Example Final Exam PSY 3213 Clayson
1. RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Dr. Guidry conducts a study examining the
relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of
daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men
and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the
southern United States. Below are her findings:
• Life satisfaction and experience of daily stress: r = –.57, 95% CI [–.77, –
.37]
• Number of friends one has and experience of daily stress: r = .09, 95% CI
[–.27, .45]
• Number of friends one has and life satisfaction: r = .36, 95% CI [.12, .60]
Which of the following conclusions can Dr. Guidry draw about the number of
friends one has and life satisfaction based on her statistical analyses?
a. People with more friends tend to report greater life satisfaction.
b. People with more friends tend to report lower life satisfaction.
c. Having more friends increases one’s life satisfaction,
d. Having more friends decreases one’s life satisfaction.
2. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Dr. Guidry realizes that the women in her
study have more friends than the men in her study. This might result in
which of the following?
a. outliers due to subgroups
b. larger effect sizes
c. more measured variables
d. spurious associations due to subgroups
3. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1:
, Dr. Guidry creates a scatterplot of the relationship between the experience
of daily stress and life satisfaction. In doing so, she realizes there are three
scores that seem to be very extreme and are nowhere near the other points
on the scatterplot. Specifically, it appears that three people report very high
levels of daily stress and very low levels of life satisfaction. Dr. Guidry
should probably consider these scores
a. random.
b. moderators.
c. outliers.
d. curvilinear scores.
4. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Dr. Guidry has decided to examine one of
her relationships with a scatterplot to double-check for a curvilinear
relationship. Which relationship will be most important for her to examine?
a. life satisfaction and experience of daily stress
b. number of friends one has and experience of daily stress
c. number of friends one has and life satisfaction
d. life satisfaction, experiences of daily stress, and number of friends one
has simultaneously
5. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Matt, Dr. Guidry’s research assistant, is
discussing the findings of the study with some other students. He claims
that the experience of more daily stress causes people to have lower life
satisfaction. Which of the following causal criteria did Matt meet?
a. the covariance of cause and effect
b. temporal precedence
c. internal validity
d. external validity
, 6. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Dr. Guidry submits her study for
publication in a scientific journal. If one of the peer reviewers is concerned
about the external validity of her study, which of the following is the most
important aspect of Dr. Guidry’s study to consider?
a. the random sampling technique used to recruit the participants
b. the number of people in the sample
c. the use of three measured variables
d. the number of significant findings
7. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Considering Dr. Guidry’s study, her
results could most safely be generalized to which of the following groups?
a. people in the southern United States
b. elderly people
c. people with a high number of friends
d. people with high life satisfaction
8. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Considering Dr. Guidry’s sample, which
of the following statements is true?
a. The association found in her study could probably generalize to young
adults.
b. The association found in her study could probably generalize to elderly
people in other large cities in the South.
c. The association found in her study could probably generalize to people
living in other capital cities (e.g., Sacramento, California).
d. The association found in her study could probably generalize to elderly
persons living in nursing homes.
9. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 8.1: Dr. Guidry finds that the relationship
between the number of friends one has and life satisfaction is stronger for