Concept explainers
Although experiments typically manipulate some aspect of the environment to create different treatment conditions, it is also possible to manipulate characteristics of the participants. For example, researchers can give some participants a feeling of success and others a feeling of failure by giving false feedback about their performance or by rigging a task to make it easy or impossible (Thompson, Webber, &c Montgomery, 2002). By manipulating the participants’ experiences, it is possible to examine how people’s performance and attitudes are influenced by success and failure.
Other research has manipulated the participants’ mood. Showing movies, playing music, or having participants read a series of positive (or negative) statements can induce different mood states (positive, negative, neutral). Being able to manipulate mood in the laboratory allows researchers to study how mood influences behaviors such as memory (Teasdale Be Fogarty, 1979) or the ability to read emotions in facial expression (Bouhuys, Bloem, &c Groothuis, 1995), and how other factors, such as alcohol consumption, affect mood (Van Tilburgh & Vingerhoets, 2002).
Suppose you are planning a research study in which you intend to manipulate the participants’ mood; that is, you plan to create a group of happy people and a group of sad people. For example, one group will spend the first 10 minutes of the experiment listening to upbeat, happy music, and the other group will listen to funeral dirges.
- (L0 2) Do you consider the manipula- tion of people’s moods to be an ethical violation of the principle of no harm? Explain why or why not.
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Chapter 4 Solutions
EBK RESEARCH METHODS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL
- Below is data from a study examining the effects of two different psychotherapy treatments on self-esteem. Specifically, two different treatment types (treat1 and treat2) were compared to a waiting list control group in terms of increasing self-esteem; the main question concerned whether each separate therapy type was different from no treatment at all. The values shown below are the self-esteem scores for the participants in each group (higher values indicate greater self-esteem). a. What inferential test did you use? b. Using an alpha level of .05, determine whether there were any mean differences between the groups of interest?arrow_forwardComplete the table below by identifying the appropriate data-gathering instruments, data processing techniques, non-prose materials, and statistical tests for the given scenario. Explain the reasons behind your choice. Tricia wants to determine if her organization’s new counseling technique decreases the anxiety level of single mothers in their community. Specifically, she wants to address the following research questions: Is there a significant decrease in the anxiety level of single mothers subjected to the counseling technique? Is there a difference in the anxiety level of the control and experimental groups after the intervention? How do the single mothers respond to the counseling technique? To do this, she will use two intact groups: one control group and one experimental group. There will be 98 participants in the study. Fifty will be assigned to the experimental group who will be subjected to the new counseling technique. The rest will be assigned to the control group who…arrow_forwardA study was conducted to explore the prevalence and impact of sleep problems on various aspects of people's lives. Staff from a university in Melbourne, Australia were invited to complete a questionnaire containing questions about their sleep behaviour (e.g. hours slept per night), sleep problems (e.g. difficulty getting to sleep) and the impact that these problems have on aspects of their lives (work, driving, relationships). The sample consisted of 271 respondents (55% female, 45% male) ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (M=43.9yrs). A student researcher is interested in examining whether the participants in the study sleep for 8 hours a night, the recommended average for adults. 1. Proposed analysis and why you chose the analysis 2. Measurement type (i.e., nominal, ordinal, continuous) for variable(s) that will be used in the analysis 3. Null and alternative hypotheses (based on context of study) in symbols 4. Test assumptions and make a decision (please provide written evidence to…arrow_forward
- A study was conducted to explore the prevalence and impact of sleep problems on various aspects of people's lives. Staff from a university in Melbourne, Australia were invited to complete a questionnaire containing questions about their sleep behaviour (e.g. hours slept per night), sleep problems (e.g. difficulty getting to sleep) and the impact that these problems have on aspects of their lives (work, driving, relationships). The sample consisted of 271 respondents (55% female, 45% male) ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (M=43.9yrs). A student researcher is interested in examining whether the participants in the study sleep for 8 hours a night, the recommended average for adults. Proposed analysis and why you chose the analysis? Measurement type (i.e., nominal, ordinal, continuous) for variable(s) that will be used in the analysis? Null and alternative hypotheses (based on context of study) in symbols? id sex age weight height sleep 83 0 42 52 162 9…arrow_forwardA study was conducted to explore the prevalence and impact of sleep problems on various aspects of people's lives. Staff from a university in Melbourne, Australia were invited to complete a questionnaire containing questions about their sleep behaviour (e.g. hours slept per night), sleep problems (e.g. difficulty getting to sleep) and the impact that these problems have on aspects of their lives (work, driving, relationships). The sample consisted of 271 respondents (55% female, 45% male) ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (M=43.9yrs). A student researcher is interested in examining whether the participants in the study sleep for 8 hours a night, the recommended average for adults. id sex age weight height sleep 83 0 42 52 162 9 294 0 54 65 174 7 425 1 89 170 8 64 0 41 66 178 8 536 0 39 62 160 7.5 57 0 66 62 165 8 251 0 36 62 165 8 255 0 35 75 174 7 265 1 90 180 8 