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Question 1 -Experimental Study Design

SGI is increasingly concerned about the number of people who text while driving, and the impact this may have on accidents. They have observed that more and more accidents seem to involve texting, but they want to conduct the proper research on the issue. They have hired you to conduct this research, and are asking you for a proposal for an experimental design to investigate this research problem.

Your job is to test the hypothesis that texting while driving leads to accidents

Your proposed study should be conducted in a laboratory environment. To help you imagine that space, there is a waiting room and a large room with a driving simulator. You also have access to research assistants and money to develop computer programs and pay for any electronic equipment you might need. Your participants are first year university students participating for bonus points in their introductory psychology course. Your proposed study should be ethical and sensible.

Now answer the following questions as they relate to your research hypothesis:

1.       What are your independent and dependent variables? How will you manipulate your IV(s)? How will you operationalize/measure the DV(s)? (5 marks)

2.       Describe how you will do this study, making sure you demonstrate your understanding of what is required to conduct a true experiment. In particular, how will you manipulate your IV(s), and what exactly will your participants do (or experience) in the study? How will you collect the data? Identify any specific confounding variables that you need to attend to, and how you will do that. Be specific and detailed. (10 marks)

3.       How will you analyze the data in order to address your research hypothesis? (2 marks)

4.       Explain in detail how you propose to maximize the validity (internal, external, and construct validity) of this study. (6 marks)

5.       Discuss any specific ethical considerations relevant to this study. (2 marks)

Question 2 – Correlational Study Design

Teachers across Canada have become increasingly concerned over the increasing use of social media by students as young as six years old. They believe that it is having a negative impact on the children’s attention span and ultimately their ability to do well in school, especially during the formative elementary school years. As a result, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Education has agreed to fund a research project and you have been asked to design a research study to study the issue. Given its popularity with children and teens, the Ministry has asked you to focus on the use of SnapChat.

Your job is to test the hypothesis that the frequent use of SnapChat by children (between the ages of 10 and 13) is associated with lowered academic achievement.

Your proposed study should be conducted in the real-world environment using a correlational design. You have access to research assistants and money to fund anything you might need. The schools in the Saskatoon District have given you the lists of elementary students enrolled in the district. 

Now answer the following questions as they relate to your research question:

1.       What are the central variables in this study? How will you operationally define these variables? (5 marks)

2.       Describe how you will do this study, making sure you demonstrate your understanding of what is required to conduct a correlational study in the real-world. In particular, how will you measure your variables, and what exactly will your participants do (or experience) during the study? How will you collect the data? Are there any moderating variables you need to attend to, and how will you do this? Be specific and detailed (10 marks)

3.       How will you analyze the data in order to address your research question? (2 marks)

4.       Explain in detail how you propose to maximize the validity (internal, external, and construct validity) of this study. (6 marks)

5.       Discuss any specific ethical considerations relevant to this study. (2 marks)

Question 3 – Interpreting Interactions

It has always seemed to me that music has a large impact on mood. Some types of music seem to put people in a good mood and some types seem to put people in a bad mood. For example, it appears to me that listening to Nickelback puts most people in a particularly bad mood while listening to a group like the New Pornographers puts most people in a really good mood. I also observe that this “Nickelback Phenomenon” is more pronounced when people drink alcohol. Because these are my observations only, I know that I cannot make any causal statements based on such data. Therefore I decide to do an experiment.  Participants from the Psychology Participant Pool are randomly assigned to one of four groups that are defined by music type (listening to either Nickelback or The New Pornographers) and intoxication level (either no alcohol or intoxicated to a blood alcohol level of .08). After the four groups have been exposed to their assigned level of alcohol and listened to their assigned music for 30 minutes I take measures of their mood (higher scores reflect more positive mood). Below are the cell means of well-being resulting from this experiment, and the ANOVA summary table.

Based on these findings,

1.       How many participants were involved in this research study? (2 marks)

2.       Is there a main effect for music? Explain in detail how you arrived at your answer (2 mark)

3.       Is there a main effect for alcohol? Explain in detail how you arrived at your answer. (2 marks)

4.       Is there an interaction between music and alcohol? Please explain how you arrived at your answer. Interpret the relationship between these two variables and mood (4 marks)