Be sure to state how you will be analyzing your data in order to determine the results of the study.

Transcription

1 Assignment 2: Research Design Assignment INSTRUCTIONS: This is a writing assignment to assess your knowledge of the procedures involved in conducting two types of research designs: A Non-Experimental research design and an Experimental (True- Experimental or Quasi-Experimental) research design. Your assignment is to plan and explain each design in narrative format. Remember, you are describing a study that you could conduct; you will not actually conduct this study. This assignment should be 2 pages in length (1 page for each type of design), typed, double-spaced, and 12 pt. Font. Please check your grammar and spelling prior to turning it in. Credit will not be given for any information that is not clearly stated. Use underlined headings to indicate each of the two types of research designs that you employ. Example format: Non-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a study using a non-experimental research design in order to determine the relationship between Predictor Variable(s) and Criterion Variable(s). True-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a study using a true-experimental research design in order to determine the effects of IV(s) on DV(s). Or Quasi-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a study using a quasi-experimental research design in order to determine the effects of IV(s) on DV(s). Be sure to state how you will be analyzing your data in order to determine the results of the study. Example: Non-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a correlational analysis (regression analysis) in order to determine the relationship between Predictor Variable(s) and Criterion Variable(s). True- and Quasi-Experimental Research Designs I will be conducting an analysis of variance (ANOVA) in order to determine the effects of IV(s). on DV(s). Additionally, for any True-IVs you must state that random assignment will be used to assign participants to the levels of the True-IV. 1

2 The paper should be written in narrative format and should flow in LOGIC and in the ORDER in which you describe the two studies. Again, you DO NOT actually conduct these studies; simply describe how you would conduct these studies. The purpose of this assignment is to assess your knowledge of the research design procedures that we discussed in class. Remember, an understanding of basic research design principles will help you to better assess information. You may select any variables related to any area of science (psychology, education, biology, etc.) for these studies. You may use the same variables for both studies (non-experimental / experimental) or you may use completely different variables for each study. Even though you will not carry out these studies, each study MUST BE doable. Any study that would be impossible to carry out will not receive credit. Please include, among other things, the answers to the following questions somewhere under each appropriate section. Be sure to answer these questions in narrative format, do not list the questions with answers. The purpose of this study is to The variables being examined are. The operational definition of IV / Predictor Variable is. The operational definition of DV / Criterion Variable is. The research hypothesis (expected result) for this study is. How are you going to measure your variables? (e.g. survey, interview, observation, etc For measurement instruments (surveys) search on the internet (Google.com, Ask.com) for measurement instruments related to your variable. Print out the information on the measurement instrument and attach to the back of your paper. If you do not find an established measurement instrument related to your variable, make up a few of the questions that you would ask as a part of your instrument and attach to the back of your paper. How are you going to manipulate the IV(s)? (experimental research design only) Describe your subjects: Where, When, How? (if applicable) How many? Who are they? Describe the step-by-step procedure of the study. Once you have the data, how is the data going to be analyzed? What results will confirm / disconfirm the research hypothesis? On the following pages I provide a Sample Research Design Paper and a Sample Measurement Instrument found on the internet. 2

3 Research Design Assignment Non-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a study using a non-experimental research design in order to determine the relationship between amount of sleep and anger. Amount of sleep is operationally defined as the average number of minutes that a participant sleeps in a 24-hour period. In order to measure the average number of minutes that a participant sleeps in a 24- hour period, each participant will keep a sleep journal for a period of 30 days. In this sleep journal each participant will record the exact number of minutes they sleep each and every time that they sleep, including naps. Data will be collected over a period of 30 days in order to allow for normal variations in each participant s schedules. For example, a student may not get much sleep one week due to midterms or finals, but may make up for that lack of sleep the next week. To calculate the average amount of sleep that each participant receives in a 24-hour period, the total number of minutes of sleep will be divided by 30 (the total number of days each participant records in the journal). Anger is operationally defined as the total score on the Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form. The Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form is a 25-item inventory that assesses the degree to which a person would feel angry or annoyed in 25 situations. Each item is scored on a 5-point scale (0 = very little ; 4 = very much). Therefore, total scores on the Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form ranges from 0 to 100. A total score of zero indicates very little anger experienced for the 25 situations and a score of 100 indicates very much anger experienced for the 25 situations. Items on the Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form include: (1) You unpack an appliance you have just bought, plug it in, & discover that it doesn t work. (2) Being overcharged by a repair person who has you over a barrel. (3) Being singled out for a correction, while the actions of others go unnoticed. (4) Getting you car stuck in the mud or sand. (5) You are talking to someone and they don t answer you. Please refer to the Appendix for a complete list of items in the Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form. 3

