1. Researchers at a large university were asked to devise a stop-smoking campaign and assess its effectiveness. Using findings from prior research, they created a program to help students, faculty, and staff quit smoking. This is an example of:

b. applied research.

2. ____________ is a collection of knowledge that any reasonably smart person can pick up through casual observations of everyday experiences.

a. Common sense

3. The Greek philosopher Plato believed that truth and knowledge exist in the soul before birth and that humans have innate knowledge. This positions supports:

c. the nature side of the nature–nurture issue.

4. Inspired by the work of Charles Darwin, William James proposed that the purpose of thought processes, feelings, and behaviors is to adapt to the environment, which is an important concept of:

d. functionalism.

5. ____________ suggests that human nature is by and large positive.

d. Humanistic psychology

6. Psychology is driven by ____________, but pseudopsychology is not.

b. critical thinking

7. The goal of ____________ is to provide empirical evidence or data based on systematic observation or experimentation.

c. the scientific method

8. ____________ allow us to make inferences and determine the probability of certain events occurring.

a. Inferential statistics

9. A psychologist studying the Chilean miners was interested in their leadership qualities and educational backgrounds. These characteristics are generally referred to as:

c. variables.

10. One way to pick a random sample is to make sure every member of the population has:

d. an equally likely chance of being picked to participate.

11. Descriptive research is invaluable to psychologists at the beginning stages of a study. Some forms of descriptive research can provide information on:

c. relationships among variables.

12. A researcher interested in learning more about the effect of isolation might choose the Chilean miners as a(n) ____________, which is a type of descriptive research invaluable for studying rare events.

b. case study

13. The variable ____________ is what the researcher manipulates, and the ____________ variable is the response the researcher measures.

d. independent; dependent

14. With a(n) ____________ study, neither the researchers nor the participants know who is getting the treatment or who is getting the placebo.

a. double-blind

15. The members of the ____________ include those participants who receive the real treatment as opposed to a placebo.

b. experimental group

16. Explain how a thorough review of the literature plays a part in the scientific method.

A thorough review of the literature informs us about what has been learned in the past. Without doing a literature search, we may find ourselves redoing a study that has already provided the answers we seek. In addition, it may help us develop research questions, move in new directions, and deepen our understanding of psychological phenomena.

17. A researcher has suggested that handwriting analysis may reveal dishonesty through stroke size and pressure used. If you were to use the experimental method to further study this topic, what would your treatment and control groups be?

Answers will vary. Possible answers may include: The treatment group could be told to write a lie, while the control group is instructed to write something truthful. The researcher could determine if other factors change the pressure and strokes of handwriting.

18. Which survey is potentially more accurate: a face-to-face interview or written questions to be answered in private? Explain your answer.

The most accurate data are likely to come from participants who answer written questions in private. Those answering in face-to-face interviews are not always forthright with their answers, or they may be uncomfortable or embarrassed to reveal the truth.

19. Find an article in the popular media that presents variables as having cause-and-effect relationships, but that is really a correlational study.

Answers will vary. Look for studies on topics that would be very hard for researchers to manipulate in an ethical manner (for example, breast-feeding, amount of television watched, attitudes).

20. Reread the feature on the Sponge Bob study. If you were to replicate the study, what would you do to change or improve it?

Answers will vary. Some possibilities include showing the children a different cartoon; changing the ages of the children; including children of different ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds; determining whether they are hungry prior to participating; and so on.