Analyze Research in the News – Discussion Group 2

NO AI Identify and analyze key components of social psychology research as described a news article or press release that describes a research study about what makes people happy.

The objectives of this discussion forum are to demonstrate your understanding of materials from this Lesson and your ability to use your own brain to identify the different variables and relations among variables in research, critically evaluate media portrayals of academic research with reference to concepts and principles of social psychology research, and to use proper in-text citations.

First, Select one of the following news articles to review and analyze for your work in this discussion board forum:

• Anderson, Jenny. (2022). “
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• Dolan, Eric. (2025). “
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• Dolan, Eric. (2024). “
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• Dolan, Eric. (2024). “
• ” (This article describes a handful of findings reflecting different relationships among different variables. You may focus your analysis only on the findings about happiness / subjective well-being.)
• Johnstone, Josslyn. (2025). “
• .”
• Johnstone, Josslyn. (2025). “
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• Kara-Yakoubian, Mane. (2025). “
• .”
• Marsh, Jason and Robb Willer. (2013). “
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• Perry, Susan. (2020). “
• ” (Note that this article discussed two different research studies that vary slightly by method. Note the difference in methods in your analysis.)
• Setionago, Bianca. (2025). “
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• Schulz, Marc and Robert Waldinger. (2023). “
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• Staloch, Laura. (2023). “
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• Travers, Mark. (2021). “
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Got a different article in mind or want to find an article about something different? You can go to

,

, or

, and search for ‘research on happiness’ or some other variation of key terms (e.g., research/study/researchers/scientific on happy/happiness/happier/well-being) to find a news article or a press release that discusses a single academic research study about what makes people happy (like the articles linked above).

In your discussion post:

1. Identify the news article you selected and reviewed.
2. Use correct in-text citation(s) (see ” page for guidance; click ).
3. Provide a brief (2-3 sentences) synopsis of the research study described in the article that includes a discussion of key components in scientific research. This entails using your brain, based on what you learned in this lesson, to clearly identify and describe:
4. the research question or hypothesis explored in this research;
5. the variables in this research,
6. clearly identify and distinguish between the independent and dependent variables;
7. the research methods, including who the research participants are, and
8. describe the overall findings of this research.
9. Analyze and Discuss the difference between correlation and causation by addressing the following (based on your understanding of what you learned in this Lesson) (in a paragraph):
10. Does the title (or headline) of this news article suggest a causal or correlational relationship between variables? How so, or how not?
11. Does the research, as described in the news article, actually demonstrate a causal or a correlational relation between the variables under study?
12. Describe why or why not: What does the research suggest about the relationship between the variables? Be clear in distinguishing between causation and correlation.
13. Identify and describe at least two other correlates (i.e., variables that may also correlate with both of the variables studied in this research).