Exam 3: Three Claims, Four Validities: Interrogation Tools for Consumers of Research

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups.Their results showed that White women can be threatened by racism, and men of color threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. The results of this study can be generalized to which of the following groups?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.6: From a Time.com article entitled "Why Men Shouldn't Listen to Rock Music While Playing Board Games," published on December 13, 2016. Researchers Fancourt, Burton, and Williamon wanted to find out whether different types of music would impact participants' performance on a mock-surgery game, "Operation." Many real-life surgeons listen to music while operating, so the authors were interested in whether this may actually help performance, and whether that differed by sex of the participant. The psychologists asked male and female participants to play the mock-surgery game, "Operation," in which they needed to remove three different organs from a "patient" using tweezers.The experimenters played either rock music, classical music, or operating-room sounds.They found that the type of music made a difference on the performance of male participants, who were slower to complete the task (in seconds) while listening to rock music compared with classical music.The performance of female participants did not differ based on the type of music they listened to. What is the difference between a manipulated and a measured variable? Indicate which variables are manipulated and which variables are measured in this study.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr.Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory.He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university.He puts the names of all the participants in a hat.The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B.Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder).Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk).He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university.He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Dr.Kang's decision to assign participants randomly to Group A and Group B increases which of the following?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr.Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr.LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which type of claim is Dr.Ramon making?

When researchers conduct an experiment comparing two different treatment conditions, they are likely to be more concerned with validity than validity.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class.In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem.Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced.I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish also is curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem.Could you predict one from the other?" Manish's concern is addressing which of the following?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.7: You read an article stating that Facebook is related to unhappiness.In the study, a group of high school students were asked how many times a day they checked their Facebook pages and how happy they were.In discussing this article with your friend Matt, he exclaims, "I knew it! I have always said that being on Facebook is the cause of all my unhappiness!" Explain how one could convert this study into an experiment.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups.Their results showed that White women can be threatened by racism, and men of color threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. Which of the following questions assesses the construct validity of this study?

Which of the following indicates that an article's claims are based on research?

Which of the following is true of operational definitions?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.1: Anderson is reading his morning paper and sees the following headline: "Men Should Avoid Rock Music When Playing Board Games." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Fancourt, Burton, & Williamon, 2016.) In the study, men and women played the game "Operation" when listening to different types of music.Male participants performed worse when listening to AC/DC than when listening to Mozart, but female participants' performance did not differ based on music. In this study, the researchers recorded how many errors participants committed.This is an example of which of the following?

Who is responsible for deciding which validity is prioritized in a study?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.3: Anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class.In the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem.Clarissa questions the study, saying, "I am not sure that I am convinced.I am not sure you can really measure being bullied." Quinn also questions the study, saying, "Which middle school students did they study? I am curious if they included both private and public school students." Manish also is curious about the study, asking, "I wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem.Could you predict one from the other?" Clarissa's concern is addressing which of the following?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.2: Dr.Ramon makes the following claim: "Watching television leads people to spend less time communicating with their spouses, study says." Dr.LaSalle makes the claim: "Research shows that making more money correlates with spending less time talking with your spouse." Which of the following statements is true of Dr.Ramon's and Dr.LaSalle's claims?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5: Jenny reads the following headline on an online article: "If You're Sexist, People Will Think You're Racist, and Vice Versa." (This headline is based on a study conducted by Sanchez and colleagues, 2017.) This study found that members of stigmatized groups are threatened by prejudice directed at other stigmatized groups.Their results showed that White women can be threatened by racism, and men of color threatened by sexism, and that these perceptions made participants expect unfair treatment. In this study, is a conceptual definition of one of their primary variables.

Dr.Hoda measures job satisfaction and number of years of education.In examining her scatterplot, she sees the cloud of points has no slope.This indicates which type of relationship?

RESEARCH STUDY 3.6: From a Time.com article entitled "Why Men Shouldn't Listen to Rock Music While Playing Board Games," published on December 13, 2016. Researchers Fancourt, Burton, and Williamon wanted to find out whether different types of music would impact participants' performance on a mock-surgery game, "Operation." Many real-life surgeons listen to music while operating, so the authors were interested in whether this may actually help performance, and whether that differed by sex of the participant. The psychologists asked male and female participants to play the mock-surgery game, "Operation," in which they needed to remove three different organs from a "patient" using tweezers.The experimenters played either rock music, classical music, or operating-room sounds.They found that the type of music made a difference on the performance of male participants, who were slower to complete the task (in seconds) while listening to rock music compared with classical music.The performance of female participants did not differ based on the type of music they listened to. Name the variables in this study and indicate the levels of each.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.4: Dr.Kang, a cognitive psychologist, conducts an experiment examining the effect of emotion on memory.He provides lists of 15 words to two groups of participants at his university.He puts the names of all the participants in a hat.The first 20 names he assigns to Group A and the last 20 he assigns to Group B.Group A is given a list of words that are very emotional in content (e.g., passion, murder).Group B is given a list of words that are neutral in content (e.g., houseplant, desk).He then measures how many words each group is able to remember after being distracted for 5 minutes by watching a video about the history of the university.He finds that Group A remembers 15% more words than Group B. Which of the following is the independent variable in Dr.Kang's study?

Name the four validities used to interrogate claims.If you were to question a study's four validities, provide a question you might ask related to each validity.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.7: You read an article stating that Facebook is related to unhappiness.In the study, a group of high school students were asked how many times a day they checked their Facebook pages and how happy they were.In discussing this article with your friend Matt, he exclaims, "I knew it! I have always said that being on Facebook is the cause of all my unhappiness!" What type of claim is the author making in the article referenced to in this study? Name two reasons you think the author is making this type of claim.