One strategy is to bring in old issues from the Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate research (perhaps your library has a subscription if no one in your dept has old issues). Have the students work in groups in picking an article and have them critique it (you can also pick the articles and copy them beforehand so that everyone can be reading it at the same time). A lot of these articles have serious limitations that can usually be detected by students (as opposed to lots of flawed studies in professional journals that typically look fine to students). One benefit of this exercise is that students often point out other problems such as issues with writing clarity or just that it is a "dumb" or insignificant question that is being addressed. That can lead into an interesting discussion of ethics (if you're covering ethics at the end as it often seems to be) as to whether it is unethical to collect data on small questions or conduct methodologically flawed studies (that is, how much should those things count in the cost-benefit analysis). Marie
Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor l Department of Psychology Kaufman 168 l Dickinson College Phone 717.245.1562 l Fax 717.245.1971 Office Hours: Mondays and Tuesdays 2:00-3:30 http://users.dickinson.edu/~helwegm/index.html -----Original Message----- From: Jim Clark [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 5:37 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Examples of poorly designed studies? Hi I've been asked to cover the last few classes in Research Methods, which I have never taught (or at least not in living memory). I wonder if people have examples of poorly designed studies that lend themselves to brief descriptions? Thanks Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a4468797f&n=T&l=tips&o=16968 or send a blank email to leave-16968-13234.b0e864a6eccfc779c8119f5a44687...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=16983 or send a blank email to leave-16983-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
