Research Methods in Psychology International Edition 9th Edition by David G – Test Bank

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CHAPTER 5

OBSERVATIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Synopsis

The main goal of the chapter is to provide an overview of the observational procedures

that are used in psychology. The chapter focuses on descriptive research: naturalistic

observation, case studies, surveys, and meta-analysis. The modes of observation are discussed in

detail here because they receive little attention elsewhere in the book. After outlining some of

the advantages associated with descriptive research, we discuss problems arising from researcher

bias and participant reactivity.

Outline

DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATION METHODS

Naturalistic Observations

The Case Study

Survey Research

ADVANTAGES OF DESCRIPTIVE OBSERVATIONS

SOURCES OF ERROR IN DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

APPLICATION: Difficulties of Observation

REACTIVITY IN DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

Naturalistic Observation

Case Studies

Surveys, Interviews, and Tests

SUMMARY

KEY CONCEPTS

EXERCISES

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

WEB RESOURCES

LABORATORY RESOURCE

PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION: Remembering the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

New to This Edition

• Chapter Organization: This chapter was Chapter 4 in the previous edition.

• Updated Examples: A new figure (Figure 5-2) has been added as a sample ethogram. A brief

discussion on dolphin communication has been added to the section on ethograms. The work of

Brazleton on infant development has been expanded and brought up-to-date. New work on the

effects of PCBs on development is discussed in the section on testing neonates. Finally, Neisser

& Hyman (1981) has been updated to Neisser & Hyman (2000).

• Updated & Additional References: The reference to Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison (1999) has

been deleted and replaced with the updated reference of Oltmanns, Neale, & Davison (2006) in

the section on case studies. Orzech (2005) was added as the reference for the new Figure 5-2.

66Information on the Dolphin Communication Project (2009) was added to the section on

ethograms. Brazleton & Nugent (1995) and Sagiv, et al. (2008) were added as references on the

section on neonates to expand and make the information more up-to-date.

Definitions of Key Concepts

Anthropomorphizing is the attribution of human characteristics to a non-human animal.

A case study is a detailed examination of the behavior of one individual (or, alternatively, a

small number of individuals).

Demand characteristics are the various pressures that are exerted on participants by the

researcher (e.g., expectation of obedience); the term is an older, more specific term for

reactivity.

Descriptive observations are observations of the type, quantity, and frequency of particular

behaviors, and do not try to provide causal explanations of those behaviors.

A deviant-case analysis compares two similar cases that differ in outcome in the hopes of

fostering inferences about the cause(s) of behavior.

A behavior’s ecological function is how the behavior helps the organism adapt to the

environment.

Ecological validity refers to the degree to which the research setting reflects the critical

characteristics of the corresponding situation in the real world, which will impact whether or not

research results can effectively be argued to generalize.

An ethogram is an inventory of behaviors performed by one species of animal.

Ethology is the study of naturally occurring behavior, which often takes place in the wild.

In a forced-choice test the observer must answer a given question by choosing between some

fixed numbers of alternatives. In survey research these tests can be used to minimize reactivity

by equating the choices in terms of social desirability.

Interobserver reliability refers to the degree of consistency in the categorization of behavior

across observers, as indicated by a correlation coefficient.

Motivated forgetting refers to the active process of distorting memories to match one’s current

beliefs.

Naturalistic observation is a descriptive method of gathering data that involves the systematic

notation of an animal’s behaviors and their frequency.

67In participant observation the researcher/observer also acts as a participant in order to permit

more detailed observations (by being closer to actual participants) while reducing reactivity.

In a random sample each member of a population has an equal likelihood of being selected for

participation.

Reactivity generally refers to the ways in which a participant could respond to the research

setting that could influence, and potentially confound, results (also see demand characteristics).

A replication is a repetition of an earlier study in order to determine if a finding can be duplicated,

and in some instances, extended to handle new variables or theoretical considerations.

Response acquiescence, or yea-saying, is a type of response style where the participant tends to

respond “yes” regardless of the nature of the question.

Response deviation, or nay-saying, is a type of response style where the participant tends to

respond “no” regardless of the nature of the question.

Response styles are habitual ways in which a participant may respond to a researcher’s

questions, habits that could reflect personal views or expectations.

Retrospective evidence is obtained from looking back into the past, which makes the data

susceptible to forgetting and interference from other memories (as can occur in case studies).

Social desirability is a type of response style where the participant tends to respond to questions

in a way that the participant deems to most strongly agree with societal norms or goals.

