Chapter 1
1. Which of the following is NOT a good reason for psychology students to take a research methods course?
a. It will allow you to become a better consumer of the scientific literature
* b. It requires more rigorous thinking than is typically found in other psychology courses
c. The content of psychology courses is typically based on scientific findings
d. You need to be able to evaluate the adequacy of the many claims you encounter daily
2. Which of the following is a reason for taking a Research Methods course?
a. To develop critical and analytic thinking skills.
b. To learn how to conduct psychological research.
c. To become an informed and critical consumer of information.
* d. All of the above
3. Being an informed and critical consumer of information will help you to critically read which of the
following?
a. popular magazines
b. newspaper
c. scientific journal
* d. all of the above
4. Which of the following is a disadvantage of the intuitive approach to acquiring knowledge?
a. Intuition is takes a long time to understand and is difficult to use.
* b. Intuition does not provide a mechanism to help you to separate accurate from inaccurate knowledge.
c. Intuition can lead you to two equally accurate conclusions.
d. Intuition relies entirely on memory when in use and memory can be inaccurate.
5. Jackie's friend tells her what to do in her personal life based on her "gut instincts.” A more formal name for
this source of knowledge is
a. rationalism.
b. hypothesis testing.
c. appeal to authority.
* d. intuition.
6. If you accept your physician’s explanation for your illness without researching your condition or asking how
she came to her conclusion, you are relying on ___________ as a source of knowledge.
,* a. authority
b. reason
c. intuition
d. science
7. Consulting the expertise of an Authority can be useful when
a. designing a study.
b. forming a hypothesis
c. interpreting data
* d. All of the above
8. Which of the following methods is NOT useful when forming a hypothesis?
a. Intuition
* b. Hoaxing
c. Rationalism
d. Authority
9. After every trip Pete takes to the automatic carwash he finds a new ding in his car. He concludes that this
automatic carwash damages cars. He is relying on what source of knowledge?
a. Intuition
b. Rationalism
* c. Empiricism
d. Science
10. One approach to gaining knowledge is known as ___________ and involves using reasoning to acquire
knowledge.
a. determinism
b. logic of discovery * c. rationalism d. naturalism
11. _______ is an important part of the scientific approach that is based on the notion that the origin of all
knowledge is from our senses.
a. Rationalism
b. Intuition * c. Empiricism d. Authority
12. Whewell believed that _______ should be designed to systematically produce reliable and valid
knowledge about the national world.
a. Psychology
,* b. Science
c. Induction
d. Rationalism
13. Latané and Darnley (1969) were one of the first to conduct experiments on the now well known “bystander
effect”. They were prompted to conduct theses experiments by the famous case of the murder of Kitty
Genovese. When a specific situation leads to a general understanding of behavior, this is called?
a. empiricism
b. deduction
c. naturalism
* d. induction
14. Tom was experiencing dizziness just before he ate his lunch and noted that after he started eating his
dizziness disappeared. From this he inferred that dizziness was due to a lack of nutrition and whenever
someone complained of dizziness he encouraged them to eat. His inference that dizziness is due to lack of
nutrition demonstrates what reasoning process?
a. deduction
b. hypothesis testing
* c. induction
d. naturalism
15. Which of the following is the best example of using inductive reasoning?
a. Developing a hypothesis based on an established theory
b. Developing a theory of aggression based on your observation of children * c.
Deducing that video games will contribute to a specific child’s aggression d.
Developing a theory based on intuition
16. Suzy was working on her doctoral dissertation and in her social psychology class she learned that social
facilitation, or the presence of others, influences performance. Based on this information she hypothesized
that a person would run faster when running in a group of people than when running alone. In forming this
hypothesis, Suzy used what type of reasoning process?
* a. Deduction
b. Naturalism
c. Social rationalism
d. Induction
17. Social Learning theory states that “we learn from others.” This broad theory has lead to the testing of many
specific hypotheses such as “Children learn manners from their parents.” This is an example of what type of
reasoning?
, a. empiricism
* b. deduction
c. naturalism
d. induction
18. __________ was a philosophical approach that influenced the development of the scientific method because
of its emphasis on verifying scientific information through experience or observation.
* a. Logical positivism b.
Falsificationism
c. Rationalism
d. Revolutionary science
19. Karl Popper advocated a deductive approach to science that focused on attempting to disprove hypotheses.
His approach is known as
a. logical positivism * b. falsificationism c. determinability
d. naturalism
20. Logical positivists advocated ________________ as an important scientific method.
a. induction
b. deduction
* c. hypothesis testing d. naturalism
21. Dr. Stokley has derived a hypothesis from Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning. Dr. Stokley wants to
collect factual information and evidence to test his hypothesis. Which of the following refers to the process he
will use?
a. Rationalism
* b. Hypothesis Testing
c. Induction
d. Normal Science
22. Today many scientists rely on a hybrid approach to hypothesis testing that includes both _______ and
_______.
a. naturalism: rationalism
b. intuition: empiricism
1. Which of the following is NOT a good reason for psychology students to take a research methods course?
a. It will allow you to become a better consumer of the scientific literature
* b. It requires more rigorous thinking than is typically found in other psychology courses
c. The content of psychology courses is typically based on scientific findings
d. You need to be able to evaluate the adequacy of the many claims you encounter daily
2. Which of the following is a reason for taking a Research Methods course?
a. To develop critical and analytic thinking skills.
b. To learn how to conduct psychological research.
c. To become an informed and critical consumer of information.
