Question 1

An ideal participant comes to a research experiment without any preconceived notions and is willing to disclose personal information concerning their innermost secrets.

Accepted Answer

An ideal participant in a research experiment is expected to be unbiased and willing to share personal information, including their innermost secrets.

Question 2

Which of the following is recommended to a researcher seeking to reduce participant bias?

Accepted Answer

Reducing participants' fears about their confidentiality can help in minimizing participant bias, as it encourages more honest and natural responses by assuring them that their information will be kept private and not used against them.

Question 3

Characteristics of experimenters (e.g., race of counselors) can influence how participants perceive the effect of counseling in research studies.

Accepted Answer

The characteristics of experimenters can influence participants' perceptions of the effectiveness of counseling in research studies. For example, participants may perceive that counselors of their own race or ethnicity are more empathetic and effective compared to counselors from a different race or ethnicity. This phenomenon is known as racial/ethnic matching bias. It highlights the importance of using diverse teams of experimenters in research studies to minimize potential biases.

Question 4

With the passage of time, oftentimes when people are unable to utilize episodic knowledge, they turn to experiential knowledge.

Accepted Answer

The answer of With the passage of time, oftentimes when...

Question 5

As observed by Christensen (1980), participants entering a psychological experiment are passive organisms just waiting to respond to the independent variable.

Accepted Answer

This statement by Christensen is not entirely accurate. Participants in psychological experiments are not necessarily passive organisms waiting to respond to the independent variable. They may actively process information, have prior expectations or beliefs, and may even exhibit demand characteristics.

Question 6

Participants in psychological experiments in general have a desire to present themselves in a positive light.

Accepted Answer

This is known as the social desirability bias, which refers to the tendency of participants to provide responses that they believe will be viewed positively by others.

Question 7

Bias due to _____ occurs in the design aspects due to expectations during the research design process.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Bias due to _____ occurs in the...

Question 8

_____ are cues within an experiment that may influence participants to respond in a particular way apart from the independent variable.

Accepted Answer

Demand characteristics are cues within an experiment that may influence participants to respond in a particular way apart from the independent variable. Experimenter attributes and expectancies are potential sources of bias introduced by the experimenter, while participant characteristics refer to individual differences that may influence behavior.

Question 9

Which of the following is a possible source of bias due to investigator and experimenter expectancies?

Accepted Answer

Differences in the levels of enthusiasm of experimenters while administering studies to the various groups in a study can create bias due to investigator and experimenter expectancies. Higher levels of enthusiasm may lead an experimenter to treat certain groups differently and may affect the outcome of the study.

Question 10

Outcome effects for a preferred treatment are diminished in studies with stronger research allegiance.

Accepted Answer

Research allegiance, where researchers have a preference or belief in the efficacy of a treatment they are studying, tends to inflate the reported effectiveness of that preferred treatment in studies, rather than diminish it.

Question 11

In the real world, an investigator is able to engage in a scientific study and remains an impartial, passive observer throughout.

Accepted Answer

In the real world, investigators are not always able to remain completely impartial and may have some level of involvement or influence on the study, such as designing the study, selecting participants or analyzing the data. However, they should strive to minimize their impact and maintain objectivity as much as possible.

Question 12

Which of the following is a strategy that is used to reduce the impacts of investigator and experimenter expectancies?

Accepted Answer

Keeping the experimenters blind to the purpose of the study is a strategy used to reduce the impacts of investigator and experimenter expectancies. This helps ensure that experimenters do not form biases or expectations that could influence the results of the study. Reiterating basic experimental procedures, carefully describing and making explicit the experimental procedures, and analyzing the data for differences across experimenters can all be helpful in reducing the potential for bias and improving the overall validity of the study, but they are not specifically targeted at reducing investigator and experimenter expectancies.

Question 13

In the context of participant characteristics that can bias an experimental study, which of the following statements is true?

Accepted Answer

Former clients may indeed feel hesitant to share negative feedback about a counselor if they believe those comments could be shared with the counselor, potentially due to concerns about repercussions or damaging the relationship. This can introduce bias into the study as it may lead to underreporting of negative perceptions.

Question 14

When a research study is designed with stronger methodological quality, the link between research allegiance and outcome is stronger.

Accepted Answer

Research studies with stronger methodological quality are designed to minimize bias, including the effects of researcher allegiance on outcomes, thus weakening the link between research allegiance and outcome.

Question 15

_____, one of the major types of bias, are primarily biological and interpersonal characteristics of an experimenter that may cause differential responses in research participants.

Accepted Answer

Experimenter attributes refer to the inherent characteristics of the experimenter, such as gender, race, or demeanor, that can influence the responses of participants in a study, often unconsciously.

Question 16

When both research participants and an experimenter are kept blind, the study is called double blind.

Accepted Answer

In a double blind study, both the participants and the experimenter are kept blind to eliminate potential biases in the study.

Question 17

In the context of participants' abilities to report their experiences during research, which of the following do people use to access knowledge about emotions by beliefs of how they would feel in general?

Accepted Answer

Identity-related belief refers to the general beliefs people have about themselves, including how they typically feel, which they use to access knowledge about emotions.

Question 18

Johnson, with his team of researchers, is conducting a research that measures the amount of counseling intervention clients require to minimize the effects of their depression. He wishes to know the extent to which the intervention was helpful. However, a majority of the participants were reluctant to cooperate with him. This was because the clients were in denial of the fact that they were depressed in the first place. In this scenario, _____ would have been a responsible factor for confounding the outcomes of Johnson's research.

Accepted Answer

The psychological defenses of Johnson's clients, such as denial of their depression, would have confounded the outcomes of the research by affecting their willingness to participate fully and honestly, thereby impacting the accuracy of the intervention's effectiveness assessment.

Question 19

Which of the following is true of participants' abilities to report their experiences during a research study?

Accepted Answer

Use of episodic knowledge, which relies on the recall of specific instances or events, may lead to participants only remembering certain parts of an experience and forgetting the rest. This can affect the accuracy of their reports. The other answer choices are incorrect. A increase in the amount of time elapsed may actually decrease the accuracy of experiential knowledge. Closed-ended questions may be helpful in some situations and individuals may report multiple emotions during a study.

Question 20

A researcher should use two or more experimenters for each level of the independent variable in a study to reduce the possible effects of experimenter attributes.

Accepted Answer

Using multiple experimenters for each level of the independent variable helps to control for any individual differences in the experimenters that could affect the results. This improves the internal validity of the study.

Quiz 23: Bias: Error Variances From Investigators, Experimenters, and Participants