PY
353: Exam 2
This is a take-home exam.
You may use your text and notes, but you may not use each other to
complete the exam. Any evidence of
collaboration (in other words, cheating) will result in failure. The exam is worth 100 pts. (95 pts. for
answering the questions and a 5 pt. “fudge” factor that is used to reward
neatness, clarity of thought, logicalness, etc.). It is due on Thursday,
November 17, 2016by NOON. Be sure to follow directions carefully. Please let me know if you have any problems
accessing the two research articles that are required for the exam. They appear on a new web site affiliated with
the Journal of Psychological Inquiry, which is now housed at Fort Hays State
University in Kansas. I tested the
links, but I’m not sure how well they will work once the exam is posted.
Design
critiques: 15 points each
Answer the following questions for each design critique:
a. What is (or
could be) the independent variable(s) and what are its levels?
b. Is the
independent variable a true IV or a subject variable?
c. What is
(are) the dependent variable(s)?
d. What control
variables were (or could be) used?
e. What needs
to be done to improve the study?
1. A certain psychologist was looking for
the cause of college failure. He took a
group of former students who had
flunked out and a group who had received
good grades. He gave both groups a self-esteem test and
found that the
who failed scored lower on the test
than the college success group. He
concluded that low self-esteem is
one of the causes of college failure and
further suggested that the low
self-esteem person probably expects to fail
and exhibits defeatist behavior in
college—which eventually leads to his/her
failure.
2. It was hypothesized that sensory deprivation
inhibits the intellectual development of animals. To test this hypothesis, an experimenter used
2 rats, each of which had just given birth
to 8 pups. One rat and her litter were
placed in a large cage with ample space and objects
to explore. The second rat’s pups were separated from the mother and each was placed in a separate cage. These cages were quite small and the only
objects they could see or hear were
the four walls and the food dispenser.
After five months, both groups were
tested in a multiple-T maze using food as a reward. Following 20 trials, all of
the non- deprived pups were
running the maze without error, but the deprived pups were still making several errors. This latter group frequently froze and had to
be prodded to move. The experimenter concluded that sensory
deprivation inhibits intellectual development such that deprived rats did not have the intellectual ability to learn even
a simple maze.
3. An investigator hypothesized that
people in a fearful situation desire to be
with other individuals. To test her hypothesis, the researcher
randomly
assigned 50 participants to either a
high or low fear group. Participants in
the low fear group were told that
they would be shocked but that they would
experience only a small tingle that
would not hurt. Participants in the high
fear group were told that the shock
would be quite painful and might burn
the skin, but would not cause any
permanent damage. After being told this,
8 participants in the high fear
group declined to participate in the study.
The
researcher released them (as she was
ethically bound to do) and conducted the
experiment. Each group of participants was then told to
wait while the shock
equipment was being prepared and
that they could wait either in a room by
themselves or with other
people. No difference was found in the
extent to
which the high or low fear groups
wanted to wait with others.
Journal article critiques: 50 points total
Please go to the
following web sites for the research articles for this part of the exam.
Article A:
http://www.fhsu.edu/uploadedFiles/academic/college_of_arts_and_sciences/psych/JPI/JPI%20Vol%2014.pdf
Read the article
that begins on p. 7 by Cotton & Sutton
Article B:
http://www.fhsu.edu/uploadedFiles/academic/college_of_arts_and_sciences/psych/JPI/JPI%20Vol%2015(1-2).pdf
Read the article
that begins on p. 6 by Avon & Goodfriend
Answer the following questions for each of
the articles.
1. What is the
independent variable(s)? What are the
levels of the independent
variable(s)? Is the independent variable(s) a true
independent variable or
a subject
variable?
2. What is the
dependent variable(s)? What was the
operational definition
of the
dependent variable?
3. What
variable(s) was controlled by the researcher?
4. What type of
research methodology was used? What type
of design was
used (if
appropriate)?
5. What is this
research all about?
6. What was the
researcher’s hypothesis?
7. What
materials were used?
8. What were
the results of the study? Did they
support the hypothesis?
9. How were the
results interpreted?
10. Suggestions
for future research.
