Conclusion

This lesson has tried to give you a quick snapshot of applied social psychological research methods, however it is far from complete. Be sure to give your textbook chapters a thorough read, maybe even twice. While this will likely be the most dense, least fun aspect of the course, it is probably the most important for your intellectual development, as it will extend far beyond this course. Not only will it help you better evaluate social psychological research, it will help you evaluate claims that others make in the real world. We live in a world where we are bombarded with information, whether it's through the 24 hour news cycle, through social media, through YouTube, etc. There's a lot of noise out there, and in order to find the signal in that noise, you need to be able to evaluate claims. How did they get their evidence for their claims? What are the pros and cons to the research that they base their claims on? For example, you'll consistently hear news stories that take correlational research and imply causal statements from it. You should know better and you should immediately question those claims.

References

Heerwegh, D., & Loosveldt, G. (2008). Face-to-face versus web based surveying in a high-internet-coverage population: Differences in response quality. Public Opinion Quarterly, 72, 836-846.

Mar, R.A. (2004). The neuropsychology of narrative: story comprehension, story production and their interrelation. Neuropsychologia, 42, 1414-1434.