Association for Psychological Science
Visit the “News” page one of the website of the Association for Psychological Science and identify two reports that describe a correlational study. The first part of this task is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes, the research methods used in the study are not immediately apparent. You may have to do some digging to determine if the study used a correlational design. A few hints that might help are: type “correlation” into the Search box at the top of the page; if an article has an independent and dependent variable it is an experiment, not a correlational study; look for the words correlation or association in the article title. For further clarification, review your understanding of the differences between correlations and experiments here:
Correlational Designs at https://nobaproject.com/modules/research-designs#content
The Superiority of Experiments over Correlations at https://www.coursera.org/lecture/mindware/the-superiority-of-experiments-over-correlations-YYwfh
In each case, click on the link to the full news story (this will take you to a different website) and carefully read the story. At the bottom of the page, you will find the reference to the original study. You can then apply your knowledge of database searching through the TRU library (e.g., Psyc ARTICLE, Google Scholar, etc) to find the original article. You will note that we are giving you the opportunity to read about the same piece of research in two sources: first, the non-scholarly write-up written for the press on the APS website, and then the original scholarly article which contains all of the details. Use these two sources to respond to the following five questions for each study:
First, provide the references for BOTH the news story on the website of the Association for Psychological Science and then the scholarly source for the original article found on Psyc ARTICLES, Google Scholar, etc. Please give website addresses as well. Next, clearly describe one correlational result reported in the study. Your description should include the variables involved as well as the direction and strength of the correlation. The scholarly article will report the actual correlation value—this is very useful because it will help you visualize what the scatter plot will look like in the next question.
Draw and clearly label a scatter plot that illustrates this correlation using 10 data points. Use the Interpreting Correlations interactive visualization to guide your drawing—you can plug in the correlation value reported in the article to see what the scatter plot should look like. Important here is the angle of the line connecting the dots in your scatter plot—most psychology studies do NOT report perfect correlations! The main aim is to demonstrate that you understand and can apply a correlation to a plot.
If there are no data points, but there is a correlation given in the news article or study, use the correlation value itself to create your own data points. If the article does not even give the correlation itself, it should at least describe the correlation. Then you can create a correlation from that description that fits with the conclusions of the study. That is, you might need to create your own correlation value and data points from your own imagination to reflect the information or findings from the news article. The main aim is to demonstrate that you understand and can apply a correlation to a plot.
In your own words, speculate about the three possible avenues of cause and effect outlined above. Which of these seems most plausible and why?
How do the researchers interpret this correlation? Do they explain the correlation in a particular causal direction?
Describe how you might be able to address the same question using a different non-experimental research design. Your proposed study should use the same variables but should operationalize them differently—for example, if the present study operationalized “exercise” a******** amount ********me spent running each week, there are infinite other ways to operationalize exercise, such time spent in a physically active job, number of times going to the gym per week, time spent walking each day, and so on.
Remember to answer all these questions also for the second study report that you have chosen.