A psychologist gives several personality tests to a group of participants. When sifting through her data, she is surprised to find that people born in the summer have a slightly higher (but statistically significant) need for Achievement than those born in the winter. She concludes that exposing children to the stimulation of the outdoors during the first few months of life (as the summer-born children were) results in a higher need for Achievement when the children become adults. What might we conclude from this?
A) The hypothesis needs to be tested with a controlled lab study.
B) The hypothesis has not been tested because the researcher explained the findings after seeing the results.
C) The hypothesis is supported with these data, but probably should be replicated to see if it generalizes to other samples.
D) The hypothesis is useless because it cannot be tested.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The hypothesis has not been properly tested because the explanation was formulated after observing the results, which can lead to post hoc reasoning.

A Psychologist Gives Several Personality Tests to a Group of Participants