Measures and Reliability and Validity Discussion / External and Internal Validity Discussion - Coursework Example

Re: Posting on Scenario F “Confounding variables are those that aren’t the independent variable where the s are different from the other conditions. These are somewhat spontaneous, in that they come about during testing the hypothesis.” (Stangor, 2011). The fact that one group got to view the words twice is not a confounding variable, but the independent variable. As per the quote from Stangor (2011) above, with which you began your post, confounding variables are subject differences that are not the independent variable, and they arise spontaneously.

The group that saw the 20 words twice can be said to have increased exposure. Increased exposure is what’s being used as an independent variable to see whether their reports of liking were higher or lower than those of the group who had less exposure (saw the words once), so liking is the dependent variable because it is measured and depends upon the variable being manipulated (the independent variable) (Cherry, 2011). If both groups got to see the words twice, testing liking would have no meaning because there isn’t any less exposed subject sample to compare it with.

References Cherry, K. (2011). What is a variable? Retrieved July 3, 2011, from About.com Psychology: http://psychology.about.com/od/researchmethods/f/variable.htm Stangor, C. (2011). Research methods for the behavior sciences (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mufflin. Re: Posting on Maternal Depression and Female Offspring Depression Your topic is a fascinating one. I would like to suggest two complementary areas of inquiry, as you continue. The first thing that came to mind, on looking over the questions in your Likert scale, was that being around people who are depressed is something I generally find depressing, whether the person is related to me or not.

I wondered, then, to what extent there is causality involved and to what extent it is a correlation without suggested causality (Stangor, 2011). I did a little research on your topic and found a really interesting research article that might suggest a line of inquiry to you. It looks at the role of paternal psychopathology in the maternal depression and offspring dysfunction connection. The conclusion was that, “Depressed mothers tended to partner with antisocial fathers. Depression in mothers and antisocial behavior in fathers were both significantly and independently associated with offspring depression and conduct disorder” (Marmorstein, Malone, & Iacono, 2004).

This might be something to keep in mind and collect data about, when you expand your interesting research in the future. References Marmorstein, N. R., Malone, S. M., & Iacono, W. G. (2004). Psychiatric disorders among offspring of depressed mothers: Associations with paternal psychopathology. The American Journal of Psychiatry,Vol. 161 , 1588-1594. Stangor, C. (2011). Research methods for the behavior sciences (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mufflin.