What is the Flaw
Your friend says, “Ever since I started drinking iced coffee, I’ve been anxious—coffee causes anxiety.”
What is confusing correlation with causation?
A researcher says they’re measuring “stress” but never defines how.
What is lack of operational definition?
Participants are told, “Just sign this,” but aren’t informed about risks.
What is lack of informed consent?
A professor gives one group of students energy drinks before an exam and another group water, then compares their scores.
What is an experiment?
A researcher changes how many hours students study to see if grades improve.
What is the independent variable?
A TikTok influencer says, “This study proves my point,” but ignores 5 others that say the opposite.
What is confirmation bias?
Participants who exercise also eat healthier, affecting results
What is a confounding variable?
Participants in a study were not told the true purpose and were placed in stressful roles as “guards” and “prisoners,” leading to emotional harm.
What is violation of nonmaleficence? (and lack of full informed consent)?
(Stanford Prison Experiment)
A student sits in the library for 3 hours watching how often people check their phones while studying—without interacting with them.
What is descriptive research (naturalistic observation)?
The researcher measures students’ exam scores after changing study time.
What is the dependent variable?
A student takes an online personality quiz twice in the same day and gets completely different results each time.
What is low reliability (lack of test-retest reliability)?
Two researchers rate behavior differently when observing the same participant
What is low inter-rater reliability?
Researchers observed the progression of a deadly disease in participants even after a known treatment became available.
What is beneficence / nonmaleficence? (Tuskegee Study)
A researcher collects data showing that students who spend more time on TikTok tend to report lower GPAs, but doesn’t change anything.
What is correlational research?
Students who study more also tend to sleep more, which affects grades
What is a confounding variable?
A researcher claims to measure “depression levels,” but the survey only asks how stressed people feel during finals week.
What is low validity (the measure does not match the construct)?
A researcher asks students to rank their stress levels as: low, medium, or high.
What is an ordinal variable?
Children in a residential school were intentionally exposed to hepatitis to study disease progression.
What is lack of informed consent and harm to participants?
(Willowbrook Study)
A psychology student combines results from 40 studies on whether social media increases anxiety and looks for overall trends.
What is meta-analysis?
A study on stress includes both 18-year-olds and 50-year-olds, which may affect results.
What is a subject variable?
A professor claims a new teaching method works—but never compares it to a normal class.
What is lack of a control group?
A study measures how many hours students sleep each night, where 0 means no sleep at all.
What is a ratio variable?
Participants are told a study is about “learning,” but it is actually testing stress responses. After the study, researchers fully explain the true purpose and answer questions.
What is deception followed by debriefing?
A psychologist spends a year studying one influencer who suddenly quit social media and documents every aspect of their behavior.
What is a case study?
A noisy testing environment affects student performance but isn’t part of the study.
What is a nuisance variable?