Chapter 3 Activity (PSY350) - Janiyah P.
Robinson
Activity citation: Research methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information, 5e © 2026 W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc.
You should complete all questions below for full credit.
Remember to always put responses in your own words and link to course content
(with in-text citations) for full credit.
Below are 5 headlines:
- Chewing gum can improve your mood and focus.
This is a causal claim because it’s not saying that the two things are
related, just that one causes the other. I think that an experiment would be the
best study to do to find out if chewing gum helps mood and focus. The
operational variables would be the gum (participants who are/aren’t), mood (they
can self-report how they are feeling before/after), and focus (give participants
tasks centered around concentration).
- Eighty percent of women feel dissatisfied with how their bodies look.
This is a frequency claim because there are numbers and percentages
involved, and they discuss statistics, whereas causal and association claims
typically don’t. The operational variable is body dissatisfaction (measured by a
survey), and the conceptual variable is also body dissatisfaction (specifically, the
participants' feelings towards body image). I think this would be best measured
by giving participants a survey or questionnaire on a scale of 1-10 to see how
they feel about their bodies and body image overall.
- Workaholism is tied to psychiatric disorders.
This is an association claim because the wording used (“tied to”) indicates
correlation and not causation. That being said, I think that a correlation study,
including surveys and evaluations of the same group of people, should be used
to assess this claim because they’re the best ways to study the operational
variables (workaholism, with a questionnaire, and psychiatric disorders, with a
psychological evaluation). Conceptual variables include workaholism (working
excessively) and psychiatric disorders (depression, anxiety, obsessive-
compulsive disorder, etc.).
- Worry may make women’s brains work overtime.
This is a causal claim because, like the first statement, the wording “may
make” suggests that one thing is causing another instead of the two variables
being related. The conceptual variables are worry and brain activity (about your
emotional state and how the brain is working). The operational variables are
measuring brain activity (EEG) and measuring worry by using a self-report
method (survey). I think that an experiment should be conducted where the
participants' state of worry should be manipulated (as well as other emotions),
and followed by measuring brain activity before and after manipulation.
- Happier families put kids to bed early.
This is an association claim because it suggests that family happiness and
children's bedtimes are correlated but not caused by one another. The
conceptual variables are family happiness and bedtime. Operational variables
are family happiness (being measured with surveys, interviews, etc.) and
bedtime (measured with what the parents report, maybe having the families keep
sleep logs for their children too). I think a correlation study should be used, where
the family fills out surveys, and researchers can see if there is a correlation and
how strong the correlation is between the two.
For each of the headlines, identify the following information:
- Is the claim frequency, association, or causal? How do you know?
- Define variable(s) at the conceptual level.
- Define variable(s) at the operational level.
- What kind of study would be needed to assess the claim, and how do you know?