NIOS Class 12 Psychology Chapter 3 Answers
INTEXT QUESTIONS 3.1
1 List the 5 goals of psychological research
Ans: Goals of Psychological Research: To describe, to explain, to predict, to control, to improve
2. Fill in the blanks with suitable answers
i. The goal of scientific Psychology is to describe ________in detail.
Ans: Behavior
ii. In contrast to other methods scientific knowledge of Psychology is _____________.
Ans: Empirical
iii. Psychologists focus their attention on understanding behavior, as well as the _________ and ________ processes that underlie behaviour.
Ans: Cognitive (mental) and Physiological (body)
INTEXT QUESTIONS 3.2
State whether the following statements are True or False
1. Interview method is used in Qualitative research. True/False
Ans: True
2. Basic research is same as fundamental research. True/False
Ans: True
3. Fundamental research is directed at problem-solving. True/False
Ans: False
4. Field Research is carried out in artificial lab settings. True/False
Ans: False
5. Qualitative research involves only numerical data. True/False
Ans: False
INTEXT QUESTIONS 3.3
1. State whether following statements are True or False
a) Experiment is observation under controlled conditions. True/False
Ans: False
b) Independent Variable is manipulated by the researcher. True/False
Ans: True
c) Control group does not receive the treatment of IV. True/False
Ans: True
d) Control group needs to be different from experimental group with respect to every aspect. True/False
Ans: False
e) The value of correlation can only be positive. True/False
Ans: False
2. List the three types of research designs.
Ans: Three types of research design
- Descriptive research
- Experimental research
- Correlational research
3. Match the following
| a. Descriptive Research. | i. Manipulation of IV and measurement of DV |
| b. Correlational research | ii. Describing the existing state of affairs. |
| c. Experimental research | iii. Studies relationship between variables. |
Ans: a. ii., b. iii. c. i.
INTEXT QUESTIONS 3.4
1. What are the goals of psychological research?
Ans: Five goals of Psychological Research are:- Describe, Explain, Predict, Control, Predict
2. Describe the different components of statistics used in psychological research.
Ans: Different components of statistics used in psychological research are:-
- Descriptive:- Its purpose is to organize and summarize data
- Inferential:- Its purpose is to conclude conditions that exist in a population from the study of a sample
TERMINAL QUESTIONS
1. What are the goals of psychological research?
Ans: Research in Psychology has five basic goals:
- 1. To Describe – The first goal is to observe behavior and describe, often in minute detail, what was observed as objectively as possible.
- 2. To Explain – While descriptions come from observable data, psychologists must go beyond what is obvious and explain their observations. In other words, why did something happen?
- 3. To Predict – Once the psychologist knows what happens and why it happens, they can begin to speculate what will happen in the future.
- 4. To Control – Once what happens, why it happens, and what is likely to happen in the future is known, the psychologist can exercise control over it carefully and systematically.
- 5. To Improve – Not only do psychologists attempt to control behavior, but they also want to do so in a positive manner. They want to improve a person’s life and not make it worse.
2. What are the types of psychological research?
Ans: Psychological research can be classified in numerous ways, such as
- Based on Goals
- Fundamental research, also known as basic research, aims to discover, describe, and understand elementary features of behavior. Traditionally, fundamental studies focus on different aspects of problem solving, memory, and learning etc.
- Applied research deals with more specific, practical problems in a real-life context. It is concerned with finding solutions to practical problems and putting these solutions to work in order to help others.
- Based on Setting for research
- In the laboratory, the researcher has closer control over every aspect of the study; on the other hand, field research provides more realistic models of real-life situations. Laboratory experiments are usually done in a controlled and artificial laboratory setting.
- Field research, beyond searching for solutions to practical problems, is also used to test laboratory experiment results in real-life situations.
- Based on Applied methods
- Quantitative research collects numerical data subjected to statistical analyses; its research methods include experimental and correlational research.
- Qualitative analysis stands for a more comprehensive, realistic approach in which the obtained data is descriptive in nature. Interview and Observational research are examples of qualitative research methods.
3. What is a research design? Explain the three types of research designs that Psychologists use in their research.
Ans: A research design is the specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and interpret data. Psychologists use three major types of research designs in their research, and each provides a unique approach for scientific investigation.
- Descriptive research is research designed to provide a picture of the current state of affairs.
- Correlational research is research designed to discover relationships among variables and to allow the prediction of future events from present ones.
- Experimental research is research in which more than one group of comparable participants is created, followed by a manipulation of a given experience for these groups and a measurement of the effect of the manipulation.
