Name: ___________________________ Class: _________________ Date: __________

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
 men than for women. In this study, gender (male or female) is considered
a(n)
a. outlier.

b. cause.

c. moderator.

d. spurious variable.

10. Which popular media headline does NOT suggest that a multiple regression
has been used?
a. “Dog ownership decreases stress.”

b. “After taking into account job experience, people who are happier with
their jobs report greater productivity.”

c. “After correcting for several factors that affect memory, including

intelligence, researchers found that people who read more frequently
remember 12% more about a crime scene than those who don’t read
frequently.”

d. “The link between traumatic experience and the development of

anxiety symptoms existed even when controlling for the effect of
parental anxiety.”

11. Which popular media headline might suggest that a multiple regression has
been used?
a. “Pet ownership is an important predictor of well-being in elderly adults.”

b. “Daughters are happier when their mothers are happy working outside
the home.”

c. “Eating lunch away from your desk is associated with greater work
productivity.”

d. “Vacations are important for happiness, even when length of vacation

is controlled for.”
12. Which of the following is true of multiple regression?
a. It can control for all third variables, including those that are not
measured.

b. Adding more predictors means research is controlling for more

variables.

c. There is a limit to the number of predictors that can be statistically

significant.

d. There is a limit to the number of predictors that can be included in a

regression.

13. If an experiment cannot be done for practical or ethical reasons related to

manipulating the variable of interest, which of the following events should
happen?
a. The study should not be conducted at all.

b. The researchers should wait until the experiment can be done.

c. A longitudinal correlational design could be done instead.

d. The IRB can grant a waiver of review to conduct the study anyway.

14. A criterion variable is also known as a(n) ________ variable.

a. predictor

b. independent

c. control

d. dependent

15. When examining the results of a multiple regression, which of the following
should be compared to determine which predictor variables have the largest
relationship to the criterion variable?
a. b values
 b. beta values

c. significance values

d. effect sizes

16. Which of the following is a necessary component of a longitudinal design?

a. measuring the same variables at two points in time

b. measuring at least four variables at one time

c. measuring different age groups at two different times

d. manipulating a variable at two points in time

17. Cross-lag correlations are NOT helpful for answering/addressing which rule
of causation?
a. Rule of covariance: Is there covariance?

b. Rule of temporal precedence: Is there temporal precedence?

c. Are there third variables that could explain the relationship?

d. Rule of parsimony

18. In understanding “controlling for” a third variable, which of the following is a

similar concept?
a. creating a longitudinal study

b. identifying subgroups

c. creating an operational definition

d. conducting a replication
19. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Dr. Lonsbary is a cognitive psychologist
who is curious about how mood affects memory. She recruited 60 high
school students and divided them into three groups. Group A listened to a 5-
minute piece of music intended to make them feel happy (“Happy” by
Pharrell). Group B listened to a 5-minute piece of music intended to make
them feel sad (a song titled “Home Is Such a Lonely Place” by Blink-182).
Group C listened to no music and instead was asked to sit quietly for 5
minutes (thought to make them feel neutral).

When a participant would come to her laboratory, Dr. Lonsbary would greet
the participant and then ask them to roll a six-sided die. Participants who
rolled a 1 or 2 were assigned to Group A. Participants who rolled a 3 or 4
were assigned to Group B. Participants who rolled a 5 or 6 were assigned to
Group C. The participants were then given an unlabeled CD to listen to
based on their group assignment. The CD contained either the song
selection or 5 minutes of silence. They were then escorted into a different
room, where they were greeted by a research assistant who conducted the
experiment. The research assistant sat the participants in front of a
computer screen and told them that a list of 25 words would be displayed on
the screen. They were instructed to listen to the CD with headphones while
trying to memorize the list of words. All participants were given the same list
of 25 common words to remember (e.g., desk, gray, plane, car, mask).
When 5 minutes had passed, the screen displayed a question asking them
whether they felt happy, sad, or neutral. After the participant responded, a
new screen was displayed asking them to type in all the words they could
remember from the list of 25 words. All participants were given 3 minutes to
type the words they remembered. Afterward, the participant was thanked
and dismissed. In response to the mood question, a majority of Group A
participants said they were happy, a majority of Group B participants said
they were sad, and a majority of Group C participants said they were neutral
in their mood. Dr. Lonsbary found the following results in response to the
number of words remembered:
Group A Group B Group C
(Happy) (Sad) (Neutral)
Number of Words
16 14 9
Remembered

