Statistical Procedures

Article Review # 100950

A discussion of the content of "Statistical Procedures and the Justification of Knowledge in Psychological Science," written by R. Rosnow and R. Rosenthal, analyzed through three readings of the article.

1,182 words () | 1 source | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper presents three readings of the article, "Statistical Procedures and the Justification of Knowledge in Psychological Science," written by R. Rosnow and R. Rosenthal. It provides a quick overview of common problems in the first reading, discusses the problems that they highlight in the second reading and discusses the suggestions that they propose in the third reading.

Table of Contents:
First Reading
Second Reading
Third Reading

From the Paper:

"On a positive note, Rosnow and Rosenthal offer a number of suggestions for improving academic research. First, they claim that meta-analysis is needed in order to determine the true relationships behind data, and not just new interpretations. The process for this is outlined as one in which researchers check each other's work and run new quantitative analyses on the same data in order to determine whether the data is in fact valid. The effort here should be to further research, not to nit pick. They point out that researchers should "cumulate data not conclusions." In doing so, they argue, researchers will improve the general condition of the professional approach to data because they will be forced to justify their own data in stronger terms (as others will be checking them). They also conclude that researchers will have to do their own legwork in compiling the reviews of literature and presume that this will help further the field as a whole because researchers will not rely on surface analysis and narrative reviews, but will instead apply more rigorous methods of analysis."

Sample of Sources Used:

Rosnow, R., and Rosenthal, R. (1989). Statistical procedures and the justification of knowledge in psychological science. American Psychologist, 44(10):1276-1284.