4 The psychometric properties of the Novaco Anger Inventory Long Form have been assessed and are provided in the Appendix, however, the psychometric properties of the Novaco Anger Inventory Short Form have not previously been assessed and, therefore, will be assessed during the current study. The research hypothesis for this study is that amount of sleep and anger will be negatively correlated, such that the less average amount of sleep that a person receives, the more anger they will experience, and the more average amount of sleep that a person receives, the less anger they will experience. This research hypothesis is based on personal observation. One hundred participants will be utilized in this study. Participants will be students at Mount San Antonio College who 18 years of age and older. Participants will consist of men and women who vary in cultural/ethnic backgrounds, professions, SES, educational level, and age. A Pearson-Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient will be calculated on the data in order to determine the correlation between amount of sleep and anger. A t-test will be conducted in order to determine whether the correlation between amount of sleep and anger is statistically significant. If the correlation between amount of sleep and anger is positive and is statistically significant, it will confirm the research hypothesis. If the correlation between amount of sleep and anger is positive but not statistically significant, or the correlation between amount of sleep and anger is negative and either statistically significant or not statistically significant, it will disconfirm the research hypothesis. True-Experimental Research Design I will be conducting a study using a true-experimental research design in order to determine the effects of classical music on academic performance. Classical music is independent variable and is operationally defined as either listening to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies (experimental group) or not listening to music (control group). 4

5 Academic performance is the dependent variable and is operationally defined as the total score on a 100-item multiple-choice test covering the new material that the participants have been taught during the study. Test scores may vary between 0 and 100. All participants will be taught the same new material which will consist of material that has been made up by the experimenter. Material taught to the participants will be made up by the experimenter in order to control for the fact that participants may already know any other material that might be taught to them, thus, not allowing for the assessment of learning new material while either listening to or not listening to classical music. The research hypothesis for this study is that listening to classical music during study time will significantly improve academic performance. This research hypothesis is based on personal experience and personal observation. I believe that listening to classical music relaxes a person and helps a person to better concentrate during study time. A minimum of 100 participants will be utilized in this study. Participants will be students at Mount San Antonio College who are over the age of 18. Participants will consist of both men and women who vary in cultural/ethnic backgrounds, professions, SES, educational level, and age. Participants will be randomly assigned to the two levels of the independent variable. One-half of the participants will be randomly assigned to listen to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies (experimental group) during study time and one-half of the participants will be randomly assigned to not listen to music (control group) during study time. Random assignment will control for any pre-existing differences between participants such as motivation, intelligence, study skills, etc. All participants will be taught the new material together in a lecture-hall setting during a one-hour lecture type session. All participants will be taught the same new material by the same instructor. Next participants will be taken to one of two rooms, depending upon the group to which they have been randomly assigned. Each room will be identical in size, lighting, temperature, seating, number of 5

6 windows, etc. The only difference is between the two rooms is that in one room Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies will be playing and in the other room no music will be playing. Participants will have one hour to study the new material alone at their own desk which will control for any differences due to some students studying in groups and some students studying alone. Following the one-hour study session in their respective rooms, participants will once again be brought together into the lecture-hall and will be administered the same 100-item multiple-choice test on the new material that they were taught. Test scores for the two levels of the independent variable (listening to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies during study time and not listening to music during study time) will be compared using a one-way, between-subjects, ANOVA. If the test-scores for the experimental group (listening to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies during study time) are significantly higher than the test-scores for the control group (not listening to music during study time), it will confirm the research hypothesis. If the test-scores for the experimental group (listening to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies during study time) are not significantly higher than the test-scores for the control group (not listening to music during study time), or the test-scores for the experimental group (listening to Beethoven s 5 th and 9 th symphonies during study time) are significantly lower than the test-scores for the control group (not listing to music during study time), it will disconfirm the research hypothesis. 6

