People who chew gum report feeling less stressed. (Smith, 2009)
Read the abstract of this study.
Discuss:
Does psychological research ever prove anything? Why do we say the results only indicate or suggest? Refer to the Smith (2009) study or another of your choice. (3-4 thoughtful sentences are enough!)
Ms. Saar's Blog 
It’s not easy to limit the stress,everyone lives and experience their own way to do this. This research, like all of them, gives us just some knowledge on how it could be possibly “fighted”. The research is not 100% right, this because its done only with a limited number of people, to be accurate it should be done on all the people on earth. This obviously is impossible to do so they limit themself to estimate the fact that eating a chewin-gum could limit the amount of stress. Everyone react differently so this could be true for some people but not for everyone, this is why i say it isn’t totally accurat and true. This research is still useful cause it gives us some insight of how stress could be’ release but it doesnt prove that they are right for everyone.
I think that psychological research can prove some things, however i feel that it is not always 100% accurate. However in this particular case i do not think that it can “prove something” because the correlation between gum-chewing and less stress varies between people. Everyone is so different and therefore this research cannot be generalized to everyone. In this case, considering everyone is different and has there own “resistance” methods, that stress is relieved by gum chewing because everyone is different when it comes to that. For some people it doesnt do anything, but in agreement with dave, for the people that it does seem to help, it can be in their head, but not all the times, it could also just be a repetative thing and the gum-chewing is so constant and done so often that it creates a comfortable setting, this is the case for me, i feel that playing basketball in a stressful game with a lot of pressure is much less stressful for me when i have a small peice of chewing gum, because it jsut helps me channel my focus and play hard, however i do not think that psychological research can prove this, because people in todays societies are just too different.
Psychological research can prove something maby for a group of people. But not every one is the same. A group of could react one way then an other grouple would react, therfor the results of those study are not 100% sure for everyone. chewing gum not a stress relief for most people but for those that do chew gum to reduse stress its all in their heads.
Psychology can’t prove things, because people are so different so we can’t generalize them. This gum study was showing how people who chew gum are less stressed because gum works as a stress reliever. I’m not sure about this study because I don’t know who those people were, so maybe all of these people were from the same city or working in the same company. If all of them were from the same city then it only shows that certain type of people are not stressed because they chew gum. I’m sure that Psychology shows important things to us, but it can’t prove anything because every person is different.
I find it a little far fetched to start coming to the conclusion that chewing gum is a good stress reliever. In the article, there is no real correlation to gum chewers to non chewers. And in the post it begins listing people who are more likely to chew gum. But it seems hard to agree with because that there is no evidence to relate to the chosen groups to be targeted. It does not seem like a very well based study. When the chewing gum group had been reported to that they were one and a half times as likely to report stress in their lives compared to the twice as likely group, seems like it is a very minimal change to jump to a somewhat understanding that “gum chewing may help deal with stress”.
The reason psychologists don’t use the word prove is because people experience things differently and because there are many contributing factors. Smith’s research shows that there is a relationship between chewing gum and being less stressed in this particular sample. However one cannot generalize everyone according to a survey including only 2000 people. It is wrong to draw a conclusion about a population based on a sample that is not large enough. People’s brains work differently and we react differently to different situations.
As the article suggests “it’s perfectly possible that some other factor reduce stress.” Even though some of these factors were taken into consideration, it is extremely difficult to consider all the factors in a study including 2000 people. Therefore psychologists can’t say that that the study proves anything, there are many factors that can point to the fact that the study doesn’t prove anything. Gum chewers may for example be less stressed because of other reasons. Even thought the researchers saw a relationship, it doesn’t necessarily say the study proves anything, therefore researchers have to say it suggests or indicates something.
weather psychology can actually “prove” is arguable. in my opinion psychology cannot prove anything because it is too much of an expansive and varying field. psychology is dependent on so many factors which makes coming to a final conclusion near impossible. human psychology varies with genetics, experiences, age, mood, culture and many more, and it is for this reason that a common “formula” if you wish cannot be written so that it accurately encompasses all of humans behavior. therefor psychologists merely claim that research supports or suggests a notion because of this difficulty in defining an absolute answer.