290 1 41 75 187 7 418 1 70 7.5 95 1 78 178 8 77 0 33 67 158 6.5 203 0 80 172.5 8…arrow_forwardIn a study examining the effect of humor on interpersonal attractions, McGee and Shevlin (2009) found that a man's sense of humor had significant effect on how he was perceieved by woman. In the study, female college students were given brief descriptions of a po tential romantic partner and then rated the attractiveness of the male on a scale from 1 (low) to 7 (high). The fictitious male was described positively as being single , ambitious, and having good job prospects. In one dition, the description also said that he had a great sense of humor. The results showed that the description was rated significantly higher when "a sense of humor" was included. To further examine this effect, a researcher selected a sample of n = 16colle college males and asked them to read a brief description of a female and then rate the attractiveness of the woman in the description . The description had been used in previous research but was modified by adding a statement describing a good sense of humor…arrow_forward
- Tobacco companies have actively attempted to remake their public image by launching a youth smoking prevention advertisement campaign. Melanie Wakefield (a professor of applied psychology and researcher at the Center for Behavioral Research in Cancer in Victoria, Australia) and her colleagues conducted a study to assess the relation between exposure to tobacco companies' youth smoking prevention advertising and youth smoking-related beliefs, intentions, and behaviors. You use Professor Wakefield's research to design an experiment with two groups of middle school students from Vietnam. You show the tobacco company's youth smoking prevention ads to one of the groups of students every day for a week at the beginning of their math class. After the week, you assess the groups on the degree to which the students approve/disapprove of teens smoking, using a 5-point Likert scale. You do not have a prediction about the effect of the ads, as they are supposed to prevent smoking, but Professor…arrow_forwardExercise is known to produce positive psychological effects. Interestingly, not all exercise is equally effective. It turns out that exercising in a natural environment (e.g., jogging in the woods) produces better psychological outcomes than exercising in urban environments or in homes (Mackay & Neill, 2010). Suppose that a sports psychologist is interested in testing whether there is a difference between exercise in nature and exercise in the lab with respect to post-exercise anxiety levels. The researcher recruits n 5 7 participants who exercise in the lab and exercise on a nature trail. The data below represent the anxiety scores that were measured after each exercise session. Treat the data as if the scores are from an independent-measures study using two separate samples, each with n 5 7 participants. Compute the pooled variance, the estimated standard error for the mean difference, and the independent-measures t statistic. Using a 5 .05, is there a significant difference…arrow_forwardDr. Guidry conducts a study examining the relationship between the number of friends one has and the experience of daily stress and life satisfaction. She randomly samples 1,500 elderly men and women in Nashville, Tennessee (the state capital), located in the southern United States. Dr. Guidry submits her study for publication in a scientific journal. If one of the peer reviewers is concerned about the external validity of her study, which of the following is the most important aspect of Dr. Guidry's study to consider? the number of significant findings the random sampling technique used to recruit the participants the number of people in the sample the use of three measured variablesarrow_forward
- A study is designed to test the effect of light level on exam performance of high school students. The researcher believes that light levels might have different effects depending on a person's grade in school (1st year, sophomore, junior, or senior), so wants to make sure all grades are equally represented in each treatment. The treatments are fluorescent overhead lighting, yellow overhead lighting, no overhead lighting (only desk lamps). (a) Identify these variables.arrow_forwardExercise is known to produce positive psychological effects. Interestingly, not all exercise is equally effective. It turns out that exercising in a natural environment (e.g., jogging in the woods) produces better psychological outcomes than exercising in urban environments or in homes (Mackay & Neill, 2010). Suppose that a sports psychologist is interested in testing whether there is a difference between exercise in nature and exercise in the lab with respect to post-exercise anxiety levels. The researcher recruits n=7 participants who exercise in the lab and exercise on a nature trail. The data below represent the anxiety scores that were measured after each exercise session. Treat the data as if the scores are from an independent-measures study using two separate samples, each with n=7 participants. Compute the pooled variance, the estimated standard error for the mean difference, and the independent-measures t statistic. α=0.05, is there a significant difference between the…arrow_forwardStudy 2: Pill Appearance and Perceived Pain. Does the shape or color of a pain pill influence its effectiveness? Although logically it shouldn’t, whether we believe a drug will work does have a powerful effect on our perceptions (e.g., placebo effect). In this experiment, 4 groups of adult patients were given the same amount of Advil after dental surgery for pain relief, but the color and shape of the pill varied. Researchers hypothesized that an unusual shape or color would lead people to believe the pills were new and special and thus would expect them to be more effective than common round, white pills. Researchers also wanted to know if there is an interaction between shape and color Data Labels ShapePill {1=Round; 2=Diamond} ColorPill {1=White; 2=BlueGreen} Gender {0=Woman; 1=Man; 2=Nonbinary person) Descriptions of the Variables and Descriptive Statistics: Referring to the JASP output, and using sentences, present the descriptive statistics of each group: for example:…arrow_forward
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