Groups A and B vs. Group C Statistically significant difference d = .36

Group A vs. Group C Statistically significant difference d = .30
Group B vs. Group C Statistically significant difference d = .41
Group A vs. Group B No statistically significant difference d = .09
 How many conditions/levels of the independent variable were in Dr.
Lonsbary’s study?
a. two

b. three

c. five

d. nine

20. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Which of the following is a control

variable in Dr. Lonsbary’s study?
a. the number the participant rolled on the dice

b. the type of song

c. the amount of time allowed for memorizing the words

d. the mood of the participants

21. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Which of the following allows Dr.
Lonsbary to conclude that she met the covariance rule for causality?
a. noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled
by the happy and neutral people

b. having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list
of words they remembered

c. making sure that all participants were asked to remember the same list
of words

d. putting the 60 participants into equal groups

22. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 10.1: Which of the following allows Dr.
Lonsbary to conclude that she met the temporal precedence rule for
causality?
a. noting that there is a difference between the number of words recalled
by the happy and neutral people
 b. having people listen to music or silence before they wrote down the list
of words they remembered

c. making sure that all participants were asked to remember the same list
of words

d. putting the 60 participants into equal groups

23. Which of the following is true of control variables?

a. Control variables help define the control group.

b. Control variables determine external validity.

c. Control variables change the level of the manipulation.

d. Control variables are kept the same for all participants.

24. A threat to internal validity occurs only if a potential design confound varies
with the independent variable
a. haphazardly.

b. systematically.

c. spontaneously.

d. especially.

25. Which of the following is true of selection effects?

a. Selection effects are a type of control variable.

b. Selection effects can occur when experimenters allow participants to

choose their own treatment group.

c. Selection effects are unimportant for interrogating external validity.

d. Selection effects are rarely considered in causal experiments

26. One reason researchers use within-group designs is
a. to eliminate practice effects.

b. it is less time-consuming for the participants.

c. to increase the diversity of the participant pool.

d. they require fewer participants.

27. A design in which participants are exposed to all the levels of an

independent variable at roughly the same time and a single attitudinal or
behavioral preference is the dependent variable is known as a(n)
a. staggered-administration design.

b. concurrent-measures design.

c. repeated-measures design.

d. between-group design.

28. Spontaneous remission in clinical studies is an example of which of the

following threats to internal validity?
a. regression

b. attrition

c. maturation

d. placebo effects

29. The addition of a comparison group can address which of the following
threats to internal validity?
a. instrumentation

b. maturation

c. selection-history
 d. attrition

30. Which of the following threats to internal validity can apply even when a
control group is used?
a. attrition

b. history threats

c. instrumentation threats

d. demand characteristics

31. Which of the following can help prevent testing effects?

a. using a comparison group

b. establishing reliability of the measure

c. using a clear coding manual

d. employing a pretest-only design

32. Dr. Carter is curious about how self-esteem changes as a result of a new
counseling program. She is concerned about testing threats in her study.
Which of the following would you recommend to her as a way to address
this type of threat?
a. refusing to let participants drop out of the study

b. conducting a pretest-only study

c. using a different measure of self-esteem at pretest than at posttest

d. omitting a comparison group

33. RESEARCH STUDY 11.1: In previous studies, Dr. Hamid has established
that finding meaning in one’s everyday work activities can lead to greater
 success in the workplace (e.g., productivity, creativity). He is curious as to
whether this can happen in the college classroom. Specifically, he is curious
whether finding meaning in one’s classroom experience can lead to greater
academic performance. In the spring semester, he has his teaching
assistant randomly assign half the class to write a paragraph each class
period about how the material has meaning for their lives (meaning group).
The other half writes a paragraph about what they did to prepare for class
(preparation group). He does not know which of his students are writing
which paragraph, and the students are not aware they are responding to
different writing assignments. To measure academic performance, he gives
the students a midterm essay exam and a final exam.