Subject (participant) roles refer to the different ways that a participant can respond to the

research setting, which could differentially influence their data.

A survey collects detailed information (in the form of direct answers to a question, or series of

questions) from a (large) number of individuals.

Unobtrusive measures are observations of the results or outcomes of behavior, and therefore

represent indirect measures of the behavior(s) of interest.

Unobtrusive observations are made without the participant’s awareness, and are thus less

susceptible to reactivity than when the participant knows that he/she is being observed.

The volunteer problem refers to the fact that volunteers tend to differ from non-volunteers in a

number of ways (e.g., intelligence, education level) that could influence reactivity and limit the

generalizability of obtained results.

68Answers to Exercises

1. Note: Student reports of meta-analysis results should tend to be more detailed. The following

is provided as an example because it applies to survey methods.

http://www.gudono.com/metostat/adv%20survei%20tech.pdf

Chiu, I., & Brennan, M. (1990). The effectiveness of some techniques for improving mail survey

response rates: A meta-analysis. Marketing Bulletin, 1, 13-18.

The meta-analysis examines several articles from business, psychology and sociology journals

for response rates to mailed surveys as a function of preliminary notification and/or follow-up

messages. When practical, preliminary notification by telephone is preferred, increasing

response rates by 30 percent (versus 15 percent for notification by mailed letter). Follow-up

letters also increased response rates by almost 30 percent (as opposed to 15 percent for less

personalized postcards). No evidence directly examined whether or not preliminary notification

was more or less effective than follow-up approaches. One study (Kephart and Bressler, 1958)

did directly compare the effect of a follow-up letter on response rates with the combined effects

of preliminary notification and follow-up letters, finding that no additional contribution was

made by preliminary notification. The authors suggest that either preliminary or follow-up

approaches are sufficient in isolation, and favor the use of follow-up letters with mailed surveys.

2. Assume that a researcher hypothesizes that there is greater imitation of an athlete’s movements

by spectators at more violent sporting events (e.g., boxing or hockey) than at less violent

sporting events (e.g., tennis or baseball). This hypothesis could not be studied in the laboratory

because of the required settings, the respective sporting events. However, the hypothesis does

lend itself to naturalistic observation, perhaps by unobtrusively filming sets of spectators during

the events.

Assume that it is hypothesized that the poor test scores of a particular school-aged child are due

to attention deficit disorder. Although some experimental conditions could be completed to help

form the basis of a diagnosis, evaluation of the hypothesis eventually would require a full case

study for the child, including treatment-outcome analysis (e.g., a comparison with test scores

after drug treatment).

A president’s administration may commonly adhere to the hypothesis that there is strong public

support for current foreign policy. Since many participants from different locations are required

to obtain a fairly representative sample, the question cannot be effectively evaluated in the

laboratory. However, support for the policy could be determined through a telephone or

electronic mail survey.

The possibility that errors in reporting presented combinations of color and shape occur only

under conditions of maximal stimulus uncertainty (i.e., when many objects are presented, or

when several feature values are used in an experiment) cannot be addressed in a single series of

experiments. Evidence from one set of experiments does not preclude the role of other possible

stimulus factors (e.g., the perceptual similarity of particular colors or shapes). However, a meta-

analysis of the visual search literature will reveal a more variable set of stimulus conditions,

69thereby permitting at least a partial evaluation of the hypothesis.

3. [Special Exercise]. An advantage of the face-to-face method is that you know that the

participants have a reasonable understanding of what they are supposed to do and how they are

supposed to try to answer a particular question. An obvious disadvantage relates to reactivity–

participants may not be willing to say certain things aloud to the researcher. Essentially, therefore,

the survey lacks anonymity. If the students write down answers, then it is easier to assure

anonymity. The students are less likely to be embarrassed about saying particular things aloud. A

disadvantage with paper and pencil tests is that it is often very hard to monitor what the respondents

are doing. They may not understand or they may goof off, both of which are less likely with the

face-to-face method.

Suggestions for Discussion

Problems with Surveys. Although many students initially conceptualize surveys as one of

the most straightforward methods, the chapter presents several common problems that plague

survey research. One way to demonstrate these problems in either large lectures or small

seminars is to outline a hypothetical survey situation and have students brainstorm about

possible pitfalls of the project. The hypothetical survey tends to be most effective in revealing

problems if it is proposed in a single, public location at a particular time of day (e.g., midday in

a local shopping mall). The hypothetical survey also should concentrate on a topic that is

considered either highly personal or taboo (e.g., sexual activity or religious beliefs). The location

and time will make the sample less representative of the general population, and the likelihood

of individuals completing the survey can be used to address the volunteer problem. The volatile

topic should result in reactivity, such that participants will respond in the manner that is deemed

socially desirable. Once definitions of the student-generated problems are provided, then the

hypothetical survey could be used to initiate further brainstorming on ways to improve validity

(e.g., construction of forced-choice items, increasing the number of locations and times for data

collection, and the use of filler items).

