tricky thing to measure, and the professor would have to make sure that no one was
making any risky choices with this independence. Finally, Professor Kester would
have to make certain that the results of the study are only published in real
psychological journals that are reviewed and edited by other psychologists, and not
just in popular magazines or newspapers.
If Professor Kester overcomes all these obstacles, she might figure out some
interesting results through this study. During the study, I believe that the
professor will figure out that kids who grow up with permissive parents will
actually be less independent than other kids. Permissive parents don’t teach their
kids anything about rules, and this might make it harder for kids to have rules
later on in life.
Sample Student Response Essay 2 Scoring Explanation
POINTS 1 AND 2
The student’s essay doesn’t score either point 1 or point 2. The student correctly identifies parenting
styles as one of the key variables, but the student’s operational definition of parenting style is not specific
(it is basically a restatement of the hypothesis). The student misidentifies age as one of the key variables
in the hypothesis. Age is a variable involved in the study, but the other key variable in this hypothesis is
independence.
POINT 3
The student scores this point at “the cross-sectional method: this is when you take a cross-section of
people, in this case people of different ages, and you test them all at once.” The student clearly
establishes that this study would use people of different ages, testing them all at once and comparing
groups of different ages.
POINT 4
The student scores this point at “find one group of people as kids, then figure out which ones were
growing up with permissive parents and which weren’t. Then the professor would have to wait until the
kids grew up a little, then test their independence again.” This indicates that the professor is following
one group of participants over a number of years.
POINTS 5, 6, AND 7
The student scores 2 of these 3 points. Point 5 scores at “get the partipants’ permission to even be
involved in the study in the first place” (informed consent). Point 6 scores at “make sure that no one was
going to be hurt because of the study.” (risk). The student does not score point 7 because the last ethical
consideration the student discusses (where the study results are published) is not one of the five ethical
requirements for research involving human participants.
POINT 8
The student scores this point at: “kids who grow up with permissive parents will actually be less
independent than other kids.” This prediction matches the research on parenting styles: children who grow
up in households with authoritative parents are more independent than either permissive households or
authoritarian households.