Imagine that in Dr. Hamid’s study, he notes that all of the students do
extremely well on the midterm exam. When he looks at the results of the
final exam, he notices that all the students’ exam scores went down. Given
this information, which of the following threats might be present in his study?
a. regression

b. attrition

c. maturation

d. observer bias

34. Which of the following is a reason that a study might yield a null result?
a. too much between-group difference

b. too much within-group variance

c. a false positive

d. use of a within-subjects design

35. Which of the following things can be done to reduce the effect of individual
differences?
a. using a matched-groups design

b. decrease power
 c. collecting measurements from diverse groups of people

d. using a between-groups design

36. Which of the following is a reason why a researcher might choose to

conduct a double-blind placebo control group study?
a. to eliminate testing effects

b. to control for observer bias

c. to prevent attrition

d. to control for regression to the mean

37. What are the two main reasons to conduct a factorial study?
a. to increase internal validity and to establish external validity

b. to compare participant variables and to establish covariance

c. to find moderators and to find mediators

d. to test limits and to test theories

38. Which of the following can be said of the interaction in a study?

a. It can be determined by investigating marginal means.

b. It can exist even if the main effects are not significant.

c. It is usually less important than a study’s main effects.

d. There can be only one type of interaction.

39. You read an article that states, “How well you remember different types of
information depends on the context in which you learned them.” Based on
this information, what else is true about this study?
 a. The influence of context on memory depends on the type of
information presented.

b. You remember information best only when it’s presented in a specific

context.

c. There is no effect of context on memory.

d. There is an effect of information type on memory.

40. What is the difference between a main effect and an overall effect?
a. Main effects are less important than overall effects.

b. Main effects are more complicated to determine than overall effects.

c. Main effects look at one variable at a time; overall effects look at all
variables simultaneously.

d. There is no difference between main effects and overall effects.

41. Why are factorial designs useful in testing theories?

a. They allow researchers to explore the construct validity of a theory.

b. Results from factorial designs are typically straightforward and easy to

interpret.

c. They allow researchers to understand the nuances of how variables

interact.

d. Results from factorial designs are always intuitive.

42. The phrase “especially for” would be used to describe which of the following
results?
a. crossover interactions

b. spreading interactions

c. one significant main effect

 d. two significant main effects

43. Dr. Peterson is conducting a 2 × 4 independent-groups factorial design.

How many cells are in his design?
a. 2

b. 4

c. 6

d. 8

44. If a study describes the “difference in differences,” what is the minimum

number of variables the researchers were studying?
a. 1

b. 2

c. 3

d. 4

45. Dr. Green is interested in conducting a 2 × 2 × 3 within-group factorial

design, with 20 participants in each cell. How many participants does she
need overall?
a. 20

b. 40

c. 80

d. 240

46. Which of the following designs involves repeated measurement of a variable

before and after some event?
 a. interrupted time-series design

b. nonequivalent control group design

c. matched group factorial design

d. multiple regression design

47. If a person describes the results of a study to you by saying that there is a
zero difference in one condition but a large difference in another condition,
the person is most likely describing which of the following?
a. a crossover interaction

b. a spreading interaction

c. a three-way interaction

d. a difference interaction

48. RESEARCH STUDY 13.1: Dr. Ba is interested in whether joining a

fraternity/sorority causes people to become more concerned about their
attractiveness. She recruits a group of 55 freshmen (25 men, 30 women)
who are planning to go through fraternity/sorority recruitment on her
campus. After they join, she gives them a measure of attractiveness
concern (the Body Concern Scale).

If Dr. Ba is interested in a causal relationship between joining a

fraternity/sorority and attractiveness concern, why doesn’t she conduct a
true experiment?
a. It is not possible to study private organizations, like
fraternities/sororities.

b. It is not possible to measure body concern.

c. He was unable to recruit an equal number of men and women.

d. He was unable to randomly assign participants to join a

fraternity/sorority.
49. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 13.1: In addition to measuring the group of
participants who joined a fraternity/sorority, Dr. Ba decides to give the same
measure to another group of 55 participants who decided to not join a
fraternity/sorority. This type of design is known as a(n)
a. interrupted time-series design.

b. nonequivalent control group design.

c. nonequivalent groups interrupted time-series design.

d. reversal design.

50. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 13.1: In addition to measuring the group of

participants who joined a fraternity/sorority, Dr. Ba decides to give the same
measure to another group of 55 participants who decided to not join a
fraternity/sorority. After conducting the study, Dr. Ba finds out that the
people who joined a fraternity/sorority all saw a documentary on body image
sponsored by the InterGreek Council the night before recruitment began.
This threat to internal validity is known as a
a. selection threat.

b. selection-history threat.

c. history threat.

d. testing threat.

51. Which of the following is an advantage of using quasi-experimental

designs?
a. They allow researchers to capitalize on random assignment.

b. They allow researchers to enhance external validity.

c. They allow researchers to disregard internal validity.

d. They are better suited to detect significant effects.

