Flaws in Reported Study Response Paper Example

The reported research study, produced by Professor Welsh of Hendrick College, seems to offer promising results, however under closer examination, there is insufficient evidence, especially regarding the proposed law, the study is attempting to support. Senator Smith is proposing a law requiring all freshmen at a local college to enroll in at least 3 hours worth of extracurricular activities each week because of the results from the research study.

One of the first things to take issue within the reporting of Professor Welsh’s research is the ambiguity of the wording surrounding the correlational aspect of the research. Professor Welshdoes do not indicate the directionality of the correlation, it could be a small negative number which would mean the opposite of the findings presented in the article, that an increased number of hours of extracurricular is associated with depressed GPA and that higher GPA is associated with limited extracurricular hours. Beyond this ambiguity, if we assume that instead, it is a small positive correlation between the two variables, there are still issues with this kind of correlational research.

The most commonly run into an issue with correlational research is the idea that correlation does not mean causation, even though many people, even respected Professors, in this case, think it does. This is the main issue with the law proposition because the Senator is under the impression that the extracurricular involvement is causing the increase in the GPA directly when those two things are just showing similar trends. The most notorious example of this is the statistical evidence that shows both the rates of murder as well as ice cream sales increase in the summer. The two rates are correlated, yet no one would ever try to pass a law limiting ice cream sales as a way to decrease murder rates. That is similar logic to Senator Smith’s Bill which we can now see is very flawed. 

Further, correlational research like Professor Welsh’s often runs into an issue colloquially known as the 3rd variable problem. This can be explained as the belief that although the two variables, GPA and extracurricular hours, seem related, there is a third variable such as work ethic or time management skills that are not being accounted for or measured and have a bigger impact on the other two variables. This happens under spurious conditions and this third variable can also be referred to as the confounding variable.

The next element within the research to take issue with the lack of generalizability of the sample. The sample, 500 junior and seniors, is not representative of the whole college population, from a biological age standpoint as well as from the sense of intellectual maturity. Once someone is an upperclassman, they are much more likely to have the time management skills necessary to be involved in multiple extracurricular activities and maintain a high GPA. But often this comes through trial and error during the first two years of undergrad which are not at all represented by the data. The law Senator Smith wants to sign into action only impacts freshmen at the University which is outside the age range and education level of those sampled in the research. The research results of a small correlation can not be extrapolated to this population so clearly outside the sample demographics. Furthermore, there is a difference in the type of school the law will apply to, a large public school, and the school the research was sampled at, Hendrick, a small private school. The best way to remedy these generalizability issues would be to redefine the participant sample to freshman and then to all grades at the large public school and see if the same correlation exists and further investigate it from there. 

The best way to remedy the issues brought about by the correlational research would be to refine the research methods to clearly article the kind of correlation seen between the two variables first and foremost. The vagueness in Professor Welsh’s words is somewhat unnerving, especially because lack of specificity can often mean some part of the research and the research design is being concealed. Beyond that, I would want to see the data results of reported GPA being compared against other variables such as time management skills, major, self-proclaimed maturity levels, and difficulty of coursework. I think those all could be possible third variables influencing the results of the GPA increase, but because they are eliminated from the picture, the researchers, as well as the observers, cannot evaluate the potential relationship.

If these changes were made and the research was re-collected and re-analyzed I think there could be a very obvious benefit in the results and help universities determine how to best have their students academically achieve success in terms of GPA and grades. However, because of the numerous flaws in the way the study was conducted as well as how the results were interpreted, I do not support the passing on Senator Smith’s bill nor do I support the use of Professor Welsh’s research as evidence for the bill.