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In response to your peers, connect students' examples to earlier units of study in this course

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In response to your peers, connect students' examples to earlier units of study in this course. For example, point out how a misuse or misinterpretation of an average relates to sampling, ethics, or visual displays.

 

Estrella post

The average can be misinterpreted if the reader doesn’t know the context of the study. It can also be misleading by thinking the average means something completely different. One example I can think of is when the weather app predicts the percent of rain. I thought that the percentage they give was an overall guess. Like if it said 50% rain, but then in never ended up raining so I thought the weather app was wrong. Till I found out that it actually meant it was going to rain 100% but there was a 50% change it would rain in your area. Little misinformation like that can cause the misinterpretation of the the average. 

Maranda post

 

One way using averages can be misleading in psychology, is treatment options in patients from the clinician.  The complications come from generalizing the conditions from individual behaviors.  The issue arises in different treatment plans that may better help certain clients.  Grouping a certain disorder with a certain treatment plan that is used to treating the "average" client may not be suitable for every client.  A different treatment may help more than the "typical" treatment plan.  This reminds those as clinician to remember to treat the individual not the disorder.