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For each of the following scenarios create an experimental
research design (regular or quasi) in which you answer the following questions:
1. Who are your subjects of interest? Are they going to be
grouped according to certain characteristics?
2. What is the independent variable (IV)?
3. How many levels of the IV will you choose to include?
Will you have only treatment groups or will you also include a control group?
4. What is the dependent variable (DV)?
5. How are you going to measure the DV? (e.g., survey,
weighing neural tissue, assessing attitudes, assessing performance, observational
checklist, etc.)
Please keep in mind that the following suggested responses
may differ from yours. Often the case is that there is not one absolute way to
design an experiment to examine a given research question. You will need to
decide whether your variation is suitable and if you have any doubts or
questions, do NOT hesitate to ask your peers or instructor/assistants!
1. Does one’s gender
have anything to do with the number of friends he or she will have in middle
school? Subject pool: 800 female and male middle school students in
1.
middle school students
2.
gender
3.
two: female and male
4. we’re
measuring # of friends
5.
self-report survey: list names of your
closest and next closest friends
Note: this is a quasi-experimental research design.
Do you know why?
2. Does
being involved in extracurricular activities lead to college students feeling
less homesick?
1.
college students
2.
involvement in extracurricular activities
3.
two: yes involved ; no not involved
4.
we’re measuring their homesickness
5.
some kind of homesickness assessment (also called inventories, battery of
inventories, surveys, etc.)
Note: this is a quasi-experimental research design.
Do you know why?
3. You want
to determine whether or not using a token economy program for females diagnosed
with anorexia is effective in increasing their eating behavior.
Note: Ppl w/ anorexia
are notorious for resisting and sabotaging their tx, therefore a behaviorist
approach to tx called the “Token Economy Program” has had quite a significant
success rate, especially when combined with a cognitive approach to therapy.
When a patient is first admitted and is medically stable, all of her privileges
are taken away. Exs of priviliges:
family and friend visits, t.v., craftwork, etc. As the girls/women
demonstrate steady increases in healthy weight gain, they are given tokens.
Analogous to the token/paper ticket exchange system at an arcade, the patients
are allowed to exchange their tokens for privileges.
1. females
w/ anorexia who are institutionalized (probably in a medical setting)
2.
type of therapeutic program
3.
two: token economy program ; traditional program [Note: you would most likely not have a control
condition in this type of experiment, b/c withholding any kind of tx would be
unethical when death or severe permanent bodily harm can result. However,
sometimes “control group” means the non-experimental tx group, even if a different
kind of tx is implemented]
4. weight
in ounces [Note: the goal is to get
these girls/women to a healthy weight, so you wouldn’t just focus on compliance
with the program; we want to see healthy results!]
5. use
a scale (also chart to the crumb & drop what they ingested)
Note: This is a quasi-experimental research design;
the girls/women have a pre-existing condition—we didn’t go out and randomly
recruit females to be anorexic just so we could experiment on them.
4. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that taking x amount of milligrams of aspirin per day
decreases heart attack rates. You want to design an experiment in which you
administer aspirin and a placebo (i.e., a sugar pill that people think may be
aspirin).
1. Ppl
at risk for heart attacks, perhaps middle-aged, overweight men
2.
Take a pill
3.
two: one group will be given a pill that
has apirin in it and the other group (the control group) will be given an
identical looking pill w/ no medicine in it—no aspirin—it’s just a sugar pill
or a pill w/ inert ingredients (just like the 7 pills in a pack of oral
contraceptives that a female takes during her menstrual cycle—this helps her
continue the pattern of “taking a pill a day keeps the baby away” behavior.
4.
cardio health and actual rate of heart attacks
5.
Doctors use medical technology to assess artery blockage; blood flow; blood
pressure; heart attack rate
Note:
Do you know what the “placebo effect” is and it might influence the outcome of
this study? How could you mitigate the effect of the “placebo effect?”
FYI:
Placebo is Latin for “I will please.”
5. You want to study
the effects of alcohol on driving ability. You have access to vehicle-simulation
equipment. Your subjects have to consist of people age 21 and older for ethical
and legal reasons.
1.
Just for fun lets go with mall shoppers. Why should college students have all
the fun? And of course they will need to prove they are of age. Actually this
experiment will most likely take place in which immediate medical attention can
be provided. We would also probably need to do a background check both
self-report of the participant and criminal record to reduce the likelihood
that the participants are alcoholics or are unhealthy in any other way.
2.
alcohol consumption
3.
three: no alcohol group—this is your
control grp; 24oz of alcohol grp; 48oz of alcohol grp.
4. driving
errors
5.
vehicle-simulation equipment that is programmed to record the # of driving
errors a participant commits as well as rate the severity of the accidents
(i.e., people being run over, property damage, etc.)
6. How would you go
about studying whether or not super bowl Sunday causes or is associated with
increased aggressiveness toward women?
