Study Sheet for
PSY 311; Psychological Research Methods; Final Examination; Glenn
Geher, instructor
The examination
will
consist of two sections; a multiple choice section (addressing class
notes
and the textbook chapters covered in the syllabus) and an essay
section. A list of concepts that will be
stressed on the multiple
choice section is included here. Also
included
are essay questions corresponding to several important themes from
class. Of these essays, four will be on
the exam. You will be asked to complete
three of those four.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While all material
from
class notes and the textbook may be represented on the exam, you may
want
to focus your studying on the following concepts:
-- Definition of
science
in the context of psychology (e.g., general rules, objective evidence,
verifiable, skeptical, open-minded, creative, public, productive)
-- Kuhn’s notions
regarding paradigms in science (know the different stages and know the
role that psychological
research plays)
-- Operational
definitions
-- Internal
validity, construct validity, external validity
-- independent
versus dependent variables
-- issues
surrounding
ethics in psychology
-- the distinction
between “mediator” and “moderator” variables
-- defining
features
of different kinds of measurement in psychology (e.g., self-report,
nonverbal behavior, etc.)
-- sources of error
due
to: observer bias, administration of measures, participant error,
reactivity, experiment expectancy effects; what are these issues and
how can they be addressed?
-- ways to assess
reliability of measures
-- the defining
features
of different kinds of validity (e.g., convergent validity)
-- the basic logic
of establishing internal validity
-- advantages and
disadvantages
of within versus between subjects designs
-- Campbell and
Stanley’s (1963) 8 kinds of threats to internal validity
(selection,
selection
by maturation interactions, regression, maturation, history, testing,
instrumentation,
& mortality)
-- Problems with
different kinds of assignment to conditions
-- The features
that distinguish
experimental research from correlational research
-- General
reasoning
of hypothesis testing
-- Type 1 and Type
2
error
--
What statistical significance really means
-- the relationship
between effect size and statistical significance
-- Reasons to
conduct multigroup experiments
-- The general
reasoning
of ‘post-hoc’ tests
-- Statistical Power
Essays:
1.
Briefly describe what ‘validity’ means with regard to
scientific
research in psychology. Next, define
‘construct,’
‘internal,’ and ‘external’ validity. Next,
briefly
describe an experiment that one could conduct which tests whether
eating
vitamins increases alertness during daytime hours.
In
your description, clearly address how you would operationally define
your independent and dependent variables. Further,
be sure to explicitly address how you design the study to increase
construct,
internal, and external validity.
2.
Describe the conceptual difference between ‘mediator’
and
‘moderator’ variables. Next, give a brief,
hypothetical
conceptual example of a mediator variable. Finally,
give a brief, hypothetical conceptual example of a moderator variable. Make sure that these examples are ones you
make up
yourself!
3.
Suppose you wanted to design a study to establish the
reliability
and validity of a new measure of social competence.
Describe the different steps you would take in implementing this
research. Be sure to outline how you would
address each of
the following: internal reliability, test-retest reliability,
discriminant
validity, criterion validity, and predictive validity.
4.
Briefly describe four of the threats to internal
validity
that Campbell and Stanley (1963) outlined. For
each threat you describe, outline a hypothetical example of a study in
which
this threat is clearly present.
5.
Explain the differences between Type I and Type II
error. In your explanation, be sure to
address what is meant
by the “real state of affairs” regarding the treatment effect, and the
statistical
significance decision. Additionally,
provide
one hypothetical example of Type I error in addition to one
hypothetical
example of Type II error. Finally,
describe one
method designed to reduce Type I error as well as one method used to
reduce
Type II error.
6.
Suppose that you were going to conduct a study to
examine
if three methods for teaching statistics differ in terms of how well
students
using each method understand the material. In
your first group, participants are encouraged to read the textbook but
not
attend lecture. In the second group,
participants
are encouraged to attend the lecture but not read the textbook. In the third group, participants are not
encouraged
to read the textbook and they are not encouraged to attend the lecture. Suppose you had 20 participants in each group.
Further, suppose that scores on the DV were
represented
by scores on the final exam, varying from 0-100. Explain
how you would analyze data from this study using a One-way ANOVA. In your explanation, address the concepts of
“between
groups variability,” “within group variability,” and the “F ratio.” Further, describe why you would use a post-hoc
test
such as the Tukey HSD; also, explain the function that this post-hoc
test
would serve.
7.
Suppose I conducted
research
to examine if grades are positively related to life satisfaction among
college
students. To implement this study, I ask
100
undergraduate students to report their GPA’s and to complete the GLSS
(Glenn’s
Life Satisfaction Survey). I find a
Pearson correlation
of .9. I further find that the “p value”
associated with this correlation is .0002. Based
on this
finding, explain the implications in terms of the following: (a) the
strength
of this relationship, (b) the direction of the relationship, (c) the r2
associated with this relationship (including how to interpret that r2),
(d) and the meaning of this p value in the context of traditional alpha
levels (e.g., .05). Finally, (e) indicate
what implications
I can and cannot draw regarding the possibility of a causal
relationship
between these two variables.
8. Research
reports typically include the following
sections:
(a) an abstract, (b) an introduction, (c) a “Method” section, (d) a
“Results”
section, and (e) a “Discussion.” Suppose
that
your student Frankie just handed in a research report on an
experimental
study he conducted in which he examined whether people who were
randomly
assigned to an intense exercise condition differed from subjects in a
control
group on the dependent variable of happiness (as measured by the SUNY
Happiness
Survey). Briefly write out what specific
elements
you would expect to find in the aforementioned five sections of his
report
if Frankie were going to receive an A on his paper.
9.
Describe the general purpose of SPSS. Next,
consider the three kinds of SPSS files that you learned about in this
class:
data files (.sav), syntax files (.sps), and output files (.spo). Briefly describe the function of each of these
different
files.
Finally, write a
sentence
or two outlining how much you love SPSS … just kidding about this last
point
…
10.
Megan wanted to conduct a study to examine if her three favorite
characters,
Elmo, Ernie, and Cookie Monster, differed in terms of how much
amusement
they bring to other babies. To examine
this question,
she randomly assigned five babies to one of three conditions. In the Elmo condition, babies watched an
hour-long
video of Elmo (Group 1); in the Ernie condition, condition, babies
watched
an hour-long video of Ernie (Group 2); in the Cookie Monster condition,
babies
watched an hour-long video of Cookie (Group 3). Next,
Megan and her mommy carefully administered the “baby amusement” survey
to
each baby as the DV. Here are the scores
on the
amusement variable for all participants (higher scores mean more
amusement):
|
Group Amuse |
Group Amuse |
Group Amuse |
|
1.00 4.00 1.00 3.00 1.00 7.00 1.00 7.00 1.00 2.00 |
2.00 7.00 2.00 8.00 2.00 9.00 2.00 9.00 2.00 7.00 |
3.00 2.00 3.00 7.00 3.00 1.00 3.00 4.00 3.00 1.00 |
Here is the .sps
file
that Megan types up for herself:
ONEWAY
amuse BY group
/STATISTICS DESCRIPTIVES
/MISSING ANALYSIS
/POSTHOC = TUKEY ALPHA(.05).
Finally, click
on
the following for Megan’s dandy results:
Using the standard .05 alpha level, write up a summary of Megan’s findings including the implications of the F and the implications of the Tukey HSD results.