Due November 8. Late deadline November 15.
Reading:
In this assignment you will examine evidence about cell phone use.
Study Questions
Number your answers carefully. Save in a document called Task10 and submit to Tasks, Tests and Surveys.
Read the editorial article "Which is Epidemic - Sexting or Worrying about It?". Click the link to open a 2 page PDF file containing the article. You can also go to the Wall Street Journal web site at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123913888769898347.html?mod=djemnumbers
1. What is the issue? Make sure you word it as a question that the conclusion answers.
2. What is the conclusion?
3. (2 points) Give an example from the article of any of the types of evidence described in chapters 8 and 9 of Asking the Right Questions. Identify the text and what type of evidence it is.
4. (2 points) Repeat #3 with a different type of evidence.
5. (2 points) This article describes a research study that was sponsored by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com. Find the home page for one of these organizations. Find a description of what the organization does. Name the organization and briefly describe what they do. Questions to consider: Are they public or private? How do they make their money? Do you think they might be biased. (you must say why or why not)?
6. (4 points) According to the article, David Finkelhor states that teens who answer online polls "are more likely to be people who engage in this type of activity."
a. Is Mr. Finkelhor an expert? How do you know?
b. Is he using intuition? What in the article leads you to believe he is or is not?
7. (2 points) Reg Baker says that the people who participate in online panels are people who spend lots and lots of time online. Could this skew the study results by leaving groups of people out of the results? Describe how or why.
8. (6 points) Terry Humphreys thinks that "semi-nude" is ambiguous. Bill Albert says it is not. A judge thinks that a 15 year old girl shown in a bra is semi-nude. If semi-nude is ambiguous, it should not have been asked as a question.
a. Who is a more qualified expert, Albert or Humphreys. Why?
b. How could the survey question be reworded to make it less ambiguous by using Albert's definition of semi-nude?
c. Do you think the survey results would have been the same with the reworded question? 22% of teenage girls said they had shared semi-nude or nude photos. Why?
Go to http://realpsychology.com/node/12 and look through the introduction and results pages for "Sexting...Is It All About Power?
9. Use the page links to find out about Susan Lipkins. What are her qualifications?
10. (2 points) Susan Lipkins is the publisher of the Real Psychology web site. How does this impact the quality of the information?
11. (2 points) Describe in detail who the subjects of the study on sexting were and how it was conducted.
12. (2 points) The study included a power profile. Look at the Results of Sexting Study section. What was the unexpected result of power and sexting?
13. (3 points) What suggestions does the author offer to limit sexting?
14. (6 points) The results of the study say that 66% of teens sexted. This is 3 times higher that the first article you read. In that article, Bilyek says that 22% is inflated. Why do you think that Dr. Lipkins results were so much bigger?
15. (4 points) Search the Internet to find a case example of a tragic result from sexting. Give the URL and a brief description of what happened.