Introduction
The following provides you with the opportunity to practice your knowledge by working through research examples in a structured way. It may also provide some ideas for studies you may want to pursue on your own or for class projects.
For each topic, questions put you in the role of the researcher who designs, evaluates, and replicates a specific study. To get the most out of these passages, you should not merely read along passively. Instead, you should actively and thoughtfully participate as if you really are the researcher conducting the study.
The first four topics are examined in depth, focusing on a specific study and the additional studies that developed from it. Then, five other research topics are briefly reviewed that suggest various designs. Every research design contains flaws, so for each study discussed there are other approaches a researcher might take.
The numerous details in evaluating and designing studies that were discussed throughout the text boil down to the following key questions:
1. Purpose of study? Is it to test a causal hypothesis, to demonstrate a correlation, or to describe participants or a behavior?
2. Type of behavior studied? Does it involve a subject characteristic, a response to concrete stimuli, or a response to a social interaction?
3. Type of design? Is the study a true experiment or a quasi-experiment? Does it involve a single-subject, correlational, or observational design? Should it be conducted in the field or laboratory?
4. Type of participants and sampling? Will you generalize to a specific population? What selection criteria are needed? How will you sample the population? Will participants be representative?
5. Control of subject variables? What confounding subject variables are present? Should you counterbalance with a between-subjects design or use a within-subjects design?
6. How to manipulate variables? Should you vary instructions or stimuli? Should you employ confederates? Do you have a strong, consistent, and valid manipulation? Do you need a manipulation check? Are there confounding variables present?
7. How to measure variables? Will you examine overt behaviors or self-reports? Will participants be tested individually? Are the scoring criteria sensitive? Are you reliably and validly scoring participants' typical behavior?
8. Procedural problems? Is there experimental realism? Are there order effects, demand characteristics, or other biases present? Should you conduct a pilot study?
9. Materials needed? What materials and apparatus do you need for consistent and comparable stimuli and for reliable measurements?
10. Ethical problems? Are we harming participants or violating their rights? Is deception justified? Have you obtained informed consent and provided a debriefing?
11. Statistical analysis? What is your N (and ns)? Have you maximized power and minimized error variance? Do your scores fit a parametric or nonparametric procedure? Have you employed a between-subjects or a within-subjects design?
12. Validity of conclusions? Do the results clearly confirm
your hypothesis? Are there alternative hypotheses that reduce your
internal validity? Do you have external, construct, ecological, and
temporal validity?