Read the following scenarios and evaluate the situations.

Consider methodology and

ethics.

Scenario 1

Researchers interested in the effects of unemployment on alcohol abuse mailed

questionnaires to the homes of workers recently laid off from a gold mine. It was August,
less than one month before Labour Day, and each participant was sent 11 questionnaires,
one each month for 10 consecutive months and one looking back at the time before being
laid off.

Participants were asked to anonymously fill out the questionnaires and return them
each month. The questionnaires contained items pertaining to the amount of alcohol
consumed daily. Half of the unemployed miners completed and returned all 10
questionnaires. For those individuals who returned all questionnaires, there was a positive
correlation between alcohol consumption and length of unemployment, r=-.87

That is, more alcohol was consumed as the period of unemployment progressed. In
their report, the researchers stated that "the conditions of unemployment produce a
tendency for people to increase their alcoholic intake."

Do you accept the researcher's conclusions? Why or why not?

Scenario 2

A newspaper headline reads, “Heavy Drinkers Get Lower College Grades.”

What would you conclude from this headline? What type of study would this be based on
and why?
Read the following scenarios and evaluate the situations. Consider methodology and
ethics.

Scenario 3

A counseling psychologist was interested in testing her hypothesis that physical exercise
lessens depression. She was currently treating 39 people suffering from chronic depression,
36 of whom consented to participate in her study. She then assigned 12 people to each of
three conditions. People in condition I were asked to exercise outdoors at least three times
per week, people in condition II at least five times per week, and people in condition III
were not asked to exercise but were asked to spend some time outdoors at least three
times a week. At the end of the twelve weeks, each person was reassessed for depression.
People in each of the conditions were now less depressed than at the outset of the
experiment, and, in addition, people in conditions I and II were significantly less depressed
than people in condition III. Level of depression was equal in conditions I and II. The
researcher concluded that exercise helps ease depression and that three times a week was
enough to benefit.

Before you evaluate the validity of these conclusions, what other details should you know
about this study?

Scenario 4

A school psychologist wondered whether students would perform better on tests when
listening to music. Without asking students or their parents if they wanted to be involved,
the researcher arranged for students to listen to music in the morning on the first day of
exams. Thus, all History 12 students listened to music in the morning while they wrote their
history test while all Pre-Calculus 12 students wrote their math test in the afternoon in a
quiet room. Notably, three History 12 students complained about the music and asked if they
could complete their test somewhere quieter but they were told they had to stay in the
classroom. The average score on the math test was 79% and was significantly greater than
the average of 68% on the history test. The psychologist concluded that music does not help
exam performance, but, in fact, hinders it.

Why would you not trust the conclusions? What other issues do you see in the study?
 Read the following scenarios and evaluate the situations. Consider methodology and
ethics.

Scenario 1 - The researcher's conclusions are flawed for several reasons:

 They are treating a correlational study as though it were an experiment, wrongly inferring
that unemployment caused the change in alcohol consumption.\
 time of year is confounded with length of unemployment. Some people drink more some
months (such as the winter months) than others. Perhaps the change in alcohol
consumption was associated with time of year, rather than length of unemployment.
 only 50% of the people completed the study. It is not clear whether they were representative
of the population of laid off workers and it’s unclear the total number of participants
 it is not clear whether subject's self-reports were accurate and honest
Scenario 2- You would need to know
This study was most likely correlational because an experiment would not be ethical. (In order to
do an experiment, the researcher would have to control the students' drinking, forcing some students
to drink heavily and then observing the effects of the drinking on their grades.) All we can conclude is
that heavy drinking is associated with lower grades because other plausible interpretations have not
been ruled out. (Perhaps students drink more because they make lower grades. Or perhaps drinking and
grades appear related only because they are both related to the degree of student commitment to
being in school.)

Scenario 3 - You would need to know

 whether people were randomly assigned to conditions, such that the three groups were
roughly equivalent at the outset of the study
 whether a double-blind procedure was used to prevent exp. bias and demand characteristics
 whether the people's compliance to treatment was monitored and whether, in addition to
the exercise, they were also receiving other treatment or self-medicating
 whether the psychologist continued to treat the people. Psychologists must be cautious of
becoming involved in multiple relationships with the same people. If a psychologist is seeing
someone as a client, then, according to ethical guidelines, the psychologist should not see
the person for other purposes to avoid conflict of interest.
 clear operational definitions of the exercise (duration/intensity/setting) and depression

Scenario 4 – The conclusions are flawed because

 the music/no music variable is confounded with both subject matter and time of day. Either
of these two variables may have caused the results. Also, there could be inherent
differences between students who take history and those who take pre-calculus
 to control for confounding in the natural setting, the psychologist should have used
counterbalancing so that in the morning ¼ of the students write the history exam with
Read the following scenarios and evaluate the situations. Consider methodology and
ethics.

music and ¼ write the exam without music and in the afternoon ¼ of the students write
the History exam with music and ¼ write the exam without music. The same is then done
for pre-calculus. As well, the psychologist would have to control for the type of exam and
skill of students.
 These are not randomly sampled or randomly assigned students, nor is it the same group of
individuals
 the psychologist needs to specify a clear operational definition of music (type, volume, etc.)
 The psychologist did not respect ethical guidelines of informed consent and right to
withdrawal
 Small group of students presumably but no concrete numbers were given