Application: Difficulties of Observation. While not explicitly stated, the problems

Pavlov’s statements reveal about objectivity in descriptive observations primarily have to do with

anthropomorphizing. The dangers of such biases, and ways to avoid them, could be discussed by

first outlining the methods and conclusions from other empirical examples. Students then could

generate possible instances of anthropomorphizing from the examples, as well as alternative

methods that could reduce the contribution of such biases to the results.

One strong example is from the original work on language acquisition by primates using

American Sign Language (e.g., Terrace, 1979), where observers differed widely in the

attribution of a motor response as a particular sign or as spontaneous, naturally occurring

behavior. These methodological limitations do not apply to current approaches, which rely on

conditioned button-press responses relating to potential lexical entries (such as those used to

study latent learning in Kanzi, a Bonobo ape; Savage-Rumbaugh, 1990).

Psychology in Action: Remembering the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks. The text’s example of

70surveys (i.e., flashbulb memories) and their associated problems initially provides several

potential survey questions to assess memories for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Instructors (with either small or large classes) could reveal some fundamental issues in the

development of surveys by first asking students to independently answer the provided survey

items, and then to take a minute to personally question/evaluate the validity of their own

answers. From these evaluations a list of potential concerns/sources of error could be generated

by students in classroom discussion (e.g., delay to recall, reactivity, etc.). As a possible

additional exercise, students could be asked to independently generate alternative survey

questions that address some of the problems that have previously been introduced.

Langston (2011), Research Methods Laboratory Manual for Psychology. Chapter 2 of the

manual discusses naturalistic observation. The target article discusses the detection of staring and

presents a detailed example of naturalistic observation that can motivate discussion or fulfillment of

a laboratory component. Suggested projects include collection of observations for alternative

demonstrations of staring detection (with examples from the literature), and the identification of

factors that may influence why people believe in the staring phenomenon.

Chapter 3 of the manual discusses survey research. An extended example of survey work is

provided within the target article, which focuses on the problem of personal validation when

evaluating claims. Suggested laboratory projects include replications of the original study or partial

replications with variations.

Experimental Dilemma

A social psychologist interested in the effects of alcohol abuse conducted the following study. He

mailed questionnaires to the homes of workers who had been laid off from a local automobile plant.

The surveys were mailed at various time intervals and the workers were asked to fill them out

anonymously and return them. Information about the amount of alcohol consumption before and

after the layoff was obtained. Fifty percent of the surveys were completed and returned during the

course of the research. The researcher found a very high positive relation between alcohol

consumption and duration of unemployment. In his report the researcher stated that, “the conditions

of unemployment produce a tendency for people to increase their intake of alcohol.” If you were

the editor in charge of deciding whether this work should be published, what would your judgment

be? Explain.

Answer. The work should not be published for several reasons. Because the researcher

received replies from only have of the participant pool, the responses may not be reliable, and they

may not representative of the population. The people who do not drink might be uncooperative,

which would make the sample biased. The statement that unemployment produces an increase in

alcoholic consumption is much too strong. We do not have the internal validity to make such a

statement. It could be that excessive “leisure time” allowed the workers to have more time to

indulge in alcohol. The researcher probably should have examined similar workers who had not

been laid off as a comparison to the unemployed. Further, the researcher could wait until some

workers had been rehired to examine consumption before, during, and after unemployment. Both of

the last two procedures are quasi-experimental and would enhance the internal validity of the

71procedure.

Suggested Readings

Blasko, D. G., Kazmerski, V. A., Corty, E. W., & Kallgren, C. A. (1998). Courseware for

observational research (COR): A new approach to teaching naturalistic observation.

Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers, 30(2), 217-222.

The article describes an inexpensive ($30), interactive software package that can be used to teach

students how to obtain and analyze observations of behavior (in humans and non-human

animals) from brief video recordings. The software also permits an evaluation of interobserver

reliability across observations.

Wilson, J. (2005). Some things social surveys don’t tell us about volunteering. In Omoto, A. M.

