2. A psychotherapist invented a new technique for treating depression.
He randomly selected half of his depressed clients and gave them the new
therapy for the next six months. At the end of that time, he asked all
his clients, those getting the new therapy and those getting the old, to
rate their depressed symptoms as either "much worse", "worse", "about the
same", "better", or "much better". He concludes that the new therapy is
better than the old one hed been using
3. A psychologist compares ESP ability in men and women by having his
subjects predict which of five differently colored balls will be randomly
drawn from a can by a blindfolded assistant. After repeating the procedure
50 times with each subject, the womens predictions are 20% more accurate
than the mens, leading to the finding that women have better ESP than men.
4. A guest expert on a TV talk show claims that the divorce rate for
interracial marriages is five times higher than the divorce rate for same-race
marriage partners and urges the viewers to avoid marrying someone of a
different race.
5. Larry visits a gambling casino and loses all his money playing Blackjack.
The next day he returns to playing Blackjack, bringing twice as much money
with him as before, reasoning that his chances of winning are so much better
on the second day because he lost so consistently on the first day.
6. A clinic sponsoring a Stop Smoking treatment program surveys all
the people who completed the program during its first year. The survey
revealed that 74% of the respondents were still not smoking three months
after completing the program. In their next advertising campaign, they
claim a 75% success rate for those who enroll in their program.
7. One hundred first-semester freshmen enrolled in a psychology course.
For the first half of the semester, the students were given traditional
lectures. For the second half of the semester, material was presented using
a multi-media format consisting of videos, computer simulations, and hands-on
demonstrations. Since the students made higher grades and were more satisfied
with the course during the second half of the semester, the instructor
concluded that the muti-media presentations were more effective.
8. A researcher wanted to know how the general population felt about
putting the names and faces of men who had been charged of soliciting prostitutes
on local television shows. Residents opinions were obtained by contacting
by phone every tenth registered voter selected randomly by a computer.
The survey revealed a strong favorable reaction to the policy.
9. An investigator gave a personality test to a large number of crack cocaine addicts. The addicts scores on the trait of "emotionality" were significantly lower than the scores on that trait obtained from the general population. This caused the investigator to believe that highly unemotional people are more susceptible to crack cocaine addiction.
For the instructor, you may want to see the discussion of Causal Arguments on the Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project Web site. (http://www.kcmetro.cc.mo.us/ctac/emparg.htm#causal)
Copyright
© 1996 Andrew Geoghegan,
Permission to reproduce these resource pages is granted for
non-profit educational use provided the above information
is retained on all copies.
Inquiries to: michael.connelly@mcckc.edu
Last modified: 03/02/04