I think that psychological research can hardly ever prove something, because people are different and so are their responses to these studies. Therefore we can say that when most of the people act/answer the same way, we can suggest that MOST of the people are also, but not everybody. The gum chewing study showed us how most of the people are having lower stress levels thanks to it, but it doesn’t mean that everybody does. I also think that chewing gum and lower stress levels are not directly connected, at least this study doesn’t really show this.
And the study says that chewing gum is good for your physical health, but there are many studies that are stating the opposite (for example: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93907.php)
I don’t think prove is the right word when speaking of pshycological research, simply because a study on a certain amount of people can’t always be generalized to everyone else. But i it can show that a certain type of behaviour is/can be found in a certain group of people. The study on chewing gum reducing stress could just have been a coincidence, but it does not prove that it reduces stress it can indicate that there might be a chance that chewing gum does reduce stress.
I really love your avatar figure marius 🙂 It’s very you 😉
Psychological researchers use words like “suggest” or/and indicate because the research done cannot be generalized to every single person. By using words like “proven” suggests that it can be generalized and therefore creating a false statement because a research cannot be applied to every single person in the world. The Smith (2009), for example, some people could probably relieve some stress by chewing gum but not every single person because different personalities could have a different reactions towards chewing gum. So if Smith said something like “it is proven that chewing gum can help relief stress” it would be wrong because by saying that it suggests that Smith have interviewed every single person in the world and that not one person contradicted his research. Having so many different people across the world creates so many different behaviors towards different things that there is no ONE way of doing something.
A very clear explanation of why we avoid using the word “prove” in psychology, Stephen! Thanks for stating it so well.
The correlation isnt exactly new age thinking, there is a reason why people chew gums, and why smokers chew nicotine gum instead of nicotine tablets. So it does seem reasonable to believe that chewing gum is connected to lower stress levels. But nothing is clear as to what the connection is. I’m not sure if I believe that stress levels go down because of gum chewing, or if gum chewing is a result of low stress levels… It’s not clear if it is the actual chewing motion that is calming, or chemicals in the gum or the monotony. I do believe there is a connection because it is very logical and I believe its true for me. But that also brings up the point that this might just be true for some people, maybe those in the study who did have lower stress levels were just chewing gum out of convenience or habit, there were probably some low stress people who did not chew gum. There is no clear cause-and-effect relationship, so I would wait for the intervention study before saying im completely certain, but I do think the next study would probably back this one up, but on which factor I’m not sure.
Yes, psychological experiments can prove things. If i were to ask the question ‘is there a link between chewing gum and stress levels’, then went on to form a study to determine the answer, to answer the question based on evidence is to form an answer from the proof. Consider that if you see just a snake’s tail in a snake’s mouth, you don’t know how many snakes there were, but you know there was a snake. In this study, it said the hypothesis held ‘even when other contributing factor were factored out’. Ergo, a link was proven. This does not mean chewing gum will releive stress everytime. This does not mean that all people who chew gum will experienced reduced stress. However, it does mean that chewing gum ‘may’ help releive stress, or stress ‘may’ result in chewing gum. Yes, it is a possibility, but to ascertain that a possibility is possible at all is to determine the possibility, and therefore prove it.
Studies have shown that different people will respond to stress differently. Therefore, does that not also mean that different things can help deal with stress also? I personally don’t think that chewing gum would help with my stress particularly because I don’t chew gum or even like it! Plus, I don’t think something that common would be of much help considering that people chew gum every second of everyday yet they still seem to be stressed due to common everyday things like school or work. Saying that chewing gum will help decrease stress just doesn’t fit.
I personally think that psychological research does sometimes prove something but it may not always be 100% correct. Referring back to the study Smith (2009) did on People who chew gum report feeling less stressed, I believe this may be somewhat true because a couple of years ago I used to grind my teeth a lot (which I do now as well but not as much as before) due to the stress I had from school. I do believe chewing gum might help a little bit for relieving stress but I don’t think that it really helps that much. Grinding your teeth and chewing gum are very similar to each other because both of them are occurring in the mouth and involving your teeth. So therefore I do, in one way believe that chewing gum helps.
I think that they say the results only indicate or suggest because it shows the readers that this maybe not be 100% sure if it’s correct and only have proof from their study or it may also show that there is room for improvement.
Your final sentence is the key to the underlying philosophy of using “indicate” or “suggest” instead of “prove” in psychology. The idea is that future research may contradict this study, and the authors want to acknowledge that idea. Very nicely said, Corina!
