Questions on Quizzes

Q2: The Experimental Hypothesis and the Basics of Experimentation

1. If I would like to look into the effect of comfort food on the level of depression among
college students about to take the final exams, knowing that eating boosts one's mood, what
kind of model should I use in my experiment?
Answer: Use deductive model because you are taking bits of empirical data and forming
general explanatory schemes to accommodate facts.

2. The difference between a hypothesis and an inference is that a hypothesis is developed

choosing the best explanation of a psychological phenomenon and eliminating the rest while
an inference is a guess that is backed up by evidence.
Answer: False

3. "If you look at a photo of kittens, your pupils will dilate because its cute."
Answer: It is a bad hypothesis because it is not parsimonious

Q3: Between and Within Groups Design

1. What is the main difference between an independent groups design and a matched group
design?
Answer: The independent groups design compares groups in whole while the matched
groups design compares groups in pairs of participants.

2. Why do we need a large sample for a between-subjects design?

Answer: Considerations such as the difficulty of doing random sampling could affect
how we recruit participants so we need more.
We want to achieve a significant effect size of the IV so that would mean more
participants in the experiment.
We want to make sure that the sample has generally the same characteristics as that of
the population.
3. When do we make use of a between groups design?
Answer: When our hypothesis suggests it.
4. If you want to eliminate order effects by technically subjecting all participants to the same
conditions twice, what kind of counterbalancing technique will you use?
Answer: Reverse Counterbalancing
5. Disadvantages of a within groups design:
Answer: The feelings of as participant in 1 treatment condition could be carried over to the
other treatment conditions.
Participants spend more time in an experiment
The experiment becomes more tedious.
 6. When do you use a within groups design?
Answer: When you want to know w/c behaviors change over time

Q4: Ethics in Conducting Psychological Experiments

1. When do we fully disclose the participants about the nature of the experiment?
Answer: At the end so we could get valid data and still inform the participants the true
purpose of the experiment
2. Spider exposure experiment. Is it ethical?
Answer: No because the risks outweighed the benefits

Q5: Factorial Designs

1. When we generate results from a factorial design, what is the first thing we look
for?
Answer:
2. What is the distinct advantage of the between-subjects factorial design over the
simple between-subjects design?
Answer:
3. Mindi is interested in conducting an experiment to explore the effects of
morningness or eveningness as well as favorite types of music (pop, rock,
classical) on test performance. What design should she use?
Answer:
Options: 2x3 between subjects factorial design
2x3 within subjects factorial design
Not factorial; a simple within subjects design
Not factorial; a simple between subjects design