1. Women
who received medical attention (If you want to delve deeper, you might also
include a sample of men who have been charged with domestic violence—this
approach would be a lot less reliable—why do you think?)
2. Day
of the week & event
3.
four: a) Sunday plus superbowl; b) Sunday
plus regular season football game; c) Sunday non-football season; d) Wednesday
chosen at random
4.
Rates of women who received medical attention related to injury inflicted by
intimate partner (i.e., boyfriend, husband, ex-anything)
5.
Admit rates (for women whose injuries meet the criteria above) selected from a
random sample of medical facilities (private & public)
Note
#1: Domestic abuse can also be
psychological, but for obvious reasons, this is infinitely more difficult to
track and prove.
Note
#2: The “Abuse Bowl” debate has provoked
quite a stir in which conservatives and liberals have gone rounds here and
there over the past couple of decades. The bottom line is this. When
researchers conduct bad research OR when people knowingly or ignorantly
misinterpret research findings, then nobody wins and everybody suffers. And
never forget this point: Do Not ever
think that it is okay to develop or change policy based on the outcome of one
study alone. Replicate. Replicate. Replicate. Replicate. The data I have on the
misuse of the super bowl / abuse bowl debate is old. If someone wanted to do
their media portfolio project on this, please let me know.
7. Determine whether
it is men or women who more positively value and seek socioeconomic status in a
mate.
1.
men and women from varying socioeconomic backgrounds (FYI: Socioeconomic Status = occupation &
income & highest level of education attained)
2.
gender
3.
two: men & women
4. criteria
ratings of attractiveness in a mate
5.
survey in which the participants rank the importance of what they value in a
mate—financial stability & job status would be two of a moderately long
list of criteria.
Note: This is a quasi-experimental research design
8. Are physically
attractive people perceived as more or less intelligent than not physically
attractive people?
1.
College students, grocery store shoppers, teachers, children—just about anyone
who meets the criteria of being a homo sapien (FYI: homo sapien means wise
human b/c sapien comes from the word, “sapient,”
wch means wise.
2.
Pictures of ppl who vary in attractiveness
3.
three: a) highly attractive person, b)
average looking person, and c) unattractive person
4.
intelligence ratings
5.
show participants the three pictures and have them rate a number of attributes
in which intelligence is one of the attributes. You could also include how nice
they are, how much $ they earn, substance abuser, etc.
9. The Marine Corps
is interested in whether an adversarial program will produce better soldiers
than a nonadversarial program. Adversarial in this case refers to being
humiliated, yelled at, degraded, provoked, etc.
1.
Marine Corps recruits
2.
Type of training program
3.
two: adversarial & nonadversarial
4.
competency in the Marine Corps
5.
written exams and physical performance ratings
10. Determine whether
people are more likely to help a stranger who has dropped their packages near
an exit door as they are leaving a mall or near the middle of the mall away
from any exits.
1.
mall shoppers
2.
location of scenario in mall
3.
two: one scenario would consist of a stranger who has dropped their packages
near an exit door; another scenario would consist of a stranger who has dropped
their packages near the middle of the mall. Note: of course we’re not going to
wait around all day for random strangers who might drop something, so we use a
confederate—someone who is “in on” the experiment, an actor/actress.
4. helping
behavior
5.
observational ratings of length of time in initiating help and quality of
assistance provided
11. Determine whether
people marry others from a similar economic background.
1.
adults
2.
type of economic background
3.
two: pairings of ppl from similar economic backgrounds; pairings of ppl from
dissimilar economic backgrounds
4.
assessing whether the pairs of ppl are married or unmarried—in other words
you’re assessing they’re marital status.
5.
survey
12. Determine whether
there's a difference in happiness levels between people who live with other
people and people who live alone.
1.
college students or apartment dwellers
2.
living situation
3.
two: live with others or live alone
4.
happiness ratings
5.
happiness inventory
13. Determine whether
or not children who attend daycare acquire more advanced interpersonal social
skills at an earlier age than those who are raised primarily at home.
1.
children between the ages of three and seven
2.
child-rearing situation
3.
two: child care & home-reared & just home-reared
4.
interpersonal skills
5.
observational ratings of quality of peer interactions
14. Determine whether
reinforcing comments will make people work harder in an assembly line type of
job.
1.
assembly line personnel at Kodak
2.
type of work environment
3.
two: work environment with reinforcing comments; work environment w/o
reinforcing comments—control grp
4.
productivity ratings
5.
observation of productivity quality and quantity
15. Determine whether
boys show more affection toward their father or their mother in dual parent
homes.
1.
male children ages
2.
parent
3.
two: father & mother
4.
levels of affection
5.
observation & parental interview
16. Determine whether
people spend more or less money on average in a grocery store when the milk and
bread are placed close together than when placed apart.
1.
supermarket customers
2.
degree of proximity of product
3.
two: milk and bread close together in
proximity ; milk and bread far apart
4.
amount of money a customer spends
5.
analyze grocery store receipts in which milk and bread purchases were made
under the two different conditions.