7 Novaco Anger Inventory - Short Form (NAI-25) Adapted From Novaco, R.W. (1975) The Novaco anger inventory - short form, was initially printed in Prof. Tony Kidman's book "Tactics for Change". It also provided a scoring range for interpretation. However, I decided to follow this up as the ranges appeared discordant to the mild interpretations offered. It appears that the scale (short form) has never been 'normed' nor investigated with respect to its psychometric properties. With this in mind I offer the following from the measures section of a paper I have in submission. The participants were Vietnam veterans and their partners. This is a work in progress, but I hope it helps. Psychometric Properties of the Novaco Anger Inventory - Short Form. The Novaco Anger Inventory - short form, was adapted from the long form (Novaco, 1975) and contains 25 of the original 90 items. The NAI - Long Form - purports to measure the degree of provocation or anger people would feel if placed in certain situations. This scale displays a convergent validity of.46 with the Buss-Durke Hostility Inventory, and.41 with the Aggression subscale of the Personality Research Form (Huss, Leak and Davis, 1993) as well as a test-retest reliability of between.78 and.91 (Mills, Kroner and Forth, 1998). In order to ascertain the validity of the Short Form a factor analysis was applied to the current full data set at intake (N = 207) and 4 factors with an eigenvalue above 1.00 were derived. However one factor derived an eigenvalue of and accounted for over 50% of the variance. Only one item had a higher factor loading on any of the factors other than factor one. The factor loadings for factor one ranged between.53 and.79, with an average loading of.71. It is suggested that this scale, therefore, reliably only consists of one factor (anger). A Cronbach s alpha of.96 was derived for the scale with an average inter-item correlation of.49, an item-total correlation of between.50 and.77, and a split-half reliability of.93. No test-retest reliability is available at this time. [Above from: Devilly, G.J. (In Submission). The Psychological Effects of a Lifestyle Management Course on War Veterans and Their Spouses. Manuscript in Submission.] Key References: Huss, M.T., Leak, G.K. and Davis, S.F. (1993). A validation study of the Novaco Anger Inventory. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31, Mills, J.F., Kroner, D.G. and Forth, A.E. (1998). Novaco Anger Scale: Reliability and validity within an adult criminal sample. Assessment, 5, Novaco, R.W. (1975). Anger control: The development of an experimental treatment. Lexington, KY: Lexington. Scale (Also available in pdf format for ease of administration): Novaco Anger Inventory (Short Form) The items on this scale describe situations that are related to anger arousal. For each of the items please rate the degree to which the incident described would anger or provoke you by ticking the appropriate degree of annoyance. Try to imagine the incident actually happening to you, and then indicate the extent to which it would have made you angry. In the actual situations, the degree of anger that you would experience would depend on other factors that are not specified in the items (such as what kind of situation, how the act occurred, etc.). This scale is concerned with your general reactions, and so the details of the particular situations have been omitted. Please do your best to rate your responses in this general fashion. Tick (T) the degree to which you would feel angry or annoyed in the following situations (please tick only one anger rating for each situation): Situation. Very Little Little Moderate Amount Much Very Much You unpack an appliance you have just bought, plug it in, and discover that it doesn t work Being overcharged by a repair person who has you over a barrel Being singled out for a correction, while the actions of others go unnoticed 7

8 Getting your car stuck in the mud or sand You are talking to someone and they don t answer you Someone pretends to be something they are not While you are struggling to carry four cups of coffee to your table at a cafeteria, someone bumps into you, spilling the coffee You have hung up your clothes, but someone knocks them to the floor and fails to pick them up You are hounded by a sales person from the moment you walk into the store You have made arrangements to go somewhere with a person who backs off at the last minute and leaves you dangling Being joked about or teased Your car is stalled at a traffic light, and the person behind you keeps blowing his horn You accidentally make the wrong kind of turn in a car park. As you get out of your car someone yells at you, "where did you learn to drive?" Someone makes a mistake and blames it on you You are trying to concentrate, but a person near you is tapping their foot You lend someone an important book or tool, and they fail to return it You have had a busy day, and the person you live with starts to complain about how you forgot to do something you agreed to You are trying to discuss something important with your mate or partner who isn t giving you a chance to express your feelings You are in a discussion with someone who persists in arguing about a topic they know very little about Someone sticks his or her nose into an argument between you and someone else You need to get somewhere quickly, but the car in front of you is going 40 km/h in a 60 km/h zone, and you can t pass Stepping on a lump of chewing gum Being mocked by a small group of people as you pass them In a hurry to get somewhere, you tear a good pair of trousers / skirt on a sharp object You use your last coin to make a phone call, but you are disconnected before you finish dialing and the coin is lost 8

9 Thank You! Scoring: Norms: Answer Given Score Very Little 0 Little 1 Moderate Amount 2 Much 3 Very Much 4 T.B.A. 9