2. Laboratory procedures can be artificial.
   3. Participants cannot be randomly assigned.
   4. True experiments have a subject self-selection confound.

17. All statistical methods (techniques) fall into which of the following two categories?
   1. inductive and deductive
   2. analytical and inferential
   3. descriptive and analytical
   4. descriptive and inferential

18. In an experiment examining the influence of a new drug on symptoms of depression, the group that does not receive the drug is called the
   1. experimental group
   2. confounding group
   3. control group
   4. dependant group

19. According to the text, researchers who rely on precise definitions and careful, objective measurements in the study of unobservable mental processes are most likely
   1. behavioral psychologists.
   2. psychodynamic psychologists.
   3. humanistic psychologists.
   4. cognitive psychologists.

20. In an experiment, an uncontrolled extraneous variable is a (an)
   1. placebo
   2. confound.
   3. independent variable
   4. dependent variable

21. Which of the following is a characteristic of an experiment?
   1. Manipulation of the dependent variable and observation of the effect on the independent variable
   2. Manipulation of the independent variable and observation of the effect on the dependent variable
   3. Manipulation of the confounding variable and observation of the effect on independent variable
   4. Manipulation of the confounding variable and observation of the effect on the dependent variable

22. James Randi in the video "Secrets of the Psychics" wanted to demonstrate that __________________.
   1. there is an alternative explanation for psychic phenomena.
   2. magicians make the best psychics.
   3. psychic phenomena cannot be studied using the scientific method.
   4. psychic phenomena can be studied best using measures of heart rate and brain waves.

23. Which of the following was an explanation that James Randi in the video "Secrets of the Psychics" gave for people's intrigue with psychic phenomena?
   1. It provides people with the biological need to feel manipulated.
   2. It taps into people's unconscious knowledge of the hidden truths in their lives.
   3. It contains seeds of wisdom.
   4. It gives people a sense of control over their lives.

24. The major difference between an experiment and a quasi-experiment is that
   1. experiments study more important psychological variables.
   2. quasi-experiments use only animals as subjects for study.
   3. quasi-experiments lack random assignment to conditions.
   4. experiments do not depend on the use of comparison groups.

25. Which scientific principle as discussed in class was most apparent in James Randi's video, "Secrets of the Psychics?"
   1. belief that laboratory research is the best way of practicing sound science
   2. distrust of ideas from individuals who do not have scientific degrees
   3. attitude of healthy skepticism
   4. belief that the most appropriate scientific measures are heart rate and brain waves

26. According to lecture, which measure of central tendency is used most widely in statistical formulas?
   1. correlation
   2. mean
   3. median
   4. mode

27. As described in class, inferential statistics
   1. provide researchers a tool for drawing conclusions about a population
   2. provide researchers a tool for organizing information about a population
   3. provide researchers a tool for organizing a set of data
   4. provide researchers a tool for describing a set of data

28. Researchers want to investigate the hypothesis that if students drink coffee before exams, then their anxiety will increase. They randomly assign students to one of three experimental conditions. Some students will drink four cups of coffee, others will drink two cups of coffee, and the remaining students will not drink any coffee. In this study, the independent variable is
   1. the students.
   2. the student's anxiety.
   3. amount of coffee.
   4. the midterm exam.

29. According to class notes, what would be the first step in finding the median?
   1. rank ordering scores from smallest to largest
   2. adding up all scores
   3. dividing by number of scores
   4. identifying most frequent score

30. If a researcher was looking for the most frequent score in a sample, she would be trying to identify the sample _________.
   1. correlation
   2. mean
   3. median
   4. mode

31. After attempting to conduct a true experiment about the influence of a new diet on weight loss, a research team discovered that participants were not randomly assigned to groups. What concern should be of primary importance for the research team?
   1. too many experimental groups would be needed to randomly assign participants so researchers should not be concerned
   2. cannot be sure the groups are equal with regard to important characteristics
   3. independent variable is not stated clearly
   4. dependent variable is not stated clearly

32. Suppose you are interested in the effects of typewritten material on grades that professors assign to term papers. You decide to present two copies of the same term paper to a group of professors. Half of the professors will be asked to grade a type written copy of the paper, whereas the remaining professors will evaluate a handwritten copy. In this example, the dependent variable is
   1. the number of professors included in the study.
   2. the type of written presentation of the paper.
   3. the letter grades assigned by the professors.
   4. the academic content of the term paper.

