Question

Research study 3.3: anton and his friends are discussing a study he read about in his developmental psychology class. in the study, the researcher made the claim that most middle school students who are bullied have low self-esteem. clarissa questions the study, saying, "i am not sure that i am convinced. i am not sure you can really measure being bullied." quinn also questions the study, saying, "which middle school students did they study? i am curious if they included both private and public school students." manish also is curious about the study, asking, "i wonder how strong the relationship is between bullying and self-esteem. could you predict one from the other?"

Answer 1

Based on the description, it seems that the researcher concluded there was a relationship between bullying and self-esteem, when there wasn't one.

This is referred to as a Type 1 error (a false positive), where a researcher
claims that there is a significant relationship between two variables, when in fact there isn't a significant relationship between them. Anton, Clarissa, Quinn and Manish, all raise doubts about the supposed claim that "middle school students who are bullied have low-self esteem".

Answer 2

Based on the description above, the following analyses can be made:

1. Clarissa's concern is addressing the study's construct validity
2. Quinn's concern is addressing the study's external validity
3. Manish's concern is addressing the study’s statistical validity

In addition, you may be asked, for what it means if Anton is concerned that the researcher made a Type I error. The answer to that would be that the researcher concluded there was a relationship between bullying and self-esteem, whereas there is really no relationship.