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intro.psych (Psyco 105) Discussion: Group 1 Discussion Group: Reading the Research - Social Development: Can the results be used to answer the research question?
By Jep on Sunday, October 11, 1998 - 05:20 pm:
Yes, I believe that the results, do answer teh research question. They state what age adolescents prefer their "dating" partners to be, as well as what they actually are. Even though it is known what adults preferences are they are not compared in the results, and they are mentioned in part of the research question.
The results can be used to give some indication of the research question however considering the sample size and the fact that the samples were all taken from the same place instead of from various locations around the country, I don't think this is a purely accurate study. Perhaps the method of adults asking questions instead of a self-report accounts for the discrepency in ages prefered and ages actually dated in males. It is possible that the males asked did not want to seem like they would date some kid. Maybe they wanted to come accross as more mature and therefore say that they prefer older people. Or perhaps the results don't coincide because it is all situational. Maybe these boys would prefer to date older girls but since girls prefer older boys, the boys don't have anyone to date.
The results answer the question pretty well. Although I don't agree with the size of the study, it does answer the question for that particular school. I found it interesting to know that although the boys wanted to date older girls, they dated the younger ones anyway. I personally thought that the boys would want to feel superior to the girls and therefore want to date the younger ones. But I guess the idea of fertility in a woman is more important?
SUMMARY - These results give an indication of the answer to the research question but the sample size is too small to use this study as a generalization of all of society. It is useful that the resaerchers asked about preference and actuality (the age of the person they were actually dating at the time)in order to understand the question more fully but these results pertain only to this particular school and can not be used as a reference for all of society. We may be able to infer from this study however that it is possible that fertility is more important to males than superiority.
By Ivanka on Monday, October 12, 1998 - 02:48 pm:
By Mike on Monday, October 12, 1998 - 02:56 pm:
By Ivanka on Tuesday, October 13, 1998 - 11:28 pm: