Correlation and causation in parenting - I don't think Sam Sommers would expect me to put this blog entry under Methods, but that is where I am going to use it in my teaching. His column provides an excellent example of while correlation does not imply causation, the lack of correlation can suggest the lack of causation. [added 12/24/12]
Facebook research site - Authors of a recent article reviewing research on Facebook have created an excellent website to keep track of such research: Facebook in the Social Sciences. You can find an extensive bibliography of Facebook research and other resources. [added 7/8/12]
"Do psychology findings replicate outside the lab?" - This blog entry discusses a recent comparison of lab and field results. Overall, the lab findings fared well out in the real world. However, social psychology was one of the weaker areas. [added 7/8/12]
WEIRD subjects in psychology studies - Below is an article about how students at the end of the semester may be different from those at the beginning as participants and those online may be different than face-to-face participants. This article warns about our reliance on WEIRD participants: Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratized. [added 5/31/11]
Time of semester, online or not, affects type of participant - Students who sign up for studies online and earlier in the semester are a little bit different. [added 12/28/10]
What are online research participants really doing? - Blog entry describes research on a new tool (a piece of computer code called UAT -- UserActionTracer) that permits online researchers to track the actions of the participants. [added 10/30/10]
An online research methods textbook - [added 1/19/10]
Correlation does not imply causation - Great cartoon! However, as was pointed out to me, since it is only a single instance it really isn't a correlation either. [added 4/25/09]
"Exotic culture that never was" - I cannot vouch for the complete accuracy of these blog posts, but they describe some fascinating tales of scientific mischief and misinterpretation. Second entry; third entry. [added 6/7/08]
Free resources for methods in program evaluation and social research - a sociological methods site with a large number of links to resources on topics such as surveys and qualitative research [added 7/24/06]
Mediating variables - Karl Wuensch wrote this document, "Statistical tests of models that include mediating variables," which provides a good overview of the topic for faculty and students alike. [added 7/6/06]
"Correlation still isn't causation" - Good series of back-and-forth letters to the APS Observer on this issue that could be good for your students to review and discuss [added 7/6/06]"Do rats show a Mozart effect?" - interesting analysis of how research results can be misinterpreted and misrepresented using an effect that has received wide-spread media attention [added 4/5/04]
"Fallacies and pitfalls in psychology" - Kenneth Pope provides an excellent list of 18 logical fallacies and psychology-related examples of them. [added 3/30/04]
"Pitfalls of data analysis" - a good essay on the use and misuse of statistics by Clay Helberg [added 7/16/03]
"Tutorials" on several topics - David Kenny provides some clearly written explanations of a variety of methodological and interpersonal perception topics. [added 7/16/03]
Online research methods textbook [added 3/21/02]
Another online research methods text [added 7/10/02]
Research methods tutorial - some good info and quiz questions at the end of each section [added 3/21/02]
Links, links and more links - very large, organized set of research methods links [added 3/21/02]
"Research in the Psychological Laboratory: Truth or Triviality?" - Anderson, C.A., Lindsay, J.J., & Bushman, B.J. (1999). Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8, 3-9. Scroll down page to link to view entire article in PDF.
