Park - Study Research

The article being assessed is studying whether the relationship between the judge and the target is related to how accurate mind reading can be. Furthermore, the researchers believe the relationship between the judge and the target will vary depending on the familiarity of the interpersonal relationships and the accuracy of the mind reading will vary by gender of the judge. I believe the concept of mind reading is difficult to assess because no one can directly correlate the thoughts of one being to the dynamics of a relationship while meeting the three points of causality. The article’s concepts are sound but the way in which the variables are operationalized and measured introduces error which makes it even harder to specify the dimension of the relationship that causes the mind-reading to be accurate.

The conceptual independent variable in this study is the relationship between the judge and the target, but when operationalized, the independent variable becomes a primary group of dating partners, friends, and strangers. The dating partners were a group of 50 heterosexual couples in relationships where at least one of the partners in each couple attended University of Canterbury. Also, the researcher chose a group for friends which is 50 individuals and a group of strangers comprised of 25 female and 25 male students of University of Canterbury. The operationalization of the independent variable introduces error because the sampling of the participants is for convenience, I believe, which alters the broadness of the study’s results. In addition, the operationalized independent variable introduces systematic errors because of the biases in the selection of the participants in the study.

The conceptual dependent variable in this study is the accuracy of the mind reading. The dependent variable is operationalized by the Mind Reading Ability Index which is a method of testing the correspondence between one partner’s description of their own thoughts and their...