Instructions Now that you have read the chapter, let's consider the theories and findings more closely. Read each of the questions below and type your response into the corresponding text box. After you submit your response you will be shown model feedback. You will receive full credit on submission, but your grade may change once your instructor reviews your response. Be sure to check the grade book for your final grade.
Question 1.
Question 2.
Confirmation biases can lead us to disregard evidence that might disagree with our intuitions. The scientific method, when applied properly, can provide a more objective way to collect and analyze data. Can you think of a time when you learned the results of a scientific study that disconfirmed what you had assumed to be true? Did you stick with your intuition, or change your beliefs in light of the scientific findings?
Students’ responses will vary based on their individual experiences of learning that science disconfirmed something they assumed to be true. Students may describe sticking with their original beliefs, thus ignoring the scientific evidence due to confirmation bias, or changing their beliefs.
Question 3.
How would you design an experiment to test the hypothesis that violent video content increases aggression? Be specific about your procedures, cover story, the independent variable, and the dependent variable. How would you try to reduce any confounds in your design and make sure that you chose variables that have construct validity?
Possible experiments vary, but it must be clear that students understand the elements of a study, such as identifying the independent variable as what is being manipulated (violent video content) and the dependent variables as what is being measured (aggression). How students operationally define these variables will vary, but it should be evident that this is an experiment that includes random assignment of participants to the various levels of the independent variable, and students propose a method for reducing confounds in the study. An example of a possible study would be to assign participants to one of two conditions—one that watches a nonviolent video (the control group) and one that watches the violent video (the experimental group). Aggression may be measured by how the individuals react when left in the room alone for a period of time after watching the video to wait for the experimenter to return to release them from the study. Their behaviors in the room could be observed and measured (e.g., number of times they pound on the locked door, etc.). Confounds that would need to be reduced include when the study occurs during the day, previous exposure to violent video games, age, and so on. These could be standardized or assessed to reduce their impact on the study.
Question 4.
Social psychologists are increasingly trying to test hypotheses with participants who are not university students living in the Western world. Why is this important? If you could examine a question of everyday human behavior, where would you most want to study it and why? What two places would make for an interesting comparison?
It is important to study populations outside of university students living in the Western world to increase the generalizability of results or the external validity of the study’s findings. In addition, this would help us learn more about how culture and society impact our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which helps us better understand our similarities and differences. Students’ suggestions for questions they would like to examine will vary, but should include the question itself, where they would like to study the question and why, as well as two places they would use for comparisons.