PSY 429 Experimental Psychology
Experimental Dilemma # 3
PSY 429 Experimental Psychology
Experimental Dilemma # 3
A social psychologist interested in the effects of unemployment on alcohol abuse conducted the following study. He mailed questionnaires to the homes of workers who had been laid off from a local automobile plant. The questionnaires were mailed at various time intervals and the workers were asked to anonymously fill them out and return them. The questionnaires contained items designed to provide information as to the amount of alcohol consumed daily before and after the layoffs occurred.
Fifty percent of the subjects completed and returned all of the questionnaires sent out during the course of the experiment. For those individuals who returned the questionnaires, the researcher found a positive correlation between alcohol consumption and length of unemployment of .87. That is, more alcohol was consumed as the period of unemployment progressed.
In his report the researcher stated that "the conditions of employment produce a tendency for people to increase their alcoholic intake."
If you were the editor in charge of deciding whether his work would be accepted for publication, what would your judgment be?
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