33. Suppose you are interested in examining the effects of stimulant drugs on the motor behavior of white rats. Some rats will be injected with a stimulant drug, whereas others will receive an injection of saline solution. Your dependent variable is
   1. the breed of white rat used in the study.
   2. the motor behavior of the rats.
   3. the type of drug administered to the rats.
   4. the kind of equipment used to study the rat's behavior.

34. According to lecture, what research design would be most appropriate if you only wanted to investigate the relationship between two variables?
   1. quasi-experiment
   2. observational study
   3. correlational study
   4. experiment

35. A psychologist conducts a study with a large sample of college students and finds that students who exercise frequently have lower depression scores. This relationship between exercise and depression is best described as
   1. a positive correlation.
   2. a negative correlation.
   3. a zero correlation.
   4. an artificial relationship.

36. An advantage of a good theory is it
   1. provides information about relationships that are directly observable.
   2. provides proof of cause and effect relationships
   3. indicates no additional experiments are needed in that area of inquiry.
   4. generates new hypotheses.

37. The type of variable that is manipulated in an experiment is called the
   1. dependent variable
   2. control variable
   3. independent variable
   4. extraneous variable

38. When researchers offer a tentative explanation of what is expected to occur if certain conditions are true, they are said to have stated a
   1. hypothesis.
   2. conclusion.
   3. correlation.
   4. case analysis.

39. In order to investigate the effects of a new treatment for depression, a researcher will compare the experiences of clients in the treatment group with the experiences of a control group of clients. If the researcher actually used a random assignment procedure, which of the following statements would be true?
   1. All clients had an equal chance of being assigned to either the treatment group or the control group.
   2. Only the most depressed clients would be assigned to the treatment group because they would need it most.
   3. Only the least depressed clients would be assigned to the treatment group.
   4. Only the clients who were most motivated to feel better would be assigned to the treatment group.

40. The number one way of establishing cause and effect relationships is conducting a (an)
   1. case study.
   2. quasi-experiment.
   3. experiment.
   4. correlational study.

41. In a perfectly symmetrical distribution:
   1. the ranks from highest to lowest are: mean, median, mode
   2. the ranks from highest to lowest are: mode, median, mean
   3. the mean, median, and mode are identical
   4. the relationship of the mean, median, and mode is random

42. The most quick and dirty measure of variability is the:
   1. range
   2. average deviation
   3. standard deviation
   4. middle 68% of the sample

43. The mean plus-or-minus 2 standard deviations includes ______ of the sample.
   1. 50%
   2. 68%
   3. 95%
   4. 99%

44. Which of the following correlations indicates the greatest degree of relationship?
   1. .68
   2. .30
   3. .09
   4. -.86

45. When researchers say that a given difference is significant at the 5% level of confidence, it means that:
   1. the difference is not really statistically significant
   2. there is a 5% chance that the conclusion is incorrect
   3. there is a 50-50 chance that there is a real difference
   4. there is a 95% chance that the conclusion is incorrect

46. Lucky Lucy decides to do a study of gender differences in response to nicotine pills. If the independent variable is gender, and the dependent variable is nicotine response, this is an example of a(n):
   1. experiment
   2. quasi-experiment
   3. correlational study
   4. observational study

47. The mean plus-or-minus one standard deviation includes _____ of the sample.
   1. 50%
   2. 68%
   3. 95%
   4. 99%

48. A survey is an example of which of the following?
   1. correlational study
   2. quasi-experiment
   3. observational study
   4. experiment

49. The so-called "third variable" problem is one reason why:
   1. correlation does not establish cause-and-effect
   2. the effect of the DV may be obscured
   3. the conclusion of significance may be incorrect
   4. quasi-experiments are usually quite rigorous

50. A recently introduced method for combining the results of two or more studies is called:
   1. central tendency
   2. outlier
   3. meta-analysis
   4. confound

Key: 1-1, 2-2, 3-2, 4-2, 5-4, 6-3, 7-2, 8-1, 9-4, 10-3, 11-3, 12-1, 13-3, 14-4, 15-3,16-2, 17-4, 18-3, 19-4, 20-2, 21-2, 22-1, 23-4, 24-3, 25-3, 26-2, 27-1, 28-3, 29-1, 30-4, 31-2, 32-3, 33-2, 34-3, 35-2, 36-4, 37-3, 38-1, 39-1, 40-3, 41-3, 42-1, 43-3, 44-4, 45-2, 46-2, 47-2, 48-3, 49-1, 50-3.