Ch 1: Research in the Behavioral Sciences

Concluding that aliens have visited Earth on the basis of one person’s report that he saw a UFO fails to support which criterion of science?

• Empiricism
• Public verifiability
• Solvability
• Statistical analysis

In a study of embarrassment, which of the following would be an operational definition of “blushing”?

• A participant’s rating of how much he or she blushed on a 1 to 7 scale
• A researcher’s rating of whether a participant blushed on a 1 to 5 scale
• A physiological measure of blushing
• All of these answers are operational definitions of blushing.

When can we say a theory is proven in psychology?

• Once the theory has been proposed for a long enough amount of time
• Once we can prove that the theory is true beyond a doubt
• We never say a theory is proven in psychology, because it is almost impossible to prove that a theory is true beyond a doubt
• We never say a theory is proven in psychology, because it would take too much time and too many experiments to actually prove it

Which of the following is an example of basic research?

• A researcher conducting a laboratory study on how caffeine affects stress levels
• A psychologist working to decrease teen pregnancy in a particular community
• A clinical psychologist working with a group of individuals diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder
• An industrial-organizational psychologist working directly with a company to increase employee motivation

Which of these statements is true? 

• There is no difference between a theory and a hypothesis.
• Neither theories nor hypotheses can be directly tested.
• Both theories and hypotheses can be directly tested.
• Theories are tested through hypotheses.

Whether a particular area of study is considered scientific depends on

• the methods it uses
• the topics it studies
• the accuracy of its findings
• its use of statistics

Which of the following is true about scholarly sources?

• Scholarly sources are often subjected to the peer review process
• Scholarly sources are products of academic research and scholarship
• Scholarly products are research-based publications
• All of the above

Which of these hypotheses is falsifiable?

• God exists
• People can be psychic, but only when the mood is right
• The color yellow makes people happier
• I think vanilla is better than chocolate

What is another word for the principle of parsimony?

• Complexity
• Simplicity
• Systematic
• Wordy

What is psuedoscience?

• Evidence that does not appear scientific, but does abide by the scientific method
• Systematic empiricism
• Evidence that appears scientific, but does not abide by the scientific method
• The social sciences