Psychology Research Methods Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. In a within-subjects study, every participant completes Condition A and Condition B. The researcher worries that practice on the first task will affect the second. Which technique best addresses this issue?
Opportunity sampling
Increasing inter-rater reliability
Counterbalancing the order of conditions
Matching participants by age
2. A study compares two teaching methods, but one method is always taught in the morning and the other is always taught in the afternoon. What is the main methodological problem?
Participant attrition
A floor effect
Time of day is confounded with teaching method
The dependent variable has not been measured repeatedly
3. A new questionnaire produces highly consistent results, but evidence shows that it measures general distress rather than the intended construct of loneliness. How should it be described?
Low reliability and high construct validity
High reliability and low construct validity
High ecological validity and low statistical power
Low inter-rater reliability and high external validity
4. A researcher defines stress as a participant's total score on a specific 10-item questionnaire. What has the researcher provided?
An operational definition of stress
A theory explaining the causes of stress
A representative sample of stressful experiences
A control condition for stress
5. During a study, a participant says they want to stop because a task is uncomfortable. What is the most appropriate response?
Ask the participant to finish so that the sample size remains adequate
Let the participant stop without penalty and follow the consent terms for handling collected data
Require the participant to explain why the task is uncomfortable before leaving
Offer a larger reward only if the participant completes the task
6. An independent team repeats a study using the original procedures and obtains a similar result. Why is this direct replication valuable?
It proves that the original theory can never be revised
It guarantees that the finding applies to every population
It removes the need to examine measurement validity
It increases confidence that the finding is reproducible rather than a one-study result
7. In a medication study, neither participants nor the researchers interacting with them know who receives the medication or placebo until data collection is complete. What is this design mainly intended to reduce?
Participant and researcher expectancy effects
Order effects and practice effects
Sampling error and participant attrition
Low external validity caused by laboratory settings
8. A survey finds that greater daily social media use is associated with poorer sleep. Which conclusion is justified by this result alone?
Social media use causes poorer sleep
Poor sleep causes greater social media use
The variables are related, but the direction and cause are undetermined
A third variable must cause both behaviors
9. A researcher systematically codes interview transcripts for recurring patterns of meaning without aiming to construct a formal explanatory theory. Which method best fits this approach?
Factor analysis
Meta-analysis
Repeated-measures analysis of variance
Thematic analysis
10. A questionnaire gives similar scores when the same stable trait is measured in the same people two weeks apart. Which property does this demonstrate?
Inter-rater agreement
Ecological validity
Randomization
Test-retest reliability
11. A university researcher wants to generalize findings to all currently enrolled students. Which recruitment method best supports that goal?
Randomly selecting students from the full enrollment registry
Posting the study only in the university fitness center
Selecting the first 100 students who respond to an online advertisement
Recruiting volunteers from an advanced psychology seminar
12. A psychology experiment uses deception because revealing the true purpose beforehand would alter behavior. Which additional practice is generally required?
Promptly debriefing participants and explaining the study's true purpose
Keeping participants unaware of the deception after the study ends
Publishing every participant's individual response alongside the results
Replacing informed consent with approval from other participants
13. What is a Type I error in hypothesis testing?
Failing to reject a null hypothesis that is actually false
Rejecting a null hypothesis that is actually true
Using a sample that does not represent the target population
Measuring the dependent variable inconsistently
14. A statistical test produces p = .03. Assuming the null hypothesis and model assumptions are correct, what does this value represent?
There is a 3% chance that the null hypothesis is true
The study's conclusion has a 3% probability of being mistaken
The probability of results at least this extreme under the null hypothesis is 3%
The observed effect explains 3% of the variation in the data
15. Participants are randomly assigned to complete a memory task either in silence or with background conversation. If the groups differ afterward, what does random assignment most directly strengthen?
The claim that the participants represent the wider population
The claim that participants behaved naturally
The claim that the memory task has high test-retest reliability
The claim that the sound condition caused the difference
16. Researchers vary the amount of sleep participants receive and then record reaction time. Which pairing correctly identifies the variables?
Reaction time is the independent variable; sleep is the dependent variable
Sleep is the independent variable; reaction time is the dependent variable
Both sleep and reaction time are dependent variables
Sleep is a confounding variable; reaction time is a control variable