52. Why do quasi-experiments tend to have very good construct validity for the
independent variable?
a. The manipulations have been previously validated in the lab.

b. They use real-world manipulations/experiences.

c. They tend to use more participants.

d. They also have good construct validity for the dependent variable.

53. In which of the following ways are correlational designs similar to quasi-
experimental designs?
a. They both use nonrandom samples.

b. They both suffer from possible threats to internal validity.

c. They both use random assignment.

d. They both use small numbers of participants.

54. Which of the following CANNOT typically be applied to a small-N

experiment?
a. experimental control

b. manipulation of variables

c. inferential statistics

d. replication

55. Seeing stability in a stable-baseline design can help rule out which of the
following threats to internal validity?
a. regression to the mean

b. placebo effects

c. attrition
 d. observer bias

56. If a researcher is concerned about external validity, which of the following

would you recommend with regard to conducting small-N designs?
a. Do not conduct small-N designs if you are concerned about external
validity.

b. Compare the results of a small-N design with other studies.

c. Conduct only reversal designs.

d. Use only one’s own clients/patients/students.

57. RESEARCH STUDY 14.1: Melanie conducts a study for her research
methods class to determine if consuming caffeine causes people to perform
better on cognitive tasks. In her study, she gives half of her participants a
glass of water and half of her participants a glass of cola and then has them
attempt to solve 15 math problems. She finds that people who drink caffeine
beforehand solve more math problems than those who drink water
beforehand.

Melanie decides to conduct the exact same study again to ensure that she
can find the same difference between the groups a second time. This study
is known as a
a. direct replication.

b. replication-plus-extension.

c. conceptual replication.

d. secondary replication.

58. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 14.1: Melanie decides to conduct a variation

of the original study in which she measures participants’ ability to solve
verbal analogies as the cognitive task instead of measuring their ability to
solve math problems. She finds that people who drink caffeine beforehand
solve more verbal analogies than those who drink water beforehand,
 suggesting caffeine consumption causes improved cognitive performance.
This study is known as a
a. statistical replication.

b. replication-plus-extension.

c. conceptual replication.

d. secondary replication.

59. Which of the following is true of a scientific literature?

a. It comprises studies conducted by a single researcher.

b. It comprises studies that have tested only the exact same variable.

c. It comprises studies conducted all in the same year.

d. It comprises studies conducted with different methods.

60. RESEARCH STUDY 14.2: Cindy decides to conduct a meta-analysis

examining the relationship between daily stress and cardiovascular health
for her senior psychology research project.
Which of the following is a step Cindy will do in conducting her meta-
analysis?
a. Collect all the studies that have been conducted on daily stress and
cardiovascular health.

b. Measure daily stress and cardiovascular health in several new

samples of participants.

c. Determine the average cardiovascular health of undergraduates at her

university.

d. Journal her own daily stress level.

61. Refer to RESEARCH STUDY 14.2: Cindy’s advisor recommends that she
contact several researchers in the field for articles that were not published
and/or that found null effects. Doing this will address which of the following?
a. the file drawer problem

b. the need for overestimation

c. the lack of reporting significant findings

d. ecological validity
Answer Key

Example Final Exam

PSY 3213

1. Answer: A

2. Answer: D

3. Answer: C

4. Answer: B

5. Answer: A

6. Answer: A

7. Answer: B

8. Answer: B

9. Answer: C

10. Answer: A

11. Answer: D

12. Answer: B

13. Answer: C

14. Answer: D

15. Answer: B

16. Answer: A

17. Answer: C

18. Answer: B

19. Answer: B

20. Answer: C

21. Answer: A
22. Answer: B

23. Answer: D

24. Answer: B

25. Answer: B

26. Answer: D

27. Answer: B

28. Answer: C

29. Answer: B

30. Answer: D

31. Answer: A

32. Answer: C

33. Answer: A

34. Answer: B

35. Answer: A

36. Answer: B

37. Answer: D

38. Answer: B

39. Answer: A

40. Answer: D

41. Answer: C

42. Answer: B

43. Answer: D

44. Answer: B

45. Answer: A
46. Answer: A

47. Answer: B

48. Answer: D

49. Answer: B

50. Answer: B

51. Answer: B

52. Answer: B

53. Answer: B

54. Answer: C

55. Answer: A

56. Answer: B

57. Answer: A

58. Answer: C

59. Answer: D

60. Answer: A

61. Answer: A