Viktoriya Kuz AP Psychology

September 17, 2013 Homework

A Rush to Judgment?
A Case of Research Ethics and Design
1) What kinds of problems are inherent in Jolene's research project?
First, she used only 22 students for the computerized test as her sample out of a population of
undergraduate students from the whole college. Also, 19 of the 22 students were males. Thirdly,
women taking the MRT test were calling out answers to each other. Another problem is that on the
paper test, there are 5 problems on a page, while on the computerized version, only one question at a
time.
2) How would these problems affect the research results?
The fact that most of the CA students were male caused bias and the results would be useless.
The other problem was that women were calling out answers to each other on the paper version would
make the true abilities of the people false. The amount of questions on the paper at a time can confuse
the people taking the paper version, because they see all 5 questions and may get more frustrated.
3) How would you solve these problems?
To ensure better results, there needs to be a much larger sample size of the population, for
example, 100-200 students, with half of them males and the other half females. The independent
variable, the type of test administered, needs to affect the dependent variable, the results of who
achieved higher scores, without bias or wrong judgment.
Since the results would be wrong because of the women cheating, everyone should be forced to
be quiet or placed in separate rooms for the exam.
Finally, there should be one question administered at a time, or all questions at once on both
versions of the test to make sure that everyone has the same advantage or disadvantage.
4) What should Stefanie do?
Stefanie should confront Jolene and ask her about the experiment, to see if something went
wrong and if Jolene knows about it. If Jolene tells her the truth, that there were many complications,
they should both turn to Dr. Lee for advice on how to make the experiment better. If Jolene does not
talk about the problems she ad, Stefanie should talk to Dr. Lee and tell him what she thinks went wrong.
5) What should the consequences of these actions be for Jolene? For Dr. Lee? For Stefanie?
Jolene might get embarrassed, but in the long run, she would fix get project in time for her
presentation in August and not be humiliated in front of the APA, which is a highly professional
organization. Dr. Lee might be disappointed in Jolene, one of his best students, but would definitely try
to help her and he also would not be humiliated in front of the APA, which respects him highly. Stefanie
would be praised for noticing the mistakes in the experiment, and Dr. Lee would definitely consider her
an intelligent individual and would give her even better jobs and honors in his workplace.