Worksheet 2

Miyake, A., Kost-Smith, L. E., Finkelstein, N. D., Pollock, S. J., Cohen, G. L., & Ito, T. A. (2010). Reducing the gender achievement gap in college science: A classroom study of values affirmation. Science, 330(6008), 1234-1237. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.119599

1.) Try and provide a broad and conceptual definition of values affirmation. I am asking for a very high-level definition.

1 a.) How did the authors argue that values affirmation buffers against psychological threat?

1 b.) How did the authors manipulate values affirmation in the current study? Put another way, what was the operational definition of values affirmation in the current study? Do you think this was a good manipulation (or that the manipulation had high construct validity)?

2.) What were the authors' hypotheses or research questions?

3. ) What were the two independent variables or predictors in this study for the primary analyses? (Hint: one was manipulated, and the other was naturally occurring)

3 a.) Given your answer about the independent variables, what is the design of this study for the primary analyses?

4.) What were the dependent variables in the current study?

4 a.) Try writing the conceptual and operational definitions for the dependent variables.

5.) In class, we discussed looking at continuous variables as moderators of our condition effects. In additional analyses, the authors looked at a moderator variable. Briefly describe this variable and why the authors thought it would moderate the effect of values affirmation.

6.) What were the primary findings (i.e., the findings without the moderator)? Did these findings support the authors' predictions?

7.) What were the findings with the moderator variable? How did this variable moderate the effect of values affirmation?

8.) Do you think this study was high, neither high nor low (i.e., in the middle), low in external validity? Briefly explain your answer.