Chapter CR, Problem 8E

Hotel maids A Harvard psychologist recruited 75 female hotel maids to participate in a study. She randomly selected 41 and informed them (truthfully) that the work they do satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle, providing examples to show them that their work is good exercise. The other 34 maids were told nothing. Various characteristics of the maids, such as weight, body fat, body mass index, and blood pressure, were recorded at the start of the study and then again after four weeks. The researcher was interested in whether the information she provided would result in measurable physical changes. If there is a difference, it could challenge our understanding of the placebo effect (in which subjects who receive the null treatment are not informed) by showing that being informed about a treatment can make a difference. Complete Exercises 8–12 related to this study.

8. Which type of study is this?

1. a) A prospective observational study because it followed the maids for four weeks.
2. b) A retrospective observational study because at the end of four weeks, the researcher had to look back at the original measurements.
3. c) A survey because the maids were randomly selected.
4. d) A designed experiment because a randomly selected group was treated differently and the researcher was interested in the effect of that treatment.
5. e) A voluntary response study because the maids volunteered to participate.