Specific Methods
Day Reconstruction Method example (Are you enjoying yourself? How do we know?) - One method of measuring your level of happiness or enjoyment is through Kahneman's Day Reconstruction Method in which participants "divide the last day up into discrete episodes and rate their feelings during each one." However, as this blog entry describes, that method led to some "bizarre" results such as "people seem to spend an inordinate amount of time doing things they claim not to enjoy, like spending time with their children, and commuting." (I just realized, I've been commuting to work with my children the last couple years. Yikes!) A new approach suggests asking people not only how they feel during these activities but also how worthwhile or meaningful (i.e., rewarding) they are. Adding such questions to the method changes what people report as enjoyable. Spending time with children is still a common activity, but now it is described as more pleasurable. Commuting .... not so much. [added 1/19/10]
Day Reconstruction Method - Daniel Kahneman and colleagues have developed a new and exciting research method that "assesses how people spend their time and how they experience the various activities and settings of their lives, combining features of time-budget measurement and experience sampling." Norbert Schwarz is nice enough to provide the recent article describing the method as well as the materials used in the method at his website. [added 3/1/05]
Content analysis resources - The best aspect of this site is the set of links to many other good content analysis sites. [added 4/5/04]
Structural equation modeling - links to relevant resources [added 4/5/04]
Case-study approach to studying groups - how-to includes example of case study - from Don Forsyth [added 3/6/02]
Sociograms - graphic example of this method of capturing group interaction and ratings [added 3/6/02]
Studying Groups: SYMLOG Questionnaires - developed by David Heise and adapted from Robert Bales' SYMLOG Case Study Kit, these online questionnaires can be used to "measure the behavior of group members whom you have observed, and also your perceptions of the way you behave in various settings, and your subjective attitudes about your own behavior" - data can be entered online and a graph of results can be produced online as well. [added 3/6/02]
Research Methods Lab - very well-designed, interactive review of five research methods - includes description of five methods, examples in different disciplines, practice activities and quizzes for check on understanding - requires free Shockwave plug-in which can be downloaded at the site
"The Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology" - Cronbach's presidential address to the APA (1957) in which he describes the two "streams" of research (experimental and correlational)
"New Poll Shows Correlation is Causation" - humorous, mock article reporting what everyone always knew!
Research Methods chapter - using Stanley Milgram as a "case study" from Dodge Fernald's text Psychology
Surveys
How many gays and lesbians are there? - This blog entry reviews a recent Gallup poll of Americans on this question. However, I would suggest there is an anchoring effect. The scale is skewed so much towards the higher responses that it is not surprising that participants apparently overestimated the number. [added 8/20/11]
Surveys: The importance of interviewer-respondent interaction - "This study uses data collected from 90 never-married young adults in rural Malawi to compare reports on first sexual encounters between a standard survey and an in-depth interview. A significant fraction of young women who claimed in the survey to have never been sexually active affirmed sexual experience during the in-depth interview, fielded shortly thereafter." [added 7/17/10]
"What is a survey?" - a book online about creating good surveys by Fritz Scheuren [added 3/23/08]
A blog on analyzing polling data - "Political arithmetik: Where numbers and politics meet" is a blog from Charles Franklin, a professor of political science, in which he explains political bias in polls, the statistical analysis of them, and more. Lots of good examples and very detailed analysis. [added 7/6/06]
Survey and questionnaire research methods - lots of good resources collected by Gregory Herek for his course of the same name [added 4/06/04]
CensusScope - provides access to Census 2000 data and trends back to 1990 and 1980 with reports on topics such as segregation - presented by the Social Science Data Analysis Network at the University of Michigan [added 3/23/04]
Census Resource Discovery Service - Similar to CensusScope for U.S. data, this site provides census data for the UK with some very good accompanying instructional materials. [added 3/23/04]
"Best practices for survey and public opinion research" - advice and ethical guidelines from the American Association for Public Opinion Research [added 7/10/02]
"In defense of self-reports" - APS Observer article by Rebecca Norwick, Y. Susan Choi, and Tal Ben-Shachar [added 3/21/02]
Evaluation Research
Evaluation resources - a lot of information about different data collection tools and processes involved in evaluation, from the Innovation Network [added 3/21/02]
Free resources for methods in program evaluation and social research - Extensive set of quality links to survey methods and other research topics [added 3/21/02]
Critical Thinking in Psychology
The perils of confusing correlation and causation - [added 5/31/11]
Do girls prefer pink? - a good description of how the media often overblows research findings [added 11/18/07]
"Who paid for that study? Source affects outcome" - a study looking at industry-funded research [added 7/06/07]
"Diet of fish 'can prevent' teen violence" - interesting example of how media can distort research findings [added 11/20/03]