(Ed.), Processes of community change and social action. The Claremont symposium on

applied social psychology (pp. 11-27). London: Psychology Press.

This book chapter discusses research specifically targeted at understanding the nature of the

volunteer. The author reviews how the reliance on traditional survey approaches has resulted in

distorted views of volunteering, and suggests (using multiple examples from research) ways in

which survey methods can be further improved to permit a more thorough evaluation of

volunteering.

Ware, M. E., & Brewer, C. L. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook for teaching statistics and research

methods (2nd ed.). London: Psychology Press.

This book is intended as a broad-based guide to issues in research design and analysis. The

articles in the section entitled “Demonstrating systematic observation and research design”

provide classroom and laboratory demonstrations that teachers could use to reinforce concepts

from lecture/discussion, several of which pertain to observational research. Included is a

description of computer coding and analysis of observations from videotape across an array of

psychological research disciplines, a guide to building an ethogram (in laboratory mice), as well

as a demonstration of misinterpretations of observed behavior (in the rat). One particularly

simple and effective demonstration seeks to evoke biased observations by having students

estimate a confederate’s performance of a task before and after the apparent consumption of

alcohol, which actually is an act of deception.

Suggested Web Sites

http://www.norc.org/projects/bydivision/statistics+and+methodology/

florida+ballots+project.htm

This page summarizes one major research project for the National Organization for Research at

the University of Chicago, to archive and evaluate reliability for the November 2000 presidential

ballot count from the state of Florida. The site should prove particularly useful to students as a

demonstration of problems (e.g., variability in data coding) that are associated with

observational methods. A detailed description of methods is included, including how measures

of interobserver reliability were obtained. Also included is NORC’s entire data set and analyses.

72http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/

This is the homepage for Bill Trochim’s (Cornell University) Web Center for Social Research

Methods. The site includes an extensive on-line textbook, the Research Methods Knowledge

Base, which represents a valuable additional resource for several methods issues, including

observational approaches. One section of the Knowledge Base

(http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.htm) should help reinforce several

fundamental aspects of survey research. The section outlines how to prepare questionnaires, as

well as how to prepare and conduct interviews. Included are considerations for question

construction (wording) and response format, as is a table with an extensive checklist of

advantages and disadvantages of survey methods. Additionally, on the homepage, links are

provided to detailed, student-generated tutorials on methods issues (see Research Methods

Tutorials), including how to design and conduct observational field research.

http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/workshops/resch_wrk.html

In addition to the Surveys section of the Wadsworth Research Methods Workshops site that is

indicated at the end of the chapter, there also is a related, but separate segment devoted solely to

Designing a Survey. This segment reviews the importance of both the sequencing and structure of

survey items (including when to use open-ended questions), as well as the impact of visual

presentation on survey responses (including the nature of directions to the participant, plus reading

level). Students are given practice in making survey design decisions, and can compare their

responses to an approach derived from the textbook.

Another segment of the site entitled Operational Definitions actually contains a lot of information

about observational research. Relevant discussion topics include the pros and cons of observational

approaches using an extended example where observations are collected during social hours before

professional business meetings. Students are able to compare their own general approach for the

provided example against a textbook approach, including decisions about what to observe and how

to record such observations. Also provided is more introductory information about types of surveys,

the form of survey items and their content, as well as corresponding reliability and validity issues.

In this latter section students are given some practice in generating survey items for the provided

research example.

73TESTBANK

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. 2. 3. 4. Ethology is a refined form of:

a. a case study

b. a survey

c. naturalistic observation

d. relational observation

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

MSC: WWW

Assume that you are conducting a naturalistic observation of eating habits in the dining hall. During the

lunch hour, you use a table (like an ethogram) to note the occurrence of particular behaviors. What

problem poses the biggest threat to obtaining a complete and valid set of observations?

a. Your attention is limited, so you may miss some important demonstrations of the target

behaviors.

b. c. d. It is difficult to define a small set of easily categorized behaviors to observe.

You cannot make unobtrusive measures in this environment.

You cannot reduce the demand characteristics of the research environment.

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Let us assume that you wish to study aggressive social behaviors in college students immediately before

and after the lunch hour. You decide to watch the entrance of a dining hall from a more remote location,

and simply categorize the behaviors that you observe (along with a frequency count of those behaviors).

