Chapter #2 Prep Guide
Question #1
The textbook describes the main issues with basing beliefs on personal experience.
a. Define a comparison group and briefly describe how answering the question
“Compared to what?” could benefit your decision on what to believe.
b. Define confound and briefly describe how evaluating alternative explanations
could benefit your decision on what to believe.
A comparison group is a group of subjects (people, animals, objects, etc.) used in
research to compare the effects and effectiveness of a treatment or intervention. They are
absolutely necessary in the research process because without them, you’re only observing one
patient or subject. If you have nothing to compare that patient to, then you are incapable of
seeing whether the treatment you are testing is functioning at the highest possible capacity it
could be. Without a comparison group you are unable to determine if your treatment can be
improved upon. Asking the question “compared to what” allows you to determine if the
treatment actually benefits the tested quality or not.
A confound occurs when a researcher believes their treatment or intervention is the
component that has caused a change in their subject matter, when in reality there are other
factors that played a part that could have resulted in that change, leading to confusion about
what the true cause was. Properly evaluating alternative explanations helps a researcher
determine more accurate conclusions. When a researcher systematically rules out other possible
causes for a result found in their experiments, it strengthens confidence in their hypothesis as
they further eliminate misinformation and unwanted variables.
Question #2
What does it mean to say that research results are probabilistic? Should you disregard
Consumer Reports because your cousin had a terrible experience with their Honda Fit?
Explain why/why not.
To say that research results are probabilistic means that its findings are more of a likelihood
rather than a definite answer to something. Results do not explain 100% of cases 100% of the
time, but rather a certain proportion of those cases. No research study can account for every
variable, confound, or outcome. This, however, does not disregard the education or invalidate
the research that has been done. You should not disregard the consumer reports because you
know one person that had a terrible experience with their one Honda Fit. Research reports
findings that fit a high probability of cases, and although it is unfortunate that you happen to
know someone who did not like that car, it is still factual that the majority of other owners of the
Honda Fit had a positive experience with it.
This study source was downloaded by 100000901307859 from CourseHero.com on 11-14-2025 04:39:26 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/251703025/Prep-Guide-2-Chloe-Whalen-Sectioin-002pdf/
Question #1
The textbook describes the main issues with basing beliefs on personal experience.
a. Define a comparison group and briefly describe how answering the question
“Compared to what?” could benefit your decision on what to believe.
b. Define confound and briefly describe how evaluating alternative explanations
could benefit your decision on what to believe.
A comparison group is a group of subjects (people, animals, objects, etc.) used in
research to compare the effects and effectiveness of a treatment or intervention. They are
absolutely necessary in the research process because without them, you’re only observing one
patient or subject. If you have nothing to compare that patient to, then you are incapable of
seeing whether the treatment you are testing is functioning at the highest possible capacity it
could be. Without a comparison group you are unable to determine if your treatment can be
improved upon. Asking the question “compared to what” allows you to determine if the
treatment actually benefits the tested quality or not.
A confound occurs when a researcher believes their treatment or intervention is the
component that has caused a change in their subject matter, when in reality there are other
factors that played a part that could have resulted in that change, leading to confusion about
what the true cause was. Properly evaluating alternative explanations helps a researcher
determine more accurate conclusions. When a researcher systematically rules out other possible
causes for a result found in their experiments, it strengthens confidence in their hypothesis as
they further eliminate misinformation and unwanted variables.
Question #2
What does it mean to say that research results are probabilistic? Should you disregard
Consumer Reports because your cousin had a terrible experience with their Honda Fit?
Explain why/why not.
To say that research results are probabilistic means that its findings are more of a likelihood
rather than a definite answer to something. Results do not explain 100% of cases 100% of the
time, but rather a certain proportion of those cases. No research study can account for every
variable, confound, or outcome. This, however, does not disregard the education or invalidate
the research that has been done. You should not disregard the consumer reports because you
know one person that had a terrible experience with their one Honda Fit. Research reports
findings that fit a high probability of cases, and although it is unfortunate that you happen to
know someone who did not like that car, it is still factual that the majority of other owners of the
Honda Fit had a positive experience with it.
This study source was downloaded by 100000901307859 from CourseHero.com on 11-14-2025 04:39:26 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/251703025/Prep-Guide-2-Chloe-Whalen-Sectioin-002pdf/
