METHODS IN BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH NINTH EDITION PAUL C. COZBY

CHAPTER 14 GENERALIZING RESULTS

LEARNING OBJECTIVES 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

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe the potential problem of generalizing to other experimenters, and suggest possible solutions Distinguish between mundane realism and experimental realism

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Discuss the importance of replications, distinguishing between exact replications and conceptual replications Distinguish between narrative literature reviews and meta-analysis

GENERALIZING TO OTHER POPULATIONS OF RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS College Students Volunteers Gender Considerations Locale Generalization as a Statistical Interaction In Defense of College Students and Rats

CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS Until recently experiments conducted with college students in the U.S. were primarily White and reflected college student population Today most samples of college students are ethnically diverse matching the more modern diverse population in college

CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS 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

GENERALIZING TO OTHER EXPERIMENTERS The Experimenter’s influence on subjects needs to be constant throughout the experiment Personality Gender Experience

PRETESTS AND GENERALIZATION Should a Pretest Be Given? Enables Researcher to Assess Mortality Effects

GENERALIZING FROM LABORATORY FINDINGS Mundane and Experimental Realism Mundane: Whether the experiment bears similarity to events that occur in the real world Experimental: Whether the experiment has an impact on the participants, involves them, and makes them take the experiment seriously

GENERALIZING FROM LABORATORY FINDINGS Mutual Benefits of Lab and Field Research Conducting research in both laboratory and field settings provides the greatest opportunity for advancing our understanding of behavior Results of lab and field experiments are complementary rather than contradictory

THE IMPORTANCE OF REPLICATIONS Exact Replications An attempt to replicate precisely the procedures of a study to see whether the same results are obtained Conceptual Replications The use of different procedures to replicate a research finding

EVALUATING GENERALIZATIONS VIA LITERATURE REVIEWS AND META-ANALYSIS Literature Review Provides Information That: Summarizes what has been found Tells the reader what findings are strongly supported and those that are only weakly supported in the literature Points out inconsistent findings and areas in which research is lacking Discusses future directions for research

EVALUATING GENERALIZATIONS VIA LITERATURE REVIEWS AND META-ANALYSIS Meta-analysis: method for determining the reliability of a finding by examining the results from many different studies Researcher combines actual results

USING RESEARCH TO IMPROVE LIVES Goal of psychology is to promote human welfare Impact of psychological research Health Law and Criminal Justice Education Work Environments