Robert J. J. Sternberg 
My Biggest Research Mistake [PDF ebook] 
Adventures and Misadventures in Psychological Research

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: How I Learned from Mistakes – Robert J. Sternberg
I. Failure in conceptualizing research
2. Grandiosity and Overambition – Nick Haslam
3. Separating Data-Based From Non-Data-Based Evaluations – Harry P. Bahrick
4. Too Clever by Half – Judy S. Deloache
5. Death is Not the Answer – Barbara Finlay
6. Thinking More Is More When Less Is More – E. Tory Higgins
7. Manipulation Checks Can Ruin Your Study – Ying-yi Hong
8. Beware of Popular Premises – Jerome Kagan
9. The Need for Blind Testing – Saul M. Kassin
10. Finding Implicit Memory in Posthypnotic Amnesia – John F. Kihlstrom
11. Social Coordination in the Wild – Joachim I. Krueger and Johannes Ullrich
12. Data Distress – Barbara C. Malt
13. A Big Mistake in Interpreting Cultural Differences – David Matsumoto and Hyisung C. Hwang
14. In Praise of Pilot Studies – Richard Mc Carty
15. Start Strong, Plan Ahead – Nora S. Newcombe
16. A Mistake in Studying the Role of Sleep in Speech – Howard C. Nusbaum
17. Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Impasse – Lisa S. Onken
18. Be as Careful After Your Study Is Run as You Are Before – Richard E. Petty
19. Lessons Learned From a Failed Experiment – Paul Slovic
20. Raging Hormones – Laurence Steinberg
21. A Failure in Fidelity of Experimental Treatments – Robert J. Sternberg
22. Stumbling in the Dark – Peter Suedfeld
23. Pilot, Pilot, Pilot – Rebecca Treiman
24. Failure to Recognize Surface Differences Doesn’t Necessarily Imply Underlying Processing Differences – Ovid J. L. Tzeng
25. Farfel Flees From His Feast – Bernard Weiner
II. Prematurely jumping to conclusions
26. Jumping to the Wrong Conclusion: A Lesson About People and Learning – Eva L. Baker
III. Following a garden path
27. Why Didn’t I See It Earlier? – Maya Bar-Hillel
28. Losing Time – Charlotte J. Patterson
IV. Using measures of dubious reliability/validity
29. Virginity in Mate Selection – David M. Buss
30. New Fields, New Errors: Breaking Rules Every Researcher Should Know – Robert A. Baron
31. How Do We Compare Sensory or Hedonic Intensities Across Groups? – Linda M. Bartoshuk and Derek J. Snyder
32. Science Marches on Its Measures – Larry E. Beutler and Samarea Lenore.
33. Reliability Is Not Readiness – C. J. Brainerd
34. The Importance of Being There – Gary P. Latham
35. Failure to Conduct a Pilot Study – Frank C. Worrell
V. Carelessness
36. Small Change—Big Mistake: Check and Check Again – Daniel R. Ilgen
37. Losing My Dissertation Data – Reinhold Kliegl
38. Peers, Procedures, and Panic: A Careless Error That Offered a Lifetime of Benefits – Mitchell J. Prinstein
39. Multiple Missteps: The Twin Study That Should Have Been – Nancy L. Segal
40. Always Late: Causes and Consequences Far and Wide – June Price Tangney
41. When Results Are Too Good to be True, They Are Probably Not True – Thomas S. Wallsten, Gal Zauberman, and Dan Ariely
VI. Overrelying on others
42. Of Course Our Program Is Error-Free—Not! – Mary Hegarty
43. Hiring a Woman to Do a Man’s Job: The Perils of Equal Opportunity Employment When Running (Ruining) Social Psychological Experiments – Julie T. Fitness
44. The Case of the Enterprising Instructor – Regina F. Frey and Mark A. Mc Daniel
VII. Error in statistical analysis
45. Self-Help Can Be No Help at All: Some Unambiguous Advice – Donald J. Foss
46. A Third-Variable Problem in Face Recognition – Isabel Gauthier
VIII. Generalizability of findings
47. Not Establishing the Cross-cultural Validity of Measures of Key Constructs in a High-Stakes Field Experiment – J. Lawrence Aber
48. Ecological Validity: Mistaking the Lab for Real life – Karen E. Adolph
49. A Major Error in the Evaluation of Psychological Treatments for Anxiety – David H. Barlow
IX. Failure to understand the “system”
50. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) – Stephen J. Ceci
51. A Missed Opportunity to Improve on Credibility Analysis in Criminal law – Klaus Fiedler
52. The Importance of Professional Discourse – Jack M. Fletcher
53. “Nem di Gelt?” or Can Accepting Grant Awards Be a Bad Thing? – Richard M. Lerner and Jun Wang
54. Keep Your Friends Close But Your Enemies Closer: With Whom Should You Share Your Creative Ideas? – David B. Pisoni
55. Walking Ethical Tightropes in Research Collaborations – Jonathan A. Plucker
X. Societal costs outweigh societal benefits
56. The Danger of Superficial Success – James C. Kaufman
57. Kinds of Research Mistakes – Robert J. Sternberg
Index

Robert J. Sternberg is Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and Honorary Professor of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He formerly was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education at Yale. His BA is from Yale summa cum laude and his Ph D is from Stanford. He also holds 13 honorary doctorates. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Sternberg has been cited over 150, 000 times and is among the most frequently cited authors in psychology textbooks. He is the winner of the APS Williams James Award and the APS James Mc Keen Cattell Award and of the Grawemeyer Award in Psychology. He is married to Karin Sternberg and has five children: Seth, Sara, Samuel, Brittany, and Melody.