Psychological Research creates a possible correlation between human being’s and how the environment affects the person either mentally or physically. There will always be thousands of possibilities and yet for it to be true is quite subjective as people respond differently to different factors. Does it prove anything? I personally don’t believe so as in the Smith study, it tells that stress can be decrease by chewing gum but taking into account of other factors, those can just have much influence and an effect on one’s stress level. Also like smoking, we know it meddles with your serotonin level so it could be just as much as an effect as chewing does. They show correlations and possibilities, but they don’t really prove it thoroughly. Why do we say suggest? Well we could never really prove it fully as there is just enormous amount of factors that could make that particular study invalid. There is just too much factors needed to take into account hence stopping us from saying that it is rather than suggest. Plus suggest makes it applicable to a bigger society and some room of error as for definate there will be people who won’t be a having the same effect on them in the same study. Suggest is due to majority of result in the study, not all.
Smiths gum chewing study seems a little far fetched, the links between stress levels and chewing gum are probably at least to a certain extent bidirectional, and probably to a larger extent influenced by something else altogether. Maybe the psych community is just a bit afraid of words like ‘prove’, which isn’t surprising really; since nearly every generation creates a new explanations for (most) human behaviours. On the other hand the same goes for every area of science and yet we have fixed ‘laws’ and ‘theories’ in physics that are taught as facts.
I think psychological research can help prove certain things, but not on itself. If a psychological study backs up or helps prove something biological or scientific which actually can be proven, we still say that it indicates or suggests. I think this is because the study of science and biology in a person, the parts and basics are the same and we can see differences in the brain and prove things. However, human nature is completly different from person to person and can not really be seen physically. An example is this chewing gum theory by Smith (2009). The reason they chew gum may very from person to person, some may do it to relieve stress, others to get a taste in their mouth, as a habit, or to help focus, even. The study in itself is flawed because the people in the study don’t know exactly how to characterize levels of stress, what some may say is extremely stressful others may think is just a little stressful etc, so this study is not very accurate. However, if there was a scientific study which said gum destressed people and this study was conducted, although a little more scientifically and professionally, this might help indicate or suggest the same things as the scientific study, but not prove anything in itself.
Does psychological research ever prove anything? Why do we say the results only indicate or suggest?
It does prove things. Saying “does it EVER prove ANYTHING” is an overstatement. It does prove things, but people are so different that it can change from person to person thats why it can only indicate and suggest. People behave and respond so differently that one finding can not always be applied to several people. Pshychological research is designed to help people and determine ways to improve. And research has designed ways to improve so we can not say that it doesnt prove anything. For some people chewing gum may destress a person but some people may experience it as a habit.. so it varies from person to person and there is no set way for everyone to behave so results and findings can be applied to some people but not all.
In your final sentence, Daisy, you show why psychology uses the terms “indicate” and “suggest” instead of “prove” — precisely because of the way behavior can (and does!) vary from person to person.
Psychological research is initiated with a problem or a question; for example if someone is curious about curing an illness, or simply wondering why people behave in certain ways this often begins the process of psychological research. All psychological studies are based on theories whether they are newly thought up or are expansions on old research, none can be determined as factual. This is because the brain is at least slightly different in each person and there is no plausible way to research every single person/ living being in the world. Since everyone is different and we cannot examine every single person,or living being, it is inaccurate to say that the sample population chosen for you study represents everyone because you have not tested everyone. Therefore research does not prove anything, even though it can be extremely accurate towards most people, all psychological research is theory. An example of psychological research can be seen in the Smith study (2009). In this study Smith questioned over 2000 workers about their stress levels and their gum chewing habits. It was concluded that people who chew gum had a significantly lower stress level, while people who did not chew gum seemed to have a lot more stress. Throughout the case study it never says proves, or any words indicating that his findings are facts, but merely findings. Also at the end of the case study it mentions that he is also performing another study over the same theory to further provide evidence of his theory, indicating that he knows his research is not proof, but a theory. We cannot determine our research as something proven, because there is no way to prove that it is correct, unlike a math problem where if it is done correctly every single person will come out with the same answer, psychological research can be determined in numerous ways, therefore should not be used as proof of the accuracy of a theory. For this reason we must say the research indicates or suggests so it is known that this is what the specific researcher determined, but it is not proven.