Research Methods Chapter 6

Demand characteristics refer to any of the potential cues or features of a study that

(1) suggest to the participants what the purpose and hypothesis is and (2) influence the participants to respond or behave in a certain way.

Fergie is studying how children whose siblings have been diagnosed with cancer deal with the anxiety that comes with that diagnosis. She has developed an arts and crafts-based intervention that she believes will help the siblings process their feelings. Before the program starts, she administers an assessment of illness-associated anxiety and concerns. In doing so, she has introduced the possibility that the questions she asks will cause some of the youngsters to become more aware of their concerns. This is referred to as:

Pretest sensitization

Malorie is interested in the relationship between caloric intake and emotional arousal. She has participants complete a questionnaire while waiting alone with a carefully premeasured buffet of attractive snacks and then calculates caloric intake by the food that is left. One of the questions asks participants to indicate, with a yes or no response, whether they consider themselves to be emotional. Malorie compares the amount of calories consumed by people who consider themselves to be emotional to the amount of food consumed by people who do not consider themselves to be emotional.

Quasi-experimantal research study

A research strategy is determined by:

The kind of question the research hopes to answer

a research strategy is

a general approach to research determined by the kind of question that the research study hopes to answer

quasi-experiment

a type of research design where a comparison is made, as in an experiment, but there is always a flaw that prevents the researcher from making a full cause and effect answer

research procedure

an exact, step-by-step description of a specific research study

artifact

an external factor that may influence or distort measurements

Demand characteristics and participant reactivity can affect

both internal and external validity

experimental research study is intended to answer a

cause and effect relationship between two variables

A variable that changes systematically along with the two variables being studied is most accurately termed a

confounding variable

Selection bias is especially concerning when using a

convenience sample

Research that examines relationships between variables by measuring two or more variables for each participant but does not attempt to infer causality is

correlational

Brittney is interested in the relationship between caloric intake and emotional arousal. She creates a carefully measured array of attractive snack foods. Brittney allows participants to eat as much of various snacks as they want while completing a written measure of emotional arousal. She then calculates the calories they consumed based on the amount of food that is left and looks at the relationship between the amount of calories each participant consumed and his or her emotional arousal score.

correlational research study

Gordon is conducting a memory study that consists of two treatment conditions. All goes well on the first day when he is working with the first treatment condition. However, on the second day, violent thunderstorms descend when he is working with the second treatment condition.

environmental threat

Random assignment to groups is one of the hallmarks of an

experimental design.

Sebastian is interested in the relationship between caloric intake and emotional arousal. He randomly assigns his research participants to one of three treatment conditions—high, medium, or low emotional arousal. Sebastian has all participants play a simple arcade-style computer game and varies emotional arousal by having frequent distracting interruptions (high), occasional distracting interruptions (medium), or no distracting interruptions (low). He then has them wait alone for five minutes with access to carefully premeasured snacks before thanking them for their participation and allowing them to leave. He calculates the calories consumed based on the amount of food left and compares the amount of food consumed by each of the groups.

experimental research study

Lennie develops a therapeutic intervention for children who have witnessed domestic violence incidents. Aware that her own passion about the issue might affect outcomes, she trains her most senior graduate students to perform the intervention when it is tested. Lennie is trying to avoid:

experimenter bias

A study of attitudes toward organic foods conducted with a wealthy, well-educated urban sample

external validity

A study of memory function conducted with introductory psychology students

external validity

The extent to which the results of an experiment can be generalized to other settings, people, times, or measures is referred to as

external validity.

In a quasi-experimental design, there is some degree of rigor, but

factors such as the lack of random assignment to groups prevent making cause-and-effect statements.

example of experimental research

increasing the amount of exercise causes decrease in colesterol levels

Donna assigns her research participants to groups based on their scores on a pretest. However, she finds that in addition to differing on their pretest scores, the groups differ in their age and educational attainment as well.

individual differences threat

novelty effect

individuals may perceive and respond differently than they would in the normal, real world

nonexiperimental design

intended to demonstrate a relationship between variables but not attempt to explain the relationship

A study of emotional arousal in which research assistants are sloppy about how they implement the treatment conditions

internal validity

An observational study of children's reactions to an individual who is upset, in which the observers are not well-trained on the use of the rating scale

internal validity

a threat to internal validity

is any factor allows for an alternative explanation

Ruth has developed an intervention for overweight children and their families. She assesses her intervention at the end of its 12 weeks of classes and finds that the children and their parents have increased knowledge of nutrition and report healthier eating habits.

measures

Tai is conducting research on creativity and has selected one of the newer ways of assessing creativity that has been widely criticized.

measures

Reactivity occurs when participants

modify their natural behavior in response to the fact that they are participating in a research study or the knowledge that they are being measured

William is interested in the relationship between caloric intake and emotional arousal. He has a series of in-depth discussions with a morbidly obese individual who identifies himself as an emotional overeater and then describes the relationship between emotional arousal and caloric intake using illustrations from the individual's life.

nonexperimental research study

Jon conducts his studies of child-rearing practices at the onsite daycare for office workers at a software-development company and generalizes his results to all parents.

participants

Mila studies social behavior in nonhuman primates and generalizes her results to humans.

participants

descriptive research strategy

produce a description of individual variables as they exist within a specific group

A research study has internal validity if it

produces a single, unambiguous explanation for the relationship between two variables.

In an effort to reduce underage drinking, Student Life offers no-cost, alcohol-free weekend events in two of the university's four undergraduate dormitories. At the end of the semester, the number of incidents related to underage drinking has gone down at both dorms, but the decrease was much greater at the dorms with the special events. This is best described a

quasi-experimental design

The descriptive research strategy is intended to answer

questions about the current state of individual variables for a specific group of individuals.

external validity

refers to the extent to which we can generalize the results of a research study to people, settings, times, measure, and characteristics other than those used in the study

Charley wants to be as time- and cost-effective as possible in his study of learning, so rather than bringing his participants back for several, shorter sessions, he puts his participants through an 11-hour day packed with tasks and tests.

study

Quincy adores doing research with children and often chats and plays with the children in ways unrelated to the research while data are being collected.

study

The novelty effect refers to

the observation that individuals participating in an experiment may perceive and respond differently than they would in the normal, real world.

Pretest sensitization refers to

the possibility that the pretest itself will have an impact on behavior and response to the experimental manipulation.

example of quasi-experimental design

the treatment may cause a reduction in smoking behavior or it could have been reduced by something else

Demand characteristics are likely to be minimized in a field study, where participants are in

their natural environment.

Example of Correlational Research

there is a relationship between facebook time and GPA, but we don't know why (2 or more variables for each participant)

Tina is studying the effects of paint color on motivation. She has a single group of participants who come back on five consecutive days and spend an hour in a room painted a specific color while completing a rather dull task. On Monday, the participants are in a pale pink room in the morning, on Tuesday they are in an aqua room around lunchtime, on Wednesday they are in an emerald green room in the early afternoon, on Thursday they are in a red room in the late afternoon, and on Friday they are in a beige room in the evening.

time-related threat

A nonexperimental design involves

two or more groups but does not attempt to infer causality.