PSY 240 LATEST EXAM 2026/2027 QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔External Validity in Experiments - ✔✔The extent to which the results of a study can
be generalized to other situations and other people
(AKA generalizability)
Validity types we've covered:
INternal = control what's IN the study (basically making sure the outcome is only due to
the independent variable, credibility thing)
EXternal = can the findings EXit the study?
✔✔Internal vs. External Validity - ✔✔•"The basic dilemma of the social psychologist"
• Difficult to do one experiment that is both high in internal validity
and generalizable to other situations and people
•So, what to do?
• Start with internal validity; do separate studies that build on one another
• Basic → Applied
Internal validity aims to keep studyenvironments controlled & externalvalidity aims to
make resultsgeneralizable
✔✔Basic research - ✔✔designed to answer basic questions about why people do what
they do
✔✔Applied research - ✔✔designed to find ways to solve specific social problems
✔✔Basic ---> Applied Example - ✔✔Reframing emotions is more adaptive than bottling
them up
-----> Test anxiety interventions, stress management workshops
✔✔Ethical Dilemma - ✔✔Create experiments that resemble the real world and are well
controlled
vs.
Avoid causing participants stress, discomfort, or unpleasantness
, ✔✔Demand characteristics - ✔✔clues or signals in an experimental setting that hint to
participants about the experimenter's expectations, leading them to behave in a certain
way to match these expectations, potentially biasing the results
i.e. Standford Prison Experiment (guards thought they were doing what the researchers
wanted them to do)
✔✔Guidelines for Ethical Research - ✔✔• Institutional Review Board (IRB):
• Protects the safety and dignity of participants
• Includes at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one
person who is not affiliated with the institution
• Must review and approve all research before conducted
• Procedures judged to be overly stressful or upsetting to humans must be changed or
deleted
✔✔Deception - ✔✔Misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the
events that will actually transpire
✔✔Confederate - ✔✔a member of the study team who takes direct part in deception
✔✔Debriefing - ✔✔Explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true
purpose of the study and exactly what transpired
✔✔Two Types of Social Cognition - ✔✔Automatic thinking:
• Quick assumptions
• No conscious deliberation
Controlled thinking:
- Slow, deliberate
✔✔Automatic Thinking - ✔✔•Refers to thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional,
involuntary, and effortless
•Helps people size up a new situation quickly and accurately
• Example: Telling the difference between a classroom and a frat party without thinking
about it
•Relates new situations to past experiences
SOLUTIONS RATED A+
✔✔External Validity in Experiments - ✔✔The extent to which the results of a study can
be generalized to other situations and other people
(AKA generalizability)
Validity types we've covered:
INternal = control what's IN the study (basically making sure the outcome is only due to
the independent variable, credibility thing)
EXternal = can the findings EXit the study?
✔✔Internal vs. External Validity - ✔✔•"The basic dilemma of the social psychologist"
• Difficult to do one experiment that is both high in internal validity
and generalizable to other situations and people
•So, what to do?
• Start with internal validity; do separate studies that build on one another
• Basic → Applied
Internal validity aims to keep studyenvironments controlled & externalvalidity aims to
make resultsgeneralizable
✔✔Basic research - ✔✔designed to answer basic questions about why people do what
they do
✔✔Applied research - ✔✔designed to find ways to solve specific social problems
✔✔Basic ---> Applied Example - ✔✔Reframing emotions is more adaptive than bottling
them up
-----> Test anxiety interventions, stress management workshops
✔✔Ethical Dilemma - ✔✔Create experiments that resemble the real world and are well
controlled
vs.
Avoid causing participants stress, discomfort, or unpleasantness
, ✔✔Demand characteristics - ✔✔clues or signals in an experimental setting that hint to
participants about the experimenter's expectations, leading them to behave in a certain
way to match these expectations, potentially biasing the results
i.e. Standford Prison Experiment (guards thought they were doing what the researchers
wanted them to do)
✔✔Guidelines for Ethical Research - ✔✔• Institutional Review Board (IRB):
• Protects the safety and dignity of participants
• Includes at least one scientist, one nonscientist, and one
person who is not affiliated with the institution
• Must review and approve all research before conducted
• Procedures judged to be overly stressful or upsetting to humans must be changed or
deleted
✔✔Deception - ✔✔Misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the
events that will actually transpire
✔✔Confederate - ✔✔a member of the study team who takes direct part in deception
✔✔Debriefing - ✔✔Explaining to participants, at the end of an experiment, the true
purpose of the study and exactly what transpired
✔✔Two Types of Social Cognition - ✔✔Automatic thinking:
• Quick assumptions
• No conscious deliberation
Controlled thinking:
- Slow, deliberate
✔✔Automatic Thinking - ✔✔•Refers to thinking that is nonconscious, unintentional,
involuntary, and effortless
•Helps people size up a new situation quickly and accurately
• Example: Telling the difference between a classroom and a frat party without thinking
about it
•Relates new situations to past experiences
