Serendipidy comes to mind. :)I do find it interesting that you'd doubt the data and not the theoretical constructs etc. that lead to the gathering of the data. (Not negatively, btw, just interesting- being a people too I've done the same thing quite often.) Seriously, I think this is a perfect teachable moment. The correct response seems to me to be to first replicate the findings or look in the literature for other such anomolies. It not being my area, I also wonder if your sample is truly representative of the military or, perhaps, you've found a sub-population of that group that scores differently. I'd also wonder if your original assumptions about the populations characteristics might be different based on changes in the military. For example, might it be that troops assigned to military positions overseas during a time of war (sic) might have selected a unique population characteristic in those who stayed home (as they would do so due to assignment characteristics which I assume the military is still doing based on choice AND behavioral and personality characteristics). That's just the wild amblings of a bio trained person who happened to grow up around a population of pilots and support. (I'd be interested to know what conclusions you arrive at so do keep the list posted or let me know back channel as I teach research methods and this seems a very useful example!). Thanks for bringing it to our attention. Tim Shearon, Albertson College, Caldwell, ID [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message----- From: Rick Froman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tue 11/30/2004 2:46 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Cc: Subject: Unexpected neg corr between Self-monitoring and Social Desirability A student of mine is doing a research project with a military sample and she has found a pretty strong negative correlation (about a third of the variance shared) between Snyder's Self-monitoring scale and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale. This correlation is not the main point of her hypothesis (which is that the military sample will have a higher rate of Social Desirability than the population) but it is quite puzzling. It would seem that the two scales should be positively correlated. Of course, the first check was to see if the scales might somehow be reversed but that doesn't seem to be the case. Any ideas? Rick Dr. Rick Froman Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/sbs/faculty/rfroman.asp --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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