In everyday life, we are regularly exposed to various claims about human psychology and human behavior. While some of these claims may be scientifically valid, many of them are not. With the current trends and advancements in technology, more of these claims are being aired out and they circulate much faster than before. As such, the psychological claim that I am skeptical about is that taking more selfies while smiling improves one’s mood. This claim has come into existence with the advent of sophisticated phones that allow individuals to take photographs of oneself, commonly known as “selfies”. Although one’s happiness depends on external factors, I am skeptical about selfies being crucial in making someone happier.
The research question that I have pertaining to the aforementioned claim is: does taking selfies improve an individual’s mood for the rest of the day? This question could be investigated through the scientific method of experimentation using two sets of groups; the experiment group and the control group (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2012) . The experiment group could take selfies and report about their moods while the control group would report their moods without taking selfies. Observer inference could also be noted to prevent bias due to false answers. The reports of the two groups could then be analyzed to determine whether the claim is true or false.
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On the other hand, using the a priori method, I could chose highly educated individuals to answer the question based on their rational and logical thinking to provide a response. In this case, no experiment will be involved but outright answers from logical and rational thinking (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2012) . The responses of various individuals could then be checked for similarities and differences in establishing the number of respondents holding each point of view. From the two methods, it is clear that “each method represents and reflects a particular perspective on the phenomenon of interest and the multifaceted complexity of human nature” (Rosnow & Rosenthal, 2012).
Reference
Rosnow, R. L., & Rosenthal, R. (2012). Beginning behavioral research: seventh edition .
