Case studies + experiments

What is a field experiment?

• The IV studied is naturally occurring and the researcher can’t control it

• The researcher deliberately manipulates the IV, measures the DV and maintains strict control over all other variables

• It is carried out in a natural environment and the IV is manipulated and the DV is measured

Which of the following statements about laboratory experiments is NOT true?

• High ecological validity

• High level of control over variables

• Easy to replicate

• High internal validity

In which type of research method does a researcher study a single unit in depth?

• Naturalistic observation

• Laboratory observation

• Case study

• Survey

A phenomenon that occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results:

• Social desirability

• Experimenter bias

• Placebo

• Triangulation

In an experiment looking at the effect of heat on performance, participants were randomly assigned to spend 20 minutes in a hot room painted blue or to spend 20 minutes in a cold room painted yellow. In this experiment, the IV is confounded by:

• Lack of random sampling

• The color of the room

• There is no confounding variable

• Performance on the task

Which of these is an advantage of case studies?

• Researchers can easily generalize the information to the entire population

• They don’t need informed consent

• Rare situations can be studied that may lead to a better understanding of human behavior

• They allow prediction about human behavior to be standardized

The group in a study that don’t receive the experimental treatment:

• Independent group

• Extraneous group

• Control group

• Random sample

Which of the following is NOT true about snapshot studies?

• It can be a good way to collect preliminary evidence before a time-consuming longitudinal study

• They may be more expensive to set up than longitudinal studies

• It is possible to study how behavior might change over time

• They may lack ecological population validity

Which of the following is NOT true about longitudinal studies?

• The development of the subjects can be tracked

• Researchers are always objective when it comes to this type of research method

• Once started, no new variables can be introduced

• Individual differences are controlled as the same participants are used throughout the same period

Case studies may be low in validity because they rely on retrospective data.

• True

• False