Avoid absolutes

In psychology, unlike the hard sciences, there are few absolutes. What do I mean by that?  We rarely know facts about humans that we are confident will never change or that there are not possible exceptions. Let's think about an example. While many elderly people are less active than when they are younger, you can probably think of exceptions of people who are actually more active. Therefore, a statement that "The elderly become less active with age," would be an incorrect absolute. A better statement would be "The elderly tend to become less active with age." This allows for possible exceptions and avoids the perception that it is a rule for everyone.

 

This issue becomes even more important in Chapter 5, when you interpret your results. Avoid over-generalization, for example "the findings clearly show that elderly feel …" You have only examined a sample of the population, you have no way of know if everyone in your population would feel the same way. Restrict your interpretations to your sample, point out differences between your target population and your sample's characteristics. Here's an example from a recent paper (Stadtlander et al., 2013):

It is important to consider the generalizability of the current study.  This study examined relatively healthy, independently living, oldest old adults recruited through online students' social networks; thus, the results are specific to this group and may not be generalizable to the general population of oldest old.  This sample is only generalizable to the extent other individuals share the sample’s key demographics. 

 

Next time I will begin a series of posts on quantitative data cleaning and analysis.  Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu

 

Stadtlander, L., Giles, M., Sickel, A., Brooks, E., Brown, C., Cormell, M., Ewing, L., Hart, D., Koons, D., Olson, C., Parker, P., Semenova, V., & Stoneking, S. (2013). Independent Living Oldest-Old and Their Primary Health Provider: A Mixed Method Examination of the Influence of Patient Personality Characteristics. Journal of Applied Gerontology. doi:  10.1177/0733464813482182