Category Archives: Psychology

Decision-Making Cases

Choose only one of the decision-making cases below to answer questions in the “Ethical Decision-Making” assignment. The questions at the end of each case are intended for you to reflect on. Do not copy the case into your assignment document.

Decisions of Life and Death

Janie is your sister’s best friend, and when Janie was a senior in high school, she fractured her neck in a diving accident. The doctors say that she is a quadriplegic–paralyzed from the shoulders down. All of Janie’s dreams for college, romance, and a meaningful life seem to be over; she cannot even take care of her own basic needs. Janie has even talked to your sister about whether it makes sense to keep on living. Knowing that you are reading the….

Test your understanding of group processes by identifying each of the following scenarios as an example of one of the main leadership styles: autocratic, democratic and laissez-faire.

(a) The work group is given a set of tasks to be completed by the end of the week. The leader closely examines the task list and asks each team member for input on how to achieve each objective. He encourages each person to decide for themselves how they should proceed to complete the tasks on time.

(b) The work group is given a set of tasks to be completed by the end of the week. The leader

closely examines the task list and allocates a separate team member to achieve each objective.

He has decided that this is the….

Test your understanding of social influence processes by identifying each of these scenarios as an example of one of the following techniques of social influence: door-in-the-face, foot-in-the-door and low-balling.

(a) John was keen to buy a new car, and reached an agreement with the car salesperson on the price of one particular car. However, just before John signed the paperwork, the salesperson reminded him that floor mats were not included in the price of the car and would cost another $100.

(b) A researcher approached university students and asked if they would chaperone a group of

primary-school-aged children to the zoo for a day. Eighty-five percent of the students refused the

request. When the researcher approached a second group of students, the researcher first asked

if they….

Fiona has obsessive-compulsive disorder. She has many intrusive thoughts, but the most frightening is that when using a sharp knife, she loses control and stabs her son, severely injuring or perhaps even killing him. Fiona loves her son and is a good mother. She is horrified about these thoughts and does not want to act on them. Yet she is so afraid that she will lose control that she has taken all the knives out of the house (including the butter knives). She has also removed all the scissors. She made an appointment to see a psychologist, but she is worried. What if the psychologist thinks she is crazy?

Mr. A. brings his daughter to participate in a study comparing treatments for childhood social phobia. The researcher is required to get one parent to sign the consent form and checks that Mom and Dad are married (they are). The researcher mentions that it is unusual for a father to bring a child for treatment—usually it is the mom. Dad replies that it is easier for him to do it because he is self-employed. Dad provides a cell phone number and the home number as a backup. The little girl never misses an appointment—Dad always brings her. When trying to schedule the 3-month follow-up appointment, Dad’s cell phone does not seem to be working, so the research assistant calls the house. Mom answers, and when the research assistant….

What if? Hypothetical situation questions allow the interviewer to determine values, and to determine if the interviewee has orderly thought processes. Describe your philosophy of education. This he.lps the interviewer hear what the interviewee hopes his students will learn and how she has integrated the philosophy into teaching. How would you set up a program (such as reading)? Look for one-to-one student-teacher communication, a set of checks and balances for assessing master~ p_l~ to monitor the plan, where to seek resources, how to accommodate individual differences in students. What are your weaknesses? Look for an admission that anyone can learn and an indication that the interviewee does not think she knows everything. Define the principal’s role. Look for those applicants who perceive the principal as fulfilling multiple roles….

In each of the following cases, tell whether it would be best to examine the independent variable in a within-subjects or a between-subjects design. Justify your answer in each case.

a. A social psychological study of helping, in which the researchers are interested in how group size affects whether or not an individual will help someone else in the group.

b. A study of the effect of varying loudness of a tone in measuring how quickly people can respond to the tone.

c. An experiment designed to answer the question of whether the color of a woman’s hair affects the likelihood that she will be asked out for dates.

d. A study in which three different training techniques are compared as to their effectiveness in teaching animals tricks.

A researcher in the biology department of your university has just demonstrated extrasensory perception (ESP) in rats. The rats were placed in a maze, where they had to choose between two possible runways, one of which led to food. The rats could not see or smell the food at the place in the maze where they had to make their decision, and the runway in which the experimenter put the food varied randomly from trial to trial. Over a series of 50 trials, the researcher found that there were 2 rats out of 100 tested that seemed to perform better than would be expected on the basis of chance. One picked the correct runway 64 percent of the time; the other picked it 66 percent of the time….

The reward system in science discourages replications of other people’s work. Researchers are re-warded much more for novel contributions than for “merely repeating” the work of others. Some have argued that this reward system tends to create fragmentation and disarray in many areas of psychology, because people are rewarded for going their own way and (sometimes) ignoring progress in other closely related areas. Thus, basic phenomena will often be unreplicated. Do you think replication should be more strongly encouraged? If so, how?

Verbal reports are likely to be more useful in some areas of psychology than in others. For each of the following topics, discuss the pros and cons of using verbal reports. For those cases in which you think verbal reports cannot be used, suggest better methods:

a. Studying strategies by which people remember their childhood experiences when asked to do so

b. Studying sexual behavior of college students

c. Studying people’s mental processes that occur when they decide to buy one product rather than another

d. Studying the reasons why one person likes another

e. Studying what factors affect visual illusions