Suppose that you read a study in which 5,000 male workers and 5,000 female workers are asked about the number of days of work they missed last year. Imagine that males miss an average of 7.2 days and females miss an average of 7.3 days, and the difference is statistically significant. What would be an important criticism of this study?
a. Statistical significance is not important when we are considering such large sample sizes.
b. The difference probably has no practical significance.
c. The sample was probably not large enough.
d. The study was probably very carefully conducted, because those two means are so similar.
Question 2Suppose that you are reading a newspaper article claiming that men and women differ significantly on a new test of creativity. As you read more closely, you realize that the males' average was 101, one point higher than the females' average of 100 . What would you conclude?
a. The results probably did not really reach statistical significance.
b. The results probably have little practical significance.
c. The study probably tested a small number of males and females.
d. The results can be generalized to people living in other geographic regions.
Question 3Suppose that you read about a study in which the results are statistically significant. You would conclude that
a. a group of statisticians inspected the results and concluded that the study had been carefully conducted.
b. the differences are likely to have important consequences, outside the research laboratory.
c. the results did not appear to have any confounding variables.
d. the differences between the groups probably did not occur just by chance.
Question 4Which of the following statements is correct regarding expectancy effects in research on the psychology of women?
a. In most cases, careful precautions can make researchers unaware of the gender of the participants, so that researcher expectancy is less likely to operate.
b. Although researchers' expectancies may influence the results, the participants' expectancies generally have little impact on the results.
c. Because most of the research in psychology involves people reporting their reactions to something, participants' expectancies usually cannot influence the results.
d. Because the researchers have grown up in a stereotyped society, their ratings of males and females may not be objective.
Question 5Researcher expectancy is a problem because
a. researchers are much more likely to expect gender differences in cognitive ability than gender differences in social behavior.
b. researchers' stereotypes may influence the way that the participants respond.
c. it reduces the probability of finding results that have practical significance.
d. it reduces the number of confounding variables.
Question 6How might researcher expectancy be important in research studying whether women prefer a new method of childbirth preparation to a standard method of childbirth preparation?
a. Women tend to prefer a change in procedure, rather than a method that is regarded as old-fashioned.
b. The public may expect an established method to be more effective.
c. The researchers' enthusiasm about the new method may influence the women's responses.
d. The researcher may expect that the new method will create greater individual differences in reactions to childbirth.
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