My first Paper 2B

The summative assessment that I gave my students for their first unit was a Paper 2B.  It was a paper that I created.  I required them to write about three concepts: bias, causality, and responsibility.  I thought I would share their overall performance as well as what recommendations I am going to give them for the future.

Bias:  As expected, students tended to focus on the sample, rather than on other potential forms of bias.  In addition, when they did recognize a bias, they tended to define the bias rather than link it explicitly to the study.  This will take more training, of course.

Causality: This was the most difficult concept for them. Many did not recognize that this was a true experiment.  They did write about confounding variables weakening the argument for causality.  Many also mentioned ecological validity or construct validity, but they did not link this effectively to causality.

Responsibility: This was the most well-developed section of most students’ responses.  Psychological terminology was generally used effectively; however, the responses were rather descriptive. Although deception was recognized as an ethical concern, many students said that it was unethical, rather than justifying it as a way to prevent demand characteristics.  There were also assumptions made that, since informed consent was not explicitly mentioned, no consent was obtained, and the study was deemed unethical.

Recommendations

• Students should write a short introduction that identifies the aim (with clearly stated variables), research method, and sample.  This should help focus their response.
• Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence that clearly states the concept that will be the focus of the response.
• Each point made needs to clearly “unpack” the terminology used and link explicitly to the study.
• When discussing the concepts, focus on errors (if there are any) and strategies used by the research to increase the value of the study with regard to the concept.  In the case of bias, what were the potential biases, and how did the researcher attempt to prevent bias?
• End with a conclusion.  The conclusion should address the “value” of the study in answering the research question.  For example, does bias lower the overall value of the study?  Does the study show a clear cause-and-effect relationship?  Is the study ethical, allowing researchers to replicate it to test the reliability of the study?