4. Discuss the difference between correlational and experimental methods.
Ans:
- An experiment isolates and manipulates the independent variable to observe its impact on the dependent variable. In an experiment, an attempt is made to control the impact of extraneous variables on the findings. Thus, experiments help in establishing cause-and-effect relationships.
- A correlation, on the other hand, identifies variables and looks for a relationship between them. Unlike experiments that reflect on the effect that an independent variable has upon a dependent variable, a correlation looks for a relationship between two variables.
- This means that the experiment can predict cause and effect (causation), but a correlation can only predict a relationship.
5. What is the difference between Descriptive and Inferential Statistics?
Ans:
- Descriptive statistics organize and summarize data. The raw, unorganised data is placed into a frequency table and is further depicted in terms of relative frequencies and percentages. This data can further be depicted graphically as a bar diagram, frequency polygon, pie chart, etc.
- Inferential statistics draw a conclusion about conditions that exist in a population from the study of a sample, wherein the population is defined as a complete set of observations about which the researcher wants to conclude, whereas a sample is a small set of the population that the researcher studies.
6. Explain the role of statistics in psychological research.
Ans: Statistics play a very important role in psychological research because:
- 1. Data and information can be presented briefly and precisely.
- 2. Results obtained are more accurate and objective.
- 3. Analysis of data is made more scientific.
- 4. General conclusions can be arrived at.
- 5. Making a comparative analysis is possible.
- 6. Relationships between two or more variables can be objectively investigated.
- 7. Predictions about behaviour can be made.
7. Discuss the different types of correlations.
Ans: Different types of correlations
- Positive correlation is a relationship between two variables in which both variables either increase or decrease at the same time. For example, the relationship between two variables: height and weight. As height increases, weight also increases.
- Negative correlation is a relationship between two variables in which an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other. For example, an increase in practice and a decrease in errors. With an increase in practice, errors tend to decrease.
- Zero correlation/no correlation exists when there is no relationship between two variables. For example, there is no relationship between the color of the eye and intelligence.
8. What are the different types of experiments used in experimental design?
Ans: Different types of experiments used in Experimental Design are
- Laboratory experiment: In a laboratory experiment, researchers can manipulate the independent variable and have the liberty to assign people randomly to different groups and control extraneous variables.
- Quasi-experiments: Many times in the experimental method discussed above, manipulating the IV and random assignment of subjects to both the control and experimental groups is not possible in the truest sense.
- Field experiments: These experiments are conducted in a natural setting, and the participants may/may not be aware they are being studied. Since the study is conducted in the field, controlling extraneous variables becomes difficult.
9. Explain the different steps involved in experimenting.
Ans: The different steps involved in experimenting.
- i. Forming a Hypothesis: Based on previous knowledge and research, the experimenter (E) forms a hypothesis. In the present case, the teacher states a possible tentative answer to the problem. She/he may hypothesize that the discussion method leads to better retention. To verify the hypothesis, she will undertake an experiment.
- ii. Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables: In the present example, the independent variable would be the method of instruction (Discussion method) that the researcher would be manipulating. The dependent variable would be retention of information. While studying the effect of IV on DV, the relationship is often influenced by several factors present in the environment. Such extraneous variables need to be controlled by the researcher.
- iii. Sampling of Participants: The next step is to decide the population for the study and the method of sampling.
- iv. Planning (designing) the Experiment: The experimenter will select a group of students, divide them into two groups, and expose them to the same learning material. However, one group continues to be instructed using traditional methods of teaching. This group is called a ‘control group’ (absence of IV). While the other group, called the “experimental group” (presence of IV), would be exposed to discussion methods. Retention of information for both groups will then be compared.
- v. Verifying the Hypothesis: If the experimenter finds a significant difference in the amount of learning material retained by the two groups, she/he may infer that the discussion method is better for retention.
10. In an experimental research design, what are the different types of variables?
Ans: beings. In an experimental research design, the two types of variables of interest are:
- The independent variable (IV) is a variable that is manipulated by the experimenter.
- The dependent variable (DV) is one on which the effect of manipulation of independent variables is measured. In experimental research, independent and dependent variables share cause-and-effect relationships.
- Other than independent and dependent variables, there are extraneous variables (EVs) that are defined as all those variables that are not the independent variable, but could affect the results (DV) of the experiment.
- Confounding variables are those that have affected the results (DV), apart from the IV. A confounding variable could be an extraneous variable that could not be controlled.
Additional Study Materials
- NIOS Class 12 Psychology Syllabus Bifurcation
- NIOS Class 12 Sample Question Paper
- Understanding Psychology Textbook Solutions
- Bases of Human Behaviour Textbook Solutions