* d. All of the above
3. Being an informed and critical consumer of information will help you to critically read which of the
following?
a. popular magazines
b. newspaper
c. scientific journal
* d. all of the above
4. Which of the following is a disadvantage of the intuitive approach to acquiring knowledge?
a. Intuition is takes a long time to understand and is difficult to use.
* b. Intuition does not provide a mechanism to help you to separate accurate from inaccurate knowledge.
c. Intuition can lead you to two equally accurate conclusions.
d. Intuition relies entirely on memory when in use and memory can be inaccurate.
5. Jackie's friend tells her what to do in her personal life based on her "gut instincts.” A more formal name for
this source of knowledge is
a. rationalism.
b. hypothesis testing.
c. appeal to authority.
* d. intuition.
6. If you accept your physician’s explanation for your illness without researching your condition or asking how
she came to her conclusion, you are relying on ___________ as a source of knowledge.
,* a. authority
b. reason
c. intuition
d. science
7. Consulting the expertise of an Authority can be useful when
a. designing a study.
b. forming a hypothesis
c. interpreting data
* d. All of the above
8. Which of the following methods is NOT useful when forming a hypothesis?
a. Intuition
* b. Hoaxing
c. Rationalism
d. Authority
9. After every trip Pete takes to the automatic carwash he finds a new ding in his car. He concludes that this
automatic carwash damages cars. He is relying on what source of knowledge?
a. Intuition
b. Rationalism
* c. Empiricism
d. Science
10. One approach to gaining knowledge is known as ___________ and involves using reasoning to acquire
knowledge.
a. determinism
b. logic of discovery * c. rationalism d. naturalism
11. _______ is an important part of the scientific approach that is based on the notion that the origin of all
knowledge is from our senses.
a. Rationalism
b. Intuition * c. Empiricism d. Authority
12. Whewell believed that _______ should be designed to systematically produce reliable and valid
knowledge about the national world.
a. Psychology
,* b. Science
c. Induction
d. Rationalism
13. Latané and Darnley (1969) were one of the first to conduct experiments on the now well known “bystander
effect”. They were prompted to conduct theses experiments by the famous case of the murder of Kitty
Genovese. When a specific situation leads to a general understanding of behavior, this is called?
a. empiricism
b. deduction
c. naturalism
* d. induction
14. Tom was experiencing dizziness just before he ate his lunch and noted that after he started eating his
dizziness disappeared. From this he inferred that dizziness was due to a lack of nutrition and whenever
someone complained of dizziness he encouraged them to eat. His inference that dizziness is due to lack of
nutrition demonstrates what reasoning process?
a. deduction
b. hypothesis testing
* c. induction
d. naturalism
15. Which of the following is the best example of using inductive reasoning?
a. Developing a hypothesis based on an established theory
b. Developing a theory of aggression based on your observation of children * c.
Deducing that video games will contribute to a specific child’s aggression d.
Developing a theory based on intuition
16. Suzy was working on her doctoral dissertation and in her social psychology class she learned that social
facilitation, or the presence of others, influences performance. Based on this information she hypothesized
that a person would run faster when running in a group of people than when running alone. In forming this
hypothesis, Suzy used what type of reasoning process?
* a. Deduction
b. Naturalism
c. Social rationalism
d. Induction
17. Social Learning theory states that “we learn from others.” This broad theory has lead to the testing of many
specific hypotheses such as “Children learn manners from their parents.” This is an example of what type of
reasoning?
, a. empiricism
* b. deduction
c. naturalism
d. induction
18. __________ was a philosophical approach that influenced the development of the scientific method because
of its emphasis on verifying scientific information through experience or observation.
* a. Logical positivism b.
Falsificationism
c. Rationalism
d. Revolutionary science
19. Karl Popper advocated a deductive approach to science that focused on attempting to disprove hypotheses.
His approach is known as
a. logical positivism * b. falsificationism c. determinability
d. naturalism
20. Logical positivists advocated ________________ as an important scientific method.
a. induction
b. deduction
* c. hypothesis testing d. naturalism
21. Dr. Stokley has derived a hypothesis from Skinner’s Theory of Operant Conditioning. Dr. Stokley wants to
collect factual information and evidence to test his hypothesis. Which of the following refers to the process he
will use?
a. Rationalism
* b. Hypothesis Testing
c. Induction
d. Normal Science
22. Today many scientists rely on a hybrid approach to hypothesis testing that includes both _______ and
_______.
a. naturalism: rationalism
b. intuition: empiricism
