Reseach Method in Psychology

Academic Task

For Module 6:

Chapter Seven - use this as a source

Then, answer the following questions to the case study highlighted below: 

Case Study #1: How Do Young Parents Feel About New Media? (taken from the Everyday Research blog)

This recent piece in USNews describes the results of a poll about how young parents feel about their kids' use of smartphones and tablets. Let's use this story to practice what you are learning about surveys and polls. Here's one excerpt from the journalist's story.

Surveying more than 2,300 parents of children up to age 8, researchers from Northwestern University found that the vast majority -- 78 percent -- report that their children's media use is not a source of family conflict, and 59 percent said they aren't concerned their kids will become addicted to new media.

a)  Will this sample of 2300 parents be able to generalize to American parents overall? What do you need to know? (And, what kind of validity are we asking about here?) 

b)  Based on the report above, what kind of question do you think the researchers asked--a forced choice question? An open-ended one? 

Here's another excerpt:

"We asked parents what their challenges were as the parents of young children . . . and sometimes media was never mentioned," said study author Ellen Wartella, director of Northwestern's Center on Media and Human Development. "Parents of children this age are concerned about their health, safety, nutrition, and exercise, and media concerns are much lower down the list. That was a surprise."

c) Based on this information, do you think the "challenges" question was closed-ended? Open-ended? Do you think they used a construct valid way to ask this kind of question?

Finally, here's one more part of the story:

The notion that parents are apt to shush their kids by handing them a smartphone or tablet also appears to be false, according to the results. To keep their children quietly occupied, moms and dads said they were more apt to turn to toys or activities (88 percent), books (79 percent), or TV (78 percent). Of parents with smartphones or iPads, only 37 percent reported being somewhat or very likely to turn to those devices.

A reader of this news article submitted the following comment:

Parents never tell the truth in situations like this. Either they hate to admit that they shut little junior up by putting him in front of a phone, or they don't even realize how much they do it. Look around you in restaurants and just watch how many parents with small children let them sit there playing with mom's phone or a Nintendo DS.

d) Which validity is the reader criticizing? What do you think of the reader's comment?