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

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5 From a Slate.com article entitled "Psych-Out Sexism: The Innocent, Unconscious Bias That Discourages Girls from Math and Science," published on March 1, 2011. Stout, Dasgupta, and their colleagues wanted to find out why women's outstanding performance on science and math tests in high school and college correlates so weakly with their eventual interest in pursuing careers in those fields. In high school and college, girls increasingly earn math and science grades equal to or better than the grades of their male peers. But when it comes to choosing a career in math or science, more men than women decide to walk through those open doors. The psychologists asked female students studying biology, chemistry, and engineering to take a very tough math test. All the students were greeted by a senior math major who wore a T-shirt displaying Einstein's E =? mc2 equation. For some volunteers, the math major was male. For others, the math major was female. This tiny tweak made a difference: Women attempted more questions on the tough math test (comprising 10 questions) when they were greeted by a female math major rather than a male math major. -Refer to Research Study 3.5 above to answer the following question. Explain the difference between a variable and a constant.Give an example of each in the above 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. -Refer to Research Study 3.4 above to answer the following question. Which of the following makes Dr.Kang's study an experiment?

To evaluate how well a study supports a frequency claim,you need to focus on evaluating which of the following validities?

Name the three criteria/rules necessary for making a causal claim.Describe why each is important.

Name the three types of claims.Explain the difference between claims.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.6 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!" -Refer to Research Study 3.6 above to answer the following question. What type of claim is the author making? Name two reasons you think the author is making this type of claim.

RESEARCH STUDY 3.5 From a Slate.com article entitled "Psych-Out Sexism: The Innocent, Unconscious Bias That Discourages Girls from Math and Science," published on March 1, 2011. Stout, Dasgupta, and their colleagues wanted to find out why women's outstanding performance on science and math tests in high school and college correlates so weakly with their eventual interest in pursuing careers in those fields. In high school and college, girls increasingly earn math and science grades equal to or better than the grades of their male peers. But when it comes to choosing a career in math or science, more men than women decide to walk through those open doors. The psychologists asked female students studying biology, chemistry, and engineering to take a very tough math test. All the students were greeted by a senior math major who wore a T-shirt displaying Einstein's E =? mc2 equation. For some volunteers, the math major was male. For others, the math major was female. This tiny tweak made a difference: Women attempted more questions on the tough math test (comprising 10 questions) when they were greeted by a female math major rather than a male math major. -Refer to Research Study 3.5 above to answer the following question. What is the difference between a manipulated and a measured variable? In the study described above,indicate which variables are manipulated and which variables are measured.

Why do we normally consider statistical validity when interrogating association claims but not when interrogating frequency claims?

For the following three terms,create a measured operational definition for each: academic success,attention,and social anxiety.

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