Learn Before
Diagnose the threat to internal validity in the researcher's conclusion. Explain how the concept of spontaneous remission explains the participants' recovery and why it invalidates the researcher's causal claim.
Case context: Imagine a researcher who wants to evaluate a new home remedy for the common cold. They recruit participants who have just contracted a cold, feed them chicken soup daily, and measure their cold symptoms after one week. They observe that almost all participants are feeling significantly better and conclude that chicken soup cures the common cold.
Question: Diagnose the threat to internal validity in the researcher's conclusion. Explain how the concept of spontaneous remission explains the participants' recovery and why it invalidates the researcher's causal claim.
Sample answer: The threat to internal validity in this study is spontaneous remission. The common cold naturally runs its course and improves over a week without any medical intervention. Because the participants would have improved anyway, the researcher cannot conclude that chicken soup caused the recovery. The presence of this natural recovery path invalidates the causal claim because it serves as an alternative explanation for the observed improvement.
Key points:
- Diagnose the threat to internal validity as spontaneous remission.
- Explain that the common cold naturally improves over time without intervention.
- State that the improvement after a week cannot be directly attributed to the chicken soup.
- Explain how the natural progression of the illness invalidates the researcher's causal conclusion.
Rubric: The response must identify spontaneous remission as the primary threat to internal validity, describe how colds naturally improve over a week without treatment, and explain why this alternative explanation prevents drawing a causal conclusion about the chicken soup.
0
1
Tags
KPU
Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
Related
Why might a researcher incorrectly conclude that a daily regimen of chicken soup cures the common cold if they only measure symptom severity before and after a week?
A researcher studies 100 people with colds who eat chicken soup daily and feel better after one week. Arrange the following events in the order that demonstrates how the natural course of an illness can lead to an incorrect conclusion about a treatment's effectiveness.
A researcher conducts a study where participants with a mild tension headache use a new aromatherapy patch. If the participants report that their headaches are gone after two hours—the typical time for such headaches to resolve naturally—the researcher can safely conclude that the aromatherapy patch was the cause of the relief without comparing the results to a group that received no treatment.
Researchers studying the 'common cold' measure 100 participants, provide them with daily chicken soup, and find that they feel much better after one week. Analyze the logic of this study by matching each component with the scientific role it plays in demonstrating why the results are not proof of a cure.
Suppose you are tasked with creating a research protocol to test the effectiveness of a new 'herbal remedy' for the common cold. To build a study that can distinguish between the remedy's effects and the natural improvement of symptoms over time, arrange the following steps in the correct logical order to construct a randomized controlled experiment.
A researcher claims that chicken soup is a 'proven cure' because patients recovered from their colds within one week of treatment. To scientifically evaluate the validity of this claim, a student must identify the phenomenon of _____ as a likely alternative explanation for the observed improvement.
Researchers measure symptom severity in 100 people with colds, give them chicken soup daily, and find that participants feel much better one week later. Because colds naturally run their course without any medical intervention, this improvement is best explained by _____ rather than the effectiveness of the chicken soup.
A physical therapist develops a new four-week stretching routine and tests it on 50 patients with acute lower back pain. She measures pain levels before the routine begins and again after four weeks, finding a significant decrease. She concludes the routine is an effective treatment. A research methods student argues that spontaneous remission threatens this conclusion. Which statement BEST explains the student's concern?
In a study where 100 people with colds are given chicken soup daily and re-evaluated one week later, adding a no-treatment control group—in which 100 additional cold sufferers receive no soup and are measured at the same time points—would allow researchers to determine how much improvement is due to spontaneous remission versus the soup itself, thereby directly addressing the main methodological weakness of the original one-group design.
A researcher wants to test whether a new herbal tea reduces cold symptoms. Evaluate each study feature or conclusion below by matching it to the most accurate methodological judgment about spontaneous remission.
Define the term 'spontaneous remission' and explain how the natural progression of the common cold in a study measuring people serves as an example of this phenomenon.
Diagnose the threat to internal validity in the researcher's conclusion. Explain how the concept of spontaneous remission explains the participants' recovery and why it invalidates the researcher's causal claim.
How can researchers modify the design of the chicken soup study with participants to control for spontaneous remission and isolate the true effect of the soup?