Psych 7A: Chapter 1

Front 1

After the U.S. occupation of Iraq led to a civil war rather than a peaceful democracy, some commentators perceived the
result as inevitable. This perception best illustrates

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Hindsight bias

Front 2

Hindsight bias leads people to perceive research findings as

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unsurprising.

Front 3

According to Emily's grandfather, Adolf Hitler's obvious emotional instability made it clear from the beginning days of
his international conflicts that Germany would inevitably lose World War II. The grandfather's claim best illustrates

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hindsight bias

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. As students prepare for a test, they often believe that they understand the course material better than they actually do.
This best illustrates

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overconfidence

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After predicting world events, such as whether Quebec would separate from Canada, experts maintained that they were
“almost right.” This attitude is an example of

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overconfidence

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Psychologists attempt to let the facts speak for themselves by using an approach that is best described as

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empirical

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As scientists, psychologists adopt an attitude of skepticism because they believe that

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claims about human behavior need to be supported with evidence.

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Critical thinkers can best be described as

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questioning

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Professor O'Brian has used correlational evidence to reach a potentially incorrect conclusion about a cause-effect
relationship. Questioning the validity of drawing this conclusion from the evidence best illustrates

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critical thinking

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According to Professor Fayad, we like people who like us because their affection for us boosts our own self-esteem. His
idea is an example of

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theory

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In reporting the effect of drinking alcohol on self-consciousness, psychological researchers would specify exactly how
they measured self-consciousness. They are thereby providing a(n)

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operational definition

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Replication involves

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repeating an earlier research study

Front 13

Professor Bolden claims that his experimental research demonstrates that eating an apple every day improves children's
reading skills. How might he best offer further support for the reliability of this finding?

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replication

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To better understand how brain malfunctions influence behavior, Dr. Mosher extensively and carefully observes and
questions two stroke victims. Which research method is Dr. Mosher using?

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the case study

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Those who rely on the case-study method need to be especially alert to the dangers of

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hindsight bias

Front 16

A majority of respondents in a national survey agreed that “classroom prayer should not be allowed in public schools.”
Only 33 percent of respondents in a similar survey agreed that “classroom prayer in public schools should be banned.”
These differing findings best illustrate the importance of

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wording effects

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The whole group from which samples may be drawn is called a(n)

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population

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Web site polls and call-in phone surveys often yield unrepresentative results because they fail to use

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random sampling

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To describe the behavior of animals in their native habitats, researchers are most likely to make use of

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naturalistic observation

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Researchers make no effort to manipulate or control variables when they engage in

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naturalistic observation

Front 21

Which of the following statistical measures is most helpful for indicating the extent to which high school grades predict
college or university grades?

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correlation coefficient

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A correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of the

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extent to which two factors vary together.

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If the points on a scatterplot are clustered in a pattern that extends from lower left to upper right, this would suggest that
the two variables depicted are

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positively correlated

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A researcher would be most likely to discover a negative correlation between

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self esteem and depression

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If university graduates typically earn more money than high school graduates, this would indicate that level of education
and income are

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positively correlated

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If those with low self-esteem are also particularly likely to suffer from depression, this would not necessarily indicate
that low self-esteem triggers negative emotions because

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correlation does not prove causation

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The perception of a relationship between two variables where none exists is called

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illusory correlation

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The belief that weather conditions signal the onset of arthritis pain best illustrates

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illusory correlation

Front 29

If someone were to flip a coin six times, which of the following sequences of heads (H) and tails (T) would be most
likely?

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all of these are equally likely

Front 30

The King James Version of the Bible was completed when William Shakespeare was 46 years old. In Psalm 46 of this
translation, the forty-sixth word is “shake,” and the forty-sixth word from the end is “spear.” Before concluding that the
biblical translators were trying to be humorous with these specific word placements, you would be best advised to
recognize the danger of

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perceiving order in coincidental events

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A research method in which an investigator manipulates factors that potentially produce a particular behavior is called
a(n)

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experiment

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The experiment is a research method in which

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an investigator manipulates one or more variables that might affect behavior

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To minimize any preexisting differences between participants who are in different conditions of an experiment,
psychologists make use of

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random assignment

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To minimize the extent to which placebo effects contribute to outcome differences between experimental and control
groups in a drug-treatment study, researchers are likely to make use of

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the double blind procedure

Front 35

Abdul has volunteered to participate in an experiment evaluating the effectiveness of aspirin. Neither he nor the
experimenters know whether the pills he takes during the experiment contain aspirin or are merely placebos. The
investigators are apparently making use of

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the double blind procedure

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To provide a baseline against which they can evaluate the effects of a specific treatment, experimenters make use of a(n)

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control group

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To study some effects of alcohol consumption, Dr. Chu tested the physical coordination skills of 21-year-old men who
had just drunk either 4, 2, or 0 ounces of alcohol. In this study, the independent variable consisted of

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the amount of alcohol consumed

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Measures of central tendency are most useful for

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summarizing data

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Six different students spent $10, $13, $2, $12, $13, and $4, respectively, on entertainment. The mode of this group's
entertainment expenditures is

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13

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In any distribution of scores, an equal number of scores are both greater than and less than

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the median

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Which of the following provides a rough indication of the degree of variation among a set of scores?

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Range

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Professor Woo noticed that the distribution of students' scores on her last biology test had an extremely small standard
deviation. This indicates that the

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students' scores tended to be very similar to one another.

Front 43

If half the students at Quincy University have blue eyes, which of the following events is most probable?

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In a class consisting of 15 students, 80% or more have blue eyes

Front 44

Psychology experiments are typically designed to

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test principles that help explain behavior.

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Psychologists report that genders differ in their risk of

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all of these problems: eating disorders, depression, alcohol dependence

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Psychologists occasionally deceive research participants about the true purpose of an experiment in order to prevent
them from

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trying to confirm the experimenters' predictions.

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Ethical principles developed by the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society urge
psychological investigators to

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ensure that research participants give informed consent before participating in the research