Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

The Scientific Method19But the actual average differences may be so smallas to have little practical significance or importance.For example, several significant findings emergedin a study looking at factors that would help predictpeople who are at risk of attempting suicide (Mann& others, 1999). One statistically significant findingwas that suicide attempters had fewer years of education(12.7 years) as compared to nonattempters (14years). In practical terms, however, the differencewas not substantial enough to be clinically meaningfulin trying to help identify people who pose a suiciderisk. So remember that a statistically significantresult is simply one that is not very likely to have occurredby chance. Whether the finding is significant in the everyday sense of being importantis another matter altogether.A statistical technique called meta-analysis is sometimes used in psychology to analyzethe results of many research studies on a specific topic. Meta-analysis involvespooling the results of several studies into a single analysis. By creating one large poolof data to be analyzed, meta-analysis can help reveal overall trends that may not beevident in individual studies. Meta-analysis is especially useful when a particular issuehas generated a large number of studies, some of which have produced weak or contradictoryresults. When a large number of different factors have been implicated ina particular phenomenon, meta-analysis can help identify the most important factors.Using Statistics to PredictCollege Success How canyou draw conclusionswhen there are manystudies investigating thesame basic question? PsychologistSteven Robbinsand his colleagues (2004)used a statistical techniquecalled meta-analysisto pool the results ofmore than 100 studies investigatingthe psychological,social, and studyskills most strongly associatedwith success in college. The researchersoperationally defined “success in college”as cumulative grade point average (GPA).Beyond high school GPA and standardizedtest scores, the meta-analysis revealed thatthe strongest predictors of college successwere two psychological factors: academicself-confidence and the desire to achieve.These two factors were more important inpredicting college success than socioeconomicstatus, academic skills, or level ofsocial or financial support.Step 4. Report the FindingsFor advances to be made in any scientific discipline, researchers must publishor share their findings with other scientists. In addition to reporting their results,psychologists provide a detailed description of the study itself, including:• The rationale for testing the hypothesis• Who participated in the study• How participants were selected• How variables were operationally defined• What procedures or methods were used• How the data were analyzed• What the results seem to suggestDescribing the precise details of thestudy makes it possible for other investigatorsto replicate, or repeat, the study.Replication is an important part of thescientific process. When a study is replicatedand the same basic results are obtainedagain, scientific confidence that theresults are accurate is increased. Conversely,if the replication of a study fails toproduce the same basic findings, confidencein the original findings is reduced.One way in which psychologists reporttheir findings is by formally presenting theirresearch at a professional conference. A researchercan also write a paper summarizingthe study and submit it to one of the manypsychology journals for publication. Beforeaccepting papers for publication, most psychologyjournals send the paper to otherClaude Steele Presenting His ResearchAlong with writing up their research inpapers submitted for publication in peerreviewedjournals, psychologists also oftendiscuss their research at national andregional psychology conferences. Here,Stanford University professor ClaudeSteele discusses his research at the annualmeeting of the Association of PsychologicalScience (APS). Steele’s research centers onstereotype threat, which refers to the waysthat negative stereotypes can affect theperformance of people who belong tostigmatized groups. We discuss Steele’sinfluential concept and research in Chapter7 in the Culture and Human Behavior box.