Question

Formulating testable predictions before conducting research is most directly useful for restraining a thinking error

	A.	known as hindsight bias.
	B.	resulting from chance-related explanations.
	C.	in which random sequences don't look random.
	D.	involving skepticism.

QUESTION 2

After noting that a majority of professional basketball players are African-American, Ervin concluded that African-Americans are better athletes than members of other racial groups. Ervin's conclusion best illustrates the danger of

	A.	replication.
	B.	generalizing from vivid cases.
	C.	the placebo effect.
	D.	random assignment.

  

QUESTION 3

In a survey, psychologists select a random sample of research participants in order to ensure that

	A.	the participants are representative of the population they are interested in studying.
	B.	the same number of participants will be assigned to each of the experimental conditions.
	C.	the study will not be influenced by the researcher's personal values.
	D.	there will be a large number of participants in the research study.

QUESTION 4

Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and the strength of a relationship between two variables?

	A.	mean
	B.	range
	C.	correlation coefficient
	D.	standard deviation

  

QUESTION 5

A negative correlation between degree of wealth and likelihood of suffering from a psychological disorder would indicate that

	A.	poverty makes people vulnerable to psychological disorders.
	B.	people who are poor are more likely to have a psychological disorder than are wealthy people.
	C.	psychological disorders usually prevent people from accumulating wealth.
	D.	all of these statements are correct.

QUESTION 6

In an effort to prevent participants in an experiment from trying to confirm the researchers' predictions, psychologists sometimes

	A.	treat information about individual participants confidentially.
	B.	deceive participants about the true purpose of an experiment.
	C.	obtain written promises from participants to respond honestly.
	D.	allow people to decide for themselves whether they want to participate in an experiment.