PSY 290 Exam 3 Questions With Complete Solutions!!!

- Know the difference between a true experiment and a quasi-experiment o Influence of subject and other non-manipulated IVs o Difference in conclusions that can be drawn - ANS True experiment include manipulated IV and equivalent groups formed by either straight random assignment or matching followed by random assignment - Conclusions that are drawn are causal Quasi-experiment is when subjects cannot be assigned randomly and produce results with clear benefits for people's lives - have many of the characteristics of experiments but they lack the required manipulation of the IV, this is typically because random sampling was not used. The IV is a subject variable. - Applied research is a good example of where we use quasi-experimental designs - You don't need to manipulate the IV to make it an IV (subject variable) - Conclusions that are drawn are not causal - Know a basic definition of a survey, - ANS a structured set of questions or statements given to a group of people to measure their attitudes, beliefs, values, or tendencies to act Know what Hall's "Questionnaire" was, including its purpose. - ANS Survey measured "contents of kids minds" - Where people were born and how much information they had and remembered - "Living in an urban environment will stunt intellectual development Purpose: - Find the best way to educate children - Questionnaires designed to uncover as much as possible about children -It might also be good to know why it was that surveys in general, such as Hall's, were slow to be accepted by psychology - ANS - Survey like Hall's were slow to be accepted in psychology due to overstatements - The founding fathers wanted to be in the laboratory (control) - Know why sampling is so important to survey research, including instances of bad sampling o 1936 Literary Digest Presidential Election o 1948 Chicago Daily Tribune Presidential Election - ANS -Sampling is important in survey research due to elaboration (hopes that the results will generalize beyond the people participating in them) o 1936 Literary Digest Presidential Election - ANS - the magazine Literary Digest tried to predict the election outcome by sending out about 10 million simulated ballots to subscribers, - others selected from a sample of phone books from around the country, and to others from motor vehicle registration information - Close to 25% (almost 2.5 million) of the ballots were returned to the magazine; of these respondents, 57% preferred the Republican candidate - sample is bias due to them thinking they were broadening the sample and making it more representative by adding people chosen from phone books and car registration data. - In fact, they were selecting more Republicans. In the midst of the Great Depression, practically the only people who could afford phones and cars were members of the upper‐middle and upper classes, and these were more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. - So, in the survey the magazine actually was asking Republicans how they were going to cast their votes. o 1948 Chicago Daily Tribune Presidential Election - ANS Chicago tribune did a survey to predict outcome of 1948 election and found that Dewey would defeat Truman. The tribune was published and distributed, so sure that they were right....they were not. - They were not correct as the sample they surveyed was already biased - Know what self-selection bias is, and how it can influence the interpretation of the results - ANS - is a problem that very often results when survey respondents are allowed to decide entirely for themselves whether or not they want to participate in a survey. - Self-selection bias typically appear in popular magazines, survey with the a appeal for reader to reply, results of replies are then reported -reported results tend to emphasize the total number of returned surveys, rather than percentage -Ex: Hite (1987) report of female sexuality 90% of women feeling dissatisfied in marriage however survey was sent to select groups only and 4.5% of 100,000 surveys were returned - Have a basic understanding of the difference between surveys and assessment - ANS - Surveys include various questions measuring attitude, opinions ,etc. done in person, online, or through mail - Assessments use test more formal in nature (done in clinical setting) used to exactly measure construct of interest - Surveys measure attitudes, believes, opinions and projected behaviors. This can be done in person, online, through the mail, etc. - Assessment often uses psychological testing, which is more formal in its nature, and is often done in a clinical setting. - In addition, psychological tests are usually evaluated more rigorously to measure their reliability and validity in order to adequately measure the construct of interest. - The the level of training for psychological tests also tends to be much higher than that of surveys. Open-ended survey items - ANS - questions that require a response beyond a yes or no (narrative info required). - Open ended questions are useful for evoking a wide range of responses that the researcher hasn't even thought of, it can also increase the respondent's sense of control when completing survey. - It's difficult to score open ended questions or interpret results and also issues w/ reliability and validity dichotomous (closed questions) survey items - ANS - can be answered w/ yes or no or choosing a single response from among several alternatives, is completed quickly - It makes it easier to score and interpret the results. - Often easier to analyze statistically. - The weakness is that the format can limit the amount of information. partially open survey items - ANS - uses a combined approach which allows respondents to elaborate on their answers to close ended questions. - It uses items such as checklists allowing more flexible responses. - This allows easy scoring of the close ended parts but can provide context for the questions. - It can also lead to the development of further surveys. - Know what response bias/acquiescence is, and why using "backwards worded" items helps to detect and prevent it - ANS - response bias/acquiescence is a tendency to agree with statements - Some surveys are forward and backward worded this is to avoid response acquiesce: a tendency to agree with statements and not fully paying attention. -using backwards worded items forces respondent to read carefully and make item-by-item choices - Review why the order of items in a survey can be important (e.g. putting sensitive items at the end; grouping items about the same topic) - ANS - This way respondents won't be upset early on, and will be more likely to answer the questions that are not on the topic. - They also may finish the survey, even these sensitive items because they have already invested time on the rest of it. - grouping items about the same/similar topic allows respondent to focus on that topic before moving on - Why is memory difficult to measure? What are some things the influence people's memory? - ANS - Memory is imperfect, the longer the time in between the assessment and the events in question, the more detail may be lost. - Some things people just don't pay attention to at the time, so they won't be recalled as well as those they do pay attention to. - If the event is rare, it will not happen often in a short amount of time. - If the event is common it may happen too often in a longer amount to be recalled easily. How do lists help with memory? - ANS The respondent can check things that have happened of they have experienced in time frame being tested Why should we be careful about the use of Don't Know (DK) as an option - ANS - If used a lot, respondent may get into the habit of answering with it rather than fully thinking about their answer.