Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
EXERCISES AND CRITICAL THINKING
- There is a negative correlation between the row that a student sits in in a large class (when the rows are numbered
from front to back) and his or her final grade in the class. Do you think this represents a causal relationship or a
spurious relationship, and why? - Think of two variables (other than those mentioned in this book) that are likely to be correlated, but in which the
correlation is probably spurious. What is the likely common-causal variable that is producing the relationship? - Imagine a researcher wants to test the hypothesis that participating in psychotherapy will cause a decrease in
reported anxiety. Describe the type of research design the investigator might use to draw this conclusion. What would
be the independent and dependent variables in the research?
[1] Freud, S. (1964). Analysis of phobia in a five-year-old boy. In E. A. Southwell & M. Merbaum (Eds.), Personality: Readings in
theory and research (pp. 3–32). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. (Original work published 1909)
[2] Kotowicz, Z. (2007). The strange case of Phineas Gage. History of the Human Sciences, 20(1), 115–131.
[3] Damasio, H., Grabowski, T., Frank, R., Galaburda, A. M., Damasio, A. R., Cacioppo, J. T., & Berntson, G. G. (2005). The return
of Phineas Gage: Clues about the brain from the skull of a famous patient. In Social neuroscience: Key readings. (pp. 21–28).
New York, NY: Psychology Press.
[4] Rokeach, M. (1964). The three Christs of Ypsilanti: A psychological study. New York, NY: Knopf.
[5] Ainsworth, M. S., Blehar, M. C., Waters, E., & Wall, S. (1978). Patterns of attachment: A psychological study of the strange
situation. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[6] Aiken, L., & West, S. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
[7] Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in
life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(4), 772–790.
2.3 You Can Be an Informed Consumer of Psychological Research
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Outline the four potential threats to the validity of research and discuss how they may make it difficult to accurately
interpret research findings. - Describe how confounding may reduce the internal validity of an experiment.