Critical thinking psychology exercises - excellent set of activities on inference vs. observation, operational definitions, correlations, jumping to conclusions, faulty thinking and thinking creatively - could be used as in-class or out-of-class activities
Critical thinking about evidence - "the six rules of evidential reasoning" from James Lett
Ethical Considerations
"The Least of My Brothers" - This freely available online short course on research ethics from the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions at Indiana University-Bloomington describes the famous PHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. "From 1932 to 1972, 399 poor black sharecroppers in Macon County, Alabama were denied treatment for syphilis and deceived by physicians of the United States Public Health Service. As part of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, designed to document the natural history of the disease, these men were told that they were being treated for 'bad blood.' In fact, government officials went to extreme lengths to ensure that they received no therapy from any source. As reported by the New York Times on 26 July 1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was revealed as 'the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history.'" [added 7/16/03]
Statistical Stuff
SPSS tutorials and movies - The link is from UCLA Academic Technology Services. This link takes you to more video tutorials for SPSS. To view them click on the PASW (SPSS) selection on the right. This link is to another good tutorial from Amherst College. [added 1/29/12]
Statistics resources - CAUSEweb presents lots of good instructional resources for undergraduate statistics including lesson modules, computer and hands-on activities, datasets, analysis tools, and multimedia. [added 1/29/12]
Teaching with Data - "TeachingWithData.org is portal of teaching and learning resources for infusing quantitative literacy into the social science curriculum." You can find datasets, tables and figures, and activities to use in your classes. [added 8/20/11]
SPSS Tutorials - This page contains a lot of good tutorials including these excellent video tutorials on a variety of SPSS analyses. [added 7/5/06]
Facebook -- a new source of data - [added 3/23/08]
"I'll bet you don't understand error bars" - a nice little quiz (and explanation) for you and your students [added 7/14/07]
Exploring Data - This is essentially another statistics text available to you online. [added 7/7/07]
Use and misuse of statistics and data - Two very good sites -- this link takes you to a tutorial of sorts which nicely reviews types of evidence, comparing different types. It includes a good section on the problems with statistics. This link takes you to STATS, a site which presents and analyzes lots of good examples of uses and misuses of statistics. [added 12/31/06]
Tutorial for R - a tutorial for the statistical program R [added 1/15/06]
Statistics workshops - a collection of tutorials from Thomson Learning [added 1/9/06]
Methods: Baseball Salaries Database - Want some data for your students to analyze? I see some relative deprivation here! [added 11/11/03]
Statistical computing resources [added 11/11/03]
VassarStats - excellent, comprehensive website explaining how to perform numerous statisitical computations with interactive elements for practice and illustration from Richard Lowry
Visualizing statistical concepts - excellent set of links to interactive illustrations and activities for a variety of statisical concepts from Chip Reichardt
"Web Interface for Statistics Education" (WISE) - links to tutorials, interactive exercises/demos, glossaries and more
Statistical Assessment Service - "a nonprofit nonpartisan organization, examines the way that scientific, quantitative, and social research is presented by the media, and works with journalists to help them convey this material more accurately and effectively" - contains lots of good examples of how statistics are used and misused in the media
Statistical and research methods concepts - good review of concepts effectively using graphics and text
Hyperstats - well-designed, online stats "text"
Simulations and demonstrations - excellent set of java simulations on many stats concepts
Data sets and examples - small but good collection of data sets, examples, lectures and links to other stats sites from David Howell
Gallery of Data Visualization - "The best and worst of statistical graphics" - good examples of how graphs can be used effectively and used to "lie"
Randomness - excellent, extensive site on randomness tailored for different levels of statisical understanding - includes interactive exercises, interactive quiz and more
Ongoing Research
Participate in psychology experiments - at this site you can 1) have your students participate in lab experiments from which you can download (in an Excel spreadsheet) the class' data for in-class analysis, 2) have your students participate in ongoing, online studies, and 3) view demonstrations of experiments without participating
Comprehensive social list - Scott Plous maintains an excellent list of ongoing studies at the Social Psychology Network site
Comprehensive general list - John H. Krantz maintains an excellent list for APS of online studies across many areas of psychology including social psychology
Surveys, Scales and Tests on the Web
You can find a variety of attitude measures and other scales (e.g., self-esteem, self-consciousness) online at the Social Psychology Network.
Questionnaire Instrument Compendium - Alan Reifman has created the most comprehensive list of social-personality measures available online. If you know of others, send them to Alan. [added 11/24/07]
Resources for the Teaching of Social Psychology is a part of the CROW Project, Course Resources on the Web. CROW was initially sponsored by the Associated Colleges of Illinois and generously supported by UPS. This site was created by Jon Mueller, Professor of Psychology at North Central College, Naperville, IL. Send comments to Jon.
