 | Study Questions
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- Describe three key scientific attitudes and how they guided Darley and Latané's response to the Genovese murder.
- Use Darley and Latané's research or another study to illustrate five major steps in the scientific process.
- Explain the major drawback of hindsight understanding. What approach to understanding do scientists prefer? Why?
- Describe some characteristics of a good theory.
- Why are operational definitions important? Identify five major ways to measure behavior and explain a limitation of each one.
- Identify major ethical principles and standards in human and animal research.
- Discuss three types of descriptive research, and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.
- What is random sampling and why do survey researchers use it? What problems can occur when conducting surveys?
- Describe three components of correlational research and how they are illustrated by the study of very happy people.
- Explain why scientists cannot draw causal conclusions from correlational research. Discuss an example.
- Explain positive and negative correlation coefficients and scatterplots. How does correlation facilitate prediction?
- What is the major advantage of experiments? Identify the key characteristics and logic of experiments.
- What are independent and dependent variables? Experimental and control groups?
- How and why are random assignment and counterbalancing used to design experiments?
- Explain the advantage of manipulating two independent variables in the same experiment.
- What is internal validity? Why does the confounding of variables decrease internal validity?
- What are placebo effects and experimenter expectancy effects? How can they be minimized?
- What is external validity? Why is replication important? Apply these concepts to paranormal claims.
- What are some things you can do to be a critical consumer of statistics?
- Describe three measures of central tendency and two measures of variability.
- What is the purpose of inferential statistics? What is statistical significance?
- Describe the purpose of meta–analysis.
- What critical thinking questions can be used to evaluate claims made in everyday life?
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