This can most accurately be described as an example of which observational approach?

a. naturalistic observation

b. Survey

c. case study

d. deviant-case analysis

ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Dr. No sees two depressed patients with a shared subset of symptoms. One patient gets better with

treatment, the other, worse. Dr. No thus decides to study the details of their therapy to determine a basis

for the difference in treatment outcomes. This approach can most accurately be described as an example

of which type of observational study?

a. case study

b. deviant-case analysis

c. naturalistic observation

d. Survey

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

745. 6. 7. 8. 9. Testing an elderly colleague to compare to P.Z., the amnesiac, is an example of:

a. Ethology

b. construct validity

c. a protocol

d. deviant-case analysis

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Assume that a clinician is seeing a client who is not responding to the treatment program. With the hope

of determining what factor(s) might be responsible for this lack of improvement, the clinician compares

notes from therapy sessions against those from another client with similar characteristics and symptoms,

but who responded positively to the treatment. This is an example of ____.

a. naturalistic observation

b. a case study

c. a survey approach

d. a deviant-case analysis

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Assume that you are conducting an observational study on the effect of caffeine intake on speaking rate.

In this study, you decide to collect responses to questionnaires from a group of instructors and college

students who vary in the daily intake of caffeine. This is an example of ____.

a. naturalistic observation

b. a case study

c. a survey approach

d. a deviant-case analysis

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Which of the following is closest to a random sample?

a. b. c. d. matching the percentages of males/females to the general population

having everyone in the world complete a survey

testing the first 100 individuals that enter the laboratory

relying on volunteers to complete a survey study

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

The ecological function of behaviors refers to:

a. b. c. d. what function they seem to serve the organism.

how behaviors are measured in a flexible fashion.

how inexpensive naturalistic observation is.

the degree to which behaviors observed in research approximate behaviors observed in the

real world.

ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Advantages of Descriptive Observations

MSC: WWW

7510. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Which of the following research approaches could most effectively be argued to be more ecologically

valid than the listed alternatives?

a. Conducting a survey to determine relative alcohol consumption between college-age men

and women

b. c. Examining student attitudes about pre-marital sex via an in-person interview

Evaluating types of aggressive behavior in children by viewing videotapes of school

playground activity

d. Assessing recognition memory for non-words relative to abstract line drawings

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Advantages of Descriptive Observations

One advantage of descriptive observation studies is that they:

a. maximize the chance of showing an effect.

b. reveal interactions between variables.

c. provide the greatest ecological validity.

d. require the fewest participants.

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Advantages of Descriptive Observations

One advantage of observational research methods is that:

a. b. c. d. researchers can make causal statements about relationships between variables.

conditions and results can be easily replicated.

they are free of researcher bias.

they provide greater ecological validity.

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Advantages of Descriptive Observations

A problem that is associated with descriptive observations is that they:

a. cannot be influenced by subject (participant) roles.

b. often lead to anthropomorphizing.

c. have internal validity.

d. can never be obtained as unobtrusive measures.

e. are always retrospective in nature.

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

Reactivity refers to the problem of:

a. b. c. d. the participants’ behavior being influenced by being observed

the influence that the expectations of the researcher have on the results

participants misinterpreting the instructions provided by the researcher

what happens when a researcher does not provide proper aftercare for participants

ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC: WWW

Which of the following decisions would be most appropriate for a researcher interested in reducing a

participant’s potential reactivity to the presence of the researcher?

76a. Make unobtrusive observations.

16. 17. 18. 19. b. c. d. Restrict the experiment to the laboratory setting.

Repeat the test using another set of participants.

Increase the number of participants.

ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

A reporter decides to try to learn more about Hollywood celebrities by evaluating the contents of their

garbage cans. In this way he can conduct research without celebrity awareness. This example can most

accurately be described as an example of ____.

a. unobtrusive observation

b. an unobtrusive measure

c. participant observation

d. response acquiescence

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

A newspaper reporter decides to research the prevalence of alcohol on a local college campus by going

under-cover as a student on the campus who is solely interested in partying. This could best be described

as an example of ____.

a. unobtrusive measures

b. unobtrusive observations

c. participant observation

d. participant roles

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

In order to better observe the behavior of mountain gorillas, Fossey (1972) had to figure out a way to get

closer to them. Ultimately, she mimicked their behaviors until the gorillas accepted her presence. This is

an example of ____.

a. unobtrusive observation

b. participant observation

c. unobtrusive measures

d. response style or set

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Reactivity in the form of ____ is a problem in case studies.

a. ordinary forgetting

b. motivated forgetting

c. corroboration

d. retrospection

ANS: B PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

INSTRUCTIONS: Match each characteristic problem with its corresponding observational study for the

next two questions.

