GENERALIZING RESULTS

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Discuss the issues created by generalizing research results to other populations, including potential problems using college students as research participants

Discuss issues to consider regarding generalization of research results to other cultures and ethnic groups

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Describe the potential problem of generalizing to other experimenters, and suggest possible solutions

Discuss the importance of replications, distinguishing between exact replications and conceptual replications

Distinguish between narrative literature reviews and meta-analysis

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Participants typically not selected from the general population College Students Volunteers Gender Considerations Locale

Generalization as a Statistical Interaction In Defense of College Students and Rats

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Until recently experiments conducted with college students in the U.S. were primarily white, which reflected college student population at the time

Today most samples of college students are ethnically diverse, matching the more modern diverse population in college

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Important to be aware of the ways in which the operational definitions of the constructs that we study are grounded in a particular cultural meaning

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The experimenter’s influence on subjects needs to be constant throughout the experiment Personality Gender Experience

A solution is to use two or more experimenters

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Should a Pretest Be Given? Helps assess mortality effects There may be an interaction between the IV and

the pretest variable

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Exact Replications An attempt to replicate precisely the procedures of

a study Ascertain whether the same results are obtained

with replication Conceptual Replications

The use of different procedures to replicate a research finding

The IV from previous study is manipulated in different ways

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Literature Review Provides Information that: Summarizes what has been found Tells the reader:

What findings are strongly supported What findings are weakly supported

Exposes inconsistent findings and areas lacking proper research

Discusses future directions for research

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Meta-analysis: method for determining the reliability of a finding by examining the results from many different studies

Researcher combines actual results

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Goal of psychology is to promote human welfare

Impact of psychological research Health Law and Criminal Justice Education Work Environments

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