Testbank

Chapter 3: Big questions and new methods

1. Which of the most important defining characteristics of a ‘big question’ in psychology has been missed from the following list: answers to the question would have significant consequences; there is a long tradition of research on the question; the public are interested in it; it has become potentially answerable for the first time due to new methods becoming available; and new data relevant to it are available.

a. It will attract media interest.

b. It is easy to explain to non-psychologists.

c. It provides the underlying basis for a major theoretical breakthrough if answered.

d. It has never been answered.

2. What started the ‘replication debate’?

a. Researchers failing to provide good enough information about their studies so as to allow other people to repeat them.

b. Researchers who have repeated a published study have failed to find the same results as the original.

c. Researchers who have conducted the same study on a number of occasions have reported finding different results.

d. Researchers who have misreported their findings.

3. Which of the following does data science NOT include?

a. Big data

b. Data mining

c. Data capture

d. Data torture

4. In 2017, how many zettabytes of data did the International Data Corporation say would be available by 2025?

a. A trillion gigabytes

b. 163 zettabytes

c. 352 zettabytes

d. 961 zettabytes

5. How are data analytics changing research methods in psychology?

a. Human researchers are no longer needed.

b. They eradicate biases in data interpretation.

c. They provide the means to analyse more complex and larger data sets.

d. They limit the use of qualitative methods.

6. To which classic debate in psychology is epigenetics directly relevant?

a. Idealism vs realism

b. Behaviourism vs functionalism

c. Nature vs nurture

d. Qualitative vs quantitative

7. A researcher tackling a ‘big question’ is likely to come under a number of pressures – most notably these include the possibility that their errors could have damaging broad-ranging societal implications or that an error could harm people directly dependent upon the research. What is the other most significant pressure that might emerge?

a. The possibility that any error could misdirect future theoretical development within psychology

b. The question is answered by another researcher

c. The question is so big that it fragments into many sub-questions

d. The question is superseded by other questions

8. How is Artificial Intelligence defined?

a. AI is a robotic system.

b. AI is a digital system that can learn and problem-solve.

c. AI reproduces the human thought process.

d. AI has no emotional capacity.

9. What does research ‘knowledge translation and transfer’ mainly involve?

a. Making findings available and comprehensible to the public and policy makers

b. Publishing research findings in a number of languages

c. Focusing research on practical problems

d. Conducting multidisciplinary studies

10. Psychologists now often work in multidisciplinary teams. This is changing psychology in some ways but not others. In the following list, what is not changing?

a. The types of data available

b. The techniques for representing data

c. The ethical standards applicable to the use of data

d. The volume of data available

11. What is the false consensus feedback paradigm? A research design in which:

a. subjects are given false feedback on what other people say/think about a topic.

b. subjects are given feedback that other people disagree with the subjects’ attitudes about a topic.

c. subjects are given fabricated information that the majority of other people agree with each other on an issue.

d. subjects are given information that the majority of people agree with the subjects’ attitudes about a topic.

12. When reporting results from a study, what thing from this list should a research never do?

a. Rationalise the limitations they know to exist in their study design

b. Present the details of the data they excluded from the analysis

c. Present reasons for modifying the original theoretical model they used

d. Report the ethical issues addressed in the study

13. Which of the following issues is a problem specifically associated with the new methods now being used by psychologists?

a. The complexity and volume of the data they collect make the description of patterns in the data difficult.

b. They use expensive technologies.

c. They are not based in any one epistemological tradition.

d. They require statistical expertise.

14. What is a ‘data cake’?

a. A technique of data visualisation

b. A compilation of layers of varied forms of data

c. A way of slicing data sets

d. A data set based on mixed methods

15. What does symphonic social science use?

a. Inductive approaches to data

b. Deductive approaches to data

c. Reductive approaches to data

d. Abductive approaches to data

16. Which of these is NOT a brain imaging technique?

a. fMRI

b. PET

c. iMCD

d. SPECT

17. In which way that big data is collected lead to unexpected biases?

a. When qualitative data are involved

b. When the database is has systematic omissions

c. When qualitative and quantitative data are included simultaneously

d. When data used are from different levels of analysis

18. Which discipline listed is NOT regarded usually to be the basis for data science?

a. Mathematics

b. Statistics

c. Linguistics

d. Computer science

19. Is the availability of new methods making it more likely that psychology will develop a ‘grand theory’ echoing those in the physical sciences – like Einstein’s theory of relativity?

a. It is possible

b. It will

c. It will not

d. It is irrelevant

20. How will AI most change research methods in psychology?

a. It will change how information is elicited and stored.

b. It will change how information is manipulated, interpreted, and represented.

c. It will change the epistemological issues that concern psychologists.

d. It will change both data capture and analysis techniques.