Problem:
I would like each of you to look through literature to find claims about new and newsworthy psychological findings. Make sure to provide a link to the internet article you select. Most of the time, the popular literature is utilizing correlational data. I want us to practice critically evaluating data that is presented in the popular literature. It is quite easy to make false assumptions about correlational data. For example, if obesity and the number of hours children watch television is positively correlated, many would assume that these results are due tot he fact that watching television prohibits children from exercising. However, an alternative explanation is that obese children choose to watch television because it is more difficult for them to exercise. The purpose of this exercise is really to think about directionality problems within the literature and consider that a third factor may be responsible or influence the correlation. Again, correlation does not imply causation.