Dr Van Ryan Is a Social Psychologist Who Is Curious

question 31

Essay

Dr. Van Ryan is a social psychologist who is curious about how clothing affects people's perceptions. Specifically, she is curious how women who wear high heels are perceived in the workplace. Does the addition of height make co-workers take them more seriously? Are women who wear high heels seen as less professional? She is considering using an experimental design where some participants are instructed to wear high heels to work for a week and some participants are instructed to wear flat shoes. Each day of the week, Dr. Van Ryan will have the women's employer and co-workers rate how competent and professional the female participant is.
After Dr. Van Ryan conducts her study, a colleague accuses Dr. Van Ryan of deleting some of the data that does not match her hypothesis. If this is true, in what type of research misconduct did Dr. Van Ryan engage? Why is this behavior a problem for the science in general?

---

Definitions:

Gravity Variation

Differences in gravitational force measured across the Earth's surface, caused by variations in the density of underlying rocks and materials.

Contour Map

A map marked with lines that represent equal elevation points, used to show the shape and elevation of land surfaces.

Water Table

The upper level of an underground surface in which the soil or rocks are permanently saturated with water, marking the boundary between groundwater and surface water.

Elevations

Refers to the heights of landforms relative to sea level or ground level.