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Dr. Arvey is interested in gender stereotypes. She notices the color of a popular social networking website is blue and wonders what might happen if it were also offered in pink. She hypothesizes that when given the choice of colors, men will be more likely to keep their profiles blue and women will be more likely to switch their profiles to pink. She also thinks that being able to choose the default color on the social networking site will increase one's use of the site. To that end, Dr. Arvey puts up flyers around campus asking for volunteers to participate in research, and she ultimately obtains a sample of 90. She wants to conduct the study in her school's computer lab where the participants can access their social media accounts. The computer lab has 30 seats so she asks the volunteers to sign up for one of three sessions. By running 30 participants at a time she believes she is being very efficient in data collection.
What methodologic issues exist in this procedure? Fix it.

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The Answer is It is possible Dr. Arvey will get volunteers who do not have social media experience. This is a problem because in the study participants will be required to log into their social media account. Dr. Arvey should have used purposive sampling and should have specifically asked for volunteers who have a social media account and regularly use it (Ref 4-1, p. 105). Also, running groups of participants simultaneously in the computer lab may compromise independence. This may be even more of a problem because participants are allowed to sign up for a particular session, making it possible for friends to attend the same session (Ref 8-1, pp. 254-255). Dr. Arvey may consider either running participants on an individual basis or randomly assigning participants to one of the three sessions.

Fix It Dr. Arvey Is Interested in Gender Stereotypes. She Notices the Notices