Hi there, I am not sure about the word count, jus assuming the number provided in the order. Given to each question about 40 words in the part 2 and 3.

Reference: Chapter 2

Psychology: An international discipline in context: Australian & New Zealand Edition (Bernstein, Pooley, Cohen, Gouldthorp)

PLEASE NOTE: These questions are based on the material covered in chapter 2 of the textbook but you may need to do some additional ‘net research for some questions. You are not required to ‘get everything right’ in order to achieve the credits – a reasonable attempt at most of the required questions is sufficient. Finally, do not write too much. A few lines per question is sufficient.

Part 1

Answer the following four questions using no less than 300 words (in total) and no more than 500 words (in total).

1. Explain why the internal and external validity of a study are important in psychological research.

2. When is it acceptable for psychologists to use animals in their research?
3. Is deception in psychological research an example of the ‘end justifying the means’?
4. Consider the following research study and answer the questions that follow.

A researcher is interested in whether the difficulty of examination questions affects students’ course evaluations.

1. If she wants to determine whether setting a difficult exam produces less favourable comments in students’ course evaluations (i.e. a cause-and-effect relationship), what type of research procedure should she use?
2. What procedures would she follow in setting up such a study?
3. What could she select for independent and dependent variables?
4. Do you think a control group would be important? Why or why not?
5. How could she control for possible demand characteristics in the study?

Part 2

1. Identify the research method that best describes each of the examples of research studies that follow.
2. A team of researchers, interested in what makes two people attracted to each other, spends several weeks in bars and night clubs observing young adults interacting with one another.
3. A sport psychologist collects considerable information concerning each elite athlete that he sees, including information concerning their sporting performance in competition, to try to determine under what conditions they are most likely to exhibit their maximal performance.
4. The relationship between exercise, healthy diet and body weight is examined.
5. A researcher is interested in whether there are gender differences in the performance on a road map task. He compares the test scores of the male and female participants in the sample. (pg. 72)
6. A local health and community psychologist is interested in learning about the relationships people have with their residential communities. She sends out a questionnaire to all people in the town asking them various questions about how they perceive life in their community.
7. A lecturer wants to determine whether students are more likely to participate in class discussions when group members are the same sex. She randomly assigns students to either same-sex or mixed-sex groups and monitors the discussions for each group.

2. In an experimental study on the effects of alcohol on memory performance:

1. What variable is the dependent variable (DV)?

1. What variable is the independent variable (IV)?

3. You want to see if there is a difference in the rate of water evaporation if the water is coloured. Red, green and blue food colouring is added to three vials of water and the millimetres of water in the vial is measured after 12 hours.

 What is the theoretical IV?

1. How is the IV manipulated or operationalised?
2. What is the theoretical DV?
3. How is the DV measured or operationalised?
4. What are the (a) advantages and (b) disadvantages of experimental research?

Part 3

1. Prepare responses to the following questions about naturalistic observation.
2. What is naturalistic observation?
3. Give an example of naturalistic observation.
4. What are the advantages of naturalistic observation?
5. What are the disadvantages of naturalistic observation?
8. Prepare responses to the following instructions and questions about case studies:

1. Define the case study method and give an example.

1. What are the advantages of using a case study?

1. What are the disadvantages of using a case study?

3. Prepare responses to the following instructions and questions about collecting data:

1. Describe the survey method for collecting data and give an example.

1. What are the advantages of using a survey method for collecting data?

1. What are the disadvantages of using a survey method for collecting data?