Discussion Questions
- What do you think about the tradeoff between unambiguously establishing cause and effect (internal validity) and ensuring that research findings apply to people’s everyday lives (external validity)? Which one of these would you prioritize as a researcher? Why?
- What challenges do you see that daily-life researchers may face in their studies? How can they be overcome?
- What ethical issues can come up in daily-life studies? How can (or should) they be addressed?
- How do you think smartphones and other mobile electronic devices will change psychological research? What are their promises for the field? And what are their pitfalls?
- Find a recent research article in your field and answer the following: What was the primary research question? How were individuals selected to participate in the study? Were summary results provided? How strong is the evidence presented in favor or against the research question? Was random assignment used? Summarize the main conclusions from the study, addressing the issues of statistical significance, statistical confidence, generalizability, and cause and effect. Do you agree with the conclusions drawn from this study, based on the study design and the results presented?
- Is it reasonable to use a random sample of 1,000 individuals to draw conclusions about all U.S. adults? Explain why or why not.
Mehl, M. R. (2018). Conducting psychology research in the real world. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. DOI:nobaproject.com
Chance, B. & Rossman, A. (2018). Statistical thinking. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. DOI:nobaproject.com
