9.6 Quick review questions

A study (Bingham et al. 2016) examined the effect of peer pressure from passengers among teenage male drivers; the aim was to

…experimentally test the effects of passenger presence and social influence […] of male adolescent novices in a simulated driving task.

Bingham et al. (2016), p. 126

The use of a driving simulator was justified as:

… driving simulation has been shown to be an externally valid predictor of real-world driving

Bingham et al. (2016), p. 125

The Discussion section of the article includes a subsection called ‘Strengths and limitations.’ Part of that sub-section reads:

participants were closely clustered around average rates of resistance to peer influence for this age group […] so it is unclear to what extent these findings would generalize to participants with weaker resistance to peer influences.

Bingham et al. (2016), p. 135

Later, the paper reports:

… the use of an age-peer [passenger assigned by the researchers] allowed substantial experimental control, it may have provided participants with an artificial experience compared to the influence of actual friends.

Bingham et al. (2016), p. 135

1. The study used \(n=52\) 16- and 17-year-old males in the study. Should the external validity of the study be criticised for only using teenage males in the study, and not teenage females?
   No: Only teenage males are likely to be poor drivers No: The target population is only teenage males Yes: Not all teenagers are males Yes: Females and males should be used in the study
2. What does the second last quotation above mean?
   Confounding is likely to be a problem The results may not be not externally valid The results may not be internally valid The sample is not a random sample
3. True or false: The Hawthorne effect is likely to be an issue in this study.
   TRUE FALSE