Research in Psychology – UGC NET – Psychology – Solved PYQs

Topics Included: Research: Meaning, Purpose, and Dimensions. Research problems, Vartables and Operational Definitions, Hypothesis, Sampling. Ethics in conducting and reporting research

Paradigms of research: Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed methods approach Methods of research: Observation, Survey [Interview, Questionnaires), Experimental, Quasi-experimental, Field studies, Cross-Cultural Studies, Phenomenology, Grounded theory, Focus groups, Narratives, Case studies, Ethnography

Directions (Q. Nos, 1-5) Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

The research process usually begins with the identification and formulation of research problem. Once, the problem is identified, the appropriate hypotheses are developed.

The hypotheses are tentative solutions to the problem and represent the conjectural statements of relationship among two or more variables. The hypotheses could be classified in various ways, such as directional vs non-directional, correlational vs causal etc. Edwards classified the variables in psychological research as stimulus variables, organismic variables and behavioural variables. The variables are classified as the continuous variables and discrete variables, the latter having two subtypes-the real discrete variables and artificially discrete variables. The variables in research need to be properly operationalized. Robinson classified the psychological studies in four categories: Laboratory experiments, Field experiments, Ex-post facto field studies and Ex-post facto analysis of experiment (slightly modified). The fourth category, on its own, is accorded less respect but is essential for the advancement of Science.

1. Which of the following hypothesis are non-directional hypotheses? [DEC 2014]

I. Males and females differ on anxiety.
II. Intelligence and academic achievement are negatively related.
III. Anxiety disrupts academic performance of the students.
IV. Stress and work output are related.

Codes:

(1) Only II
(2) I and III
(3) III and IV
(4) I and IV

2. Which one of the following is an example of Artificially discrete organismic variable? [DEC 2014]

(1) Examination result as pass or fail
(2) Nationality
(3) Classification of students as low, average and high intelligent
(4) Gender

3. Which one of the following cannot be employed as the dependent variable in a psychological experiment? [DEC 2014]

I. Heart rate
II. Learning rate
III. Reaction time
IV. Age

Codes:

(1) Only IV
(2) I and II
(3) III and IV
(4) I, II and IV

4. Arrange the following three types of investigation in ascending order in terms of the researcher’s ability (usually) to control secondary variance. [DEC 2014]

I. Laboratory experiments
II. Field experiments
III. Ex-post facto field studies

Codes:

(1) III, I, II
(2) I, II, III
(3) III, II, I
(4) II, III, I

5. After the catastrophic earthquake, the researcher interviewed a group of subjects to understand whether the earthquake has changed their attitude towards fate. This can best be labelled as an example of [DEC 2014]

(1) Ex-post facto field study
(2) Field experiment
(3) Attitude change experiment
(4) Ethological study

Directions (Q. Nos. 6-10) Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follows:

An anxiety researcher, working in the interaction model of Anxiety, wanted to factor analyse anxiety-producing situations.

He had a hunch that anxiety-producing situations would broadly belong to two categories inter personal evaluative and physically threatening. His tool, assessing situation-specific anxiety had 14 situations. For each situation, the subject was required to indicate on 11 five-point rating scales as to how he or she would respond in that situation. Thus, for each situation scale, the minimum score would be 11 and the maximum score would be 55. The correlation matrix among the 14 situation scales was formed.

Two factor analyses were carried out on this correlation matrix. In the first factor analysis, unities were retained in the diagonal spaces of the correlation matrix and the un-rotated factors were extracted. Using Cattell’s scree plot, three factors were retained for rotation. The rotated factors had small or moderate inter-factor correlations. In the second factor analysis, appropriate communality estimates were inserted in the diagonal spaces of the correlation matrix and the three factors were rotated using the same rotation method, used in the same factor analysis.

6. Cattell’s scree plot is a [DEC 2014]

(1) plot of the order of Eigen values on X-axis and the actual Eigen values of the reduced correlation matrix on Y-axis
(2) plot of the order of Eigen values on X-axis and the actual Eigen values of the unreduced correlation matrix on Y-axis
(3) plot displaying variables using the first two factor as axis
(4) plot of the order of the factors on X-axis and the factor loading on Y-axis

7. In the first factor analysis, while factor analysing the 14 x 14 correlation matrix, which one of the following four factor extraction method, has probably been used? [DEC 2014]

(1) Maximum likelihood method
(2) Principal axes method
(3) Principal components method
(4) Confirmatory factor analysis method

8. Out of the following four factor rotation methods, which method/s can yield the above results? [DEC 2014]

I. Oblimin rotation
II. Varimax rotation
III. Promax rotation
IV. Quartimax rotation

Codes:

(1) Only I
(2) I and II
(3) I and III
(4) III and IV

9. Which one of the following statements is true? [DEC 2014]

(1) The first factor analysis used component model; the second factor analysis used common factor model
(2) The first factor analysis used common factor model; the second factor analysis used principal component model
(3) Both, the first and second factor analyses used component model
(4) Both, the first and second factor analyses used common factor model

10. Which one of the following statements is true? [DEC 2014]

(1) The second factor solution would explain more percent of variance
(2) The second factor solution would explain less percent of variance
(3) Both factor solutions would explain same percent of variance
(4) Such prediction is not possible