7720. response style

a. case study

b. deviant-case analysis

c. Survey

d. naturalistic observation

21. 22. 23. ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

can only attend to a limited number of behaviors

a. case study

b. deviant-case analysis

c. Survey

d. naturalistic observation

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

All of the following are advantages of observational studies EXCEPT the idea that such studies:

a. often can provide more ecologically valid measures of behavior.

b. are relatively flexible in their procedures relative to experiments.

c. are inexpensive to conduct.

d. are free of demand characteristics, particularly surveys.

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Response style or set is most commonly a problem for which type of observational study?

a. naturalistic observation

b. case study

c. survey

d. deviant-case analysis

ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC: WWW

24. Response style refers to:

a. reactivity in case studies

b. selective remembering and forgetting

c. a habitual way of asking questions

d. reactivity in interviews and surveys

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

25. Each of the following is an example of response sets except:

a. response acquiescence

b. response deviation

c. social desirability

7826. 27. 28. 29. 30. d. forced-choice responses

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

MSC: WWW

A solution to response styles forces the participant to:

a. b. c. d. choose between a desirable and an undesirable alternative

select response acquiescence or response deviation

select a socially undesirable alternative on the survey or test

choose between two equally good or two equally bad alternatives

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Which option below would be the most effective method for combating response styles/sets in a survey?

a. Use random sampling.

b. c. d. Provide incentives for completion of the survey.

Replicate the survey results with a different sample population.

For a given survey item, work to make the alternative answers equally desirable.

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

If you want your results to apply to the general population, you should:

a. not use just volunteer participants

b. not use random sampling procedures

c. not use paid participants

d. pay only participants who don’t volunteer

ANS: A PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

The effective use of surveys is often complicated by:

a. b. the fact that it is difficult and expensive to obtain a representative sample of respondents.

the fact that participants often respond how they think the researcher expects them to

respond.

c. d. the reliance on volunteers, which can limit the generalizability of results.

all of the above concerns.

ANS: D PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

One way to handle the problem of non-respondents in research is to:

a. use volunteer respondents exclusively

b. c. allow your respondents to use the telephone or mail in their answers

get a random sample of the entire population that is available

d. pay all participants equally

79ANS: C PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

TRUE/FALSE

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. An ethogram is a relatively complete survey of attitudes.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Interobserver reliability has to do with the degree to which different participants demonstrate the same

behaviors in a research study.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Case studies can be considered to represent a form of naturalistic observation, and thus should be subject

to all the disadvantages of that approach.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Reactivity to surveys is typically eliminated by obtaining a random sample.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Descriptive Observation Methods

Some memory researchers have argued that studies involving the recall of novel events are more

appropriate than laboratory studies involving the recall of less concrete material (e.g., nonsense syllables)

because only the former approach reflects memory for items with a clear ecological function.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Advantages of Descriptive Observations

The primary problem unique to descriptive research is that it does not permit the assessment of relations

among events.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

Pavlov, the famous psychologist and physiologist, found it difficult to study conditioned reflexes

objectively.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Sources of Error in Descriptive Research

8. 9. The term demand characteristics is currently and typically used to refer to the various roles that

participants may assume in response to the research setting.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Unobtrusive measures and unobtrusive observations are the same ways of reducing reactivity.

8010. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Unobtrusive measures are indirect observations of behaviors.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Motivated forgetting in case studies refers to the active way in which a person reconstructs his or her

past.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

The retrospective nature of memories presents a potentially serious problem for the researcher who relies

upon unobtrusive observations.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

The validity of answers on personality tests and on surveys often is threatened by response styles.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

A habitual tendency to answer questions in the negative reflects a common form of response set that is

typically referred to as response deviation.

ANS: T PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

Using volunteers in your research means you are likely to have unmotivated and unintelligent people.

ANS: F PTS: 1 REF: Reactivity in Descriptive Research

SHORT ANSWER

1. Discuss the advantages of descriptive research.

ANS:

Answer not provided.

PTS: 1

2. Outline some of the disadvantages of descriptive research.

ANS:

Answer not provided.

813. 4. 5. PTS: 1

Indicate the ways in which people might react to being in a descriptive research project. Pinpoint some

ways of minimizing the reactivity.

ANS:

Answer not provided.

PTS: 1

What major obstacles must a researcher overcome when relying on surveys? How might a researcher

address these concerns?

ANS:

Answer not provided.

PTS: 1

What are the various methods that a researcher might choose to rely upon in order to reduce reactivity in

a naturalistic observation study?

ANS:

Answer not provided.

PTS: 1

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