Dr Paddock Is a Counseling Psychologist Who Is Interested in Decreasing

question 4

Essay

Dr. Paddock is a counseling psychologist who is interested in decreasing adjustment issues in first-year college students. She is curious if having students create collages of their first few weeks of school and then mail them home will help students feel they have integrated their new life with their old and, as a result, will help them feel less homesick. She samples a group of 100 incoming college freshmen at her university and measures how homesick they are during the first week of school. During week 4 of school, she has them make the collage and send it home. During week 7 of school, she measures their homesickness again. She notices a significant reduction in the amount of homesickness from the pretest to the posttest and concludes that her treatment is effective.
What is a comparison group? What kind of comparison group could Dr. Paddock add to her study to address several threats to internal validity? (In other words, what would this comparison group do/not do?) Explain why this addition would help address threats to internal validity.

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Definitions:

Personal Relationships

Interactions and bonds formed between individuals based on emotional connections, social ties, or professional contacts.

Anxious Ambivalent

Anxious ambivalent refers to a type of attachment style where individuals are overly needy and preoccupied with their relationships because they are constantly worried about their partner's ability to love them back.

Borderline Personality Disorder

A mental health disorder characterized by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships, often resulting in significant emotional distress.

Intimacy

a close, familiar, and usually affectionate or loving personal relationship with another person or group.