Peterson, David. “The Baby Factory: Difficult Research Objects, Disciplinary Standards, and the
Production of Statistical Significance.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic
World, vol. 2, 2016.
The article argues that researchers in developmental psychology field usually become over-flexible when executing experiment protocols, but such behavior would cause unreliable scientific conclusions. Peterson presents two reasons to support this main claim. Firstly, such flexibility could produce the non-existent cause-effect relationship due to unstated factors. To prove this negative influence, he introduces his ethnographic lab observation, which illustrates that flexibility in subject age can be the unstated factor that creates completely
Production of Statistical Significance.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic
World, vol. 2, 2016.
The article argues that researchers in developmental psychology field usually become over-flexible when executing experiment protocols, but such behavior would cause unreliable scientific conclusions. Peterson presents two reasons to support this main claim. Firstly, such flexibility could produce the non-existent cause-effect relationship due to unstated factors. To prove this negative influence, he introduces his ethnographic lab observation, which illustrates that flexibility in subject age can be the unstated factor that creates completely