Pitfalls in Human Research
Ten Pivotal Points
- 1st Edition - January 1, 1976
- Author: Theodore Xenophon Barber
- Editors: Arnold P. Goldstein, Leonard Krasner
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 0 8 - 0 2 0 9 3 4 - 0
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 1 - 4 8 3 1 - 3 8 0 3 - 9
Pitfalls in Human Research examines 10 ten pivotal points in human research where investigators and experimenters can go astray. Two questions are addressed: At what pivotal points… Read more
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Request a sales quotePitfalls in Human Research examines 10 ten pivotal points in human research where investigators and experimenters can go astray. Two questions are addressed: At what pivotal points in the complex research process can the experimental study go astray and give rise to misleading results and conclusions? What steps can researchers take to avoid these pitfalls? To answer these questions, those aspects of experimental studies that are under the control of the investigator as well as those aspects that are under the control of the experimenter are examined. This book begins by making a distinction between the investigator and the experimenter, arguing that their roles are functionally quite different. The discussion then turns to the 10 pitfalls in human research, divided into investigator effects and experimenter effects: investigator paradigm effect; investigator experimental design effect; investigator loose procedure effect; investigator data analysis effect; investigator fudging effect; experimenter personal attributes effect; experimenter failure to follow the procedure effect; experimenter misrecording effect; experimenter fudging effect; and experimenter unintentional expectancy effect. This monograph will be a useful resource for both investigators and experimenters, as well as those who utilize research results in their teaching or practice.
Introduction
Pitfall I. Investigator Paradigm Effect
Tenacity of Paradigms and Resistance to New Discoveries
Failing to "See" Events and "Seeing" Non-Existent Events
Paradigms in Psychology
Paradigms versus Pet Theories or Hypotheses
Recommendations and Conclusions
Pitfall II. Investigator Experimental Design Effect
Pitfall III. Investigator Loose Procedure Effect
Pitfall IV. Investigator Data Analysis Effect
Pitfalls in Data Analysis: Two Illustrative Studies
Illustrative Study 1
Illustrative Study 2
Summary
Recommendations
Motivations for Positive Results
Pitfall V. Investigator Fudging Effect
Some Instances of Fudging
Newton, Dalton, Mendel
The Summerlin Case
Parapsychology
Other Recent Cases
Motivations for Fudging
Motivations for Honesty
Experimenter Effects
Pitfall VI. Experimenter Personal Attributes Effect
Failure to Control for Other Attributes
Failure to Assess Interactive Effects
Failure to Sample Psychological Tasks
Conclusions
Pitfall VII. Experimenter Failure to Follow the Procedure Effect
Pitfall VIII. Experimenter Mis-recording Effect
Pitfall IX. Experimenter Fudging Effect
Pitfall X. Experimenter Unintentional Expectancy Effect
Experimenter Unintentional Expectancy Effect or Investigator Data Analysis Effect?
Experimenter Expectancy, Failure to Follow the Procedure, Mis-recording, or Fudging?
Studies that Failed to Find an Experimenter Unintentional Expectancy Effect
Studies with Equivocal Results
"Confirming" Expectancies by Varying the Conduct of the Experiment
Expectancy and Experimenters' Scoring of Responses
Studies Indicating an Experimenter Unintentional Expectancy Effect
Experimenter Expectancy as an Interactive Effect
Summary and Conclusions
Overview and Recommendations
Postscript: The Future of Experimental Research
References
Name Index
Subject Index
- No. of pages: 126
- Language: English
- Edition: 1
- Published: January 1, 1976
- Imprint: Pergamon
- Paperback ISBN: 9780080209340
- eBook ISBN: 9781483138039
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