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Forming Impressions of a Person Based on Personality and Profession
This experiment investigates how a college student who is taking a
course in experimental psychology combines two different types of
information, information about a person’s personality and information about a
person’s profession, to form an impression of how much she or he would like
that person. The hypothesis is a person will be liked more when the person is
described with positive adjectives and has a socially respected profession.
Two variables are manipulated in this experiment. The first variable is the
personality of the person to be rated; the adjectives used on the stimuli sheet
describe positive, neutral, or negative personality traits. The second variable
that is manipulated is the profession of the person who is rated: bank
president, bank teller, or bank robber. This study has a 3 x 3 (Personality x
Profession) factorial, single-participant, experimental design (Bordens & Abbott,
2014, pp. 314-319 & 442-445). The prediction is the professions of bank
president and bank teller will be rated higher than the profession of bank
robber when those professions are described with positive adjectives, but the
president and teller will not be rated higher than the robber will when they are
described with negative adjectives.
The participant (you) should read and sign the informed consent form
(Appendix A). Then read the directions below and the 45 groups of words on
the page that contains the stimuli (Appendix B). Each group of words is a
different combination of two adjectives and a noun that describes personality
and profession. After reading each group of words, the participant should rate
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how much she or he would like the person who is described. The rating should
be made using a 10-point equal-interval scale ranging from 1 (dislike very much)
to 10 (like very much). All of the rating scores should be recorded on the
stimuli sheet.
In order to find if there is a reliable main effect for either independent
variable (factor) or if there is a reliable interaction of the two factors, do a twoway analysis of variance on the rating scores using the Exp 3 SAS program.docx
that is on my webpage.
1. Logon to a computer, open a web browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, and go to
my webpage http://courses.missouristate.edu/JRosenkoetter/
2. Click on Exp-3, then Exp 3 SAS program.docx, then OK. The program will
open using Microsoft Word.
3. Save the file in some location where you can find it, such as, on the Desktop,
in your USB Jump drive, or in OneDrive by clicking
File  Save As 
Computer Browse  Desktop (or your favorite location)  Save.
4. Close () the file, my webpage, the web browser, and everything else.
5. Go to where you saved the file, and open it with Microsoft Word.
6. Put your name on the top line.
7. Put the 45 rating scores from the Stimuli Sheet into the file by following the
directions, which refer to the lines with the numbers 1. to 45. Leave at
least one blank space between the professions and your number.
8. Click File  Save .
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9. Next, click File  Print  Print to make a copy of the program with the
data in it.
10. If you do not have SAS installed on your computer, e-mail the file to me at
JRosenkoetter@MissouriState.edu
11. If you do have SAS installed on your computer (it is installed in the Hill 311
lab), you can use the directions from the green sheet that is titled, “Using
SAS programs from Rosenkoetter’s webpage.”
12. If you use SAS 9.4 (English), you are using the full version of SAS. It will
open with a small box that says SAS 9.4 and a Change Notice.
(If you use SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1, go to Step 21.)
13. Close (X) the Change Notice.
14. Copy the program that you saved in Step 8.
15. Paste the program into the Editor.
16. In the ribbon near the top, click on the running-man icon
. It stands for
submit or run. (Or you can click on Run  Submit .)
17. When the Results Viewer – SAS Output window arrives, check the output
to confirm that your name is on the top line, the number of observations
used is 45, and you have 24 pages.
18. Then Print the Output with File  Print  Print . (The results can also
be printed by clicking on the printer icon  .)
19. When you are finished, leave SAS with File  Exit and OK.
20. When the question appears: “Do you want to save the changes to Editor –
Untitled?” Click on No.
21. If you use SAS Enterprise Guide 6.1, it will start with a small box that says
Welcome to SAS Enterprise Guide.
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22. In the Welcome box, click on New SAS Program.
23. Copy the program that you saved in Step 8.
24. Paste the program into the Program box.
25. Click on Run. (Or click on File  Run Project.)
26. When the results window arrives, check the output to confirm that your
name is on the top line, the number of observations used is 45, and you
have 24 pages.
27. Then Print the Output with File  Print SAS Report  OK . (The results
can also be printed by clicking on the printer icon  .)
28. When you are finished, leave SAS with File  Exit .
29. When the question appears: “Do you want to save the changes to Project?”
Click on No.
Bring (a) this handout, (b) the four-page printout of Exp 3 SAS
program.docx with the data entered into it, (c) the 24-page output of the Exp 3
SAS program.sas, (d) the red-colored handout about the Alpha Level, (e) the
lavender-colored handout on Effect Size, and (f) a calculator (or cell phone) to
the next lab.
Before you come to lab, it would be a good idea to try to understand your
results. A plot of the interaction-cell means is shown on the last page of the
output. You can probably understand your results faster by studying this figure
than by looking at all the numbers in the first 23 pages.
When you are ready to look at the numbers, go to page 1 of the 24-page
output and check the classification level information to see if it is correct. If it
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is, go to page 2 to find if there is a significant main effect of personality, a
significant main effect of profession, and a significant interaction effect. In the
Discussion section of your report, you can discuss in detail only those effects
that are statistically significant (see Bordens & Abbott, 2014, pp. 317-319 &
442-445). The Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch Multiple Range Test results for each
factor are shown on pages 3 and 4.
If you do have a significant interaction effect, you can look at the
differences between the means of the interaction cells, which are listed on page
23. These are called simple effects. The reliability of simple effects is
determined by the Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch Multiple Range Test for each level
of a factor. The Exp 3 SAS program is written to test for simple effects whether
there is a significant interaction effect or not. Follow the directions in the titles
on pages 5 through 22.
Your report should include an Abstract (see Bordens & Abbott, 2014, pp.
499-501) and Figure 1 (see Bordens & Abbott, 2014, pp. 518-520) based on the
last page of the output. An example Results section follows.
Results
The rating scores were analyzed with a two-way analysis of variance for a
factorial design (ANOVA). An alpha level of .05 was used for the cutoff to
decide whether there was a reliable difference between groups for all statistical
tests.
The ANOVA showed that there was a significant main effect of
personality, F(2, 36) = 541.88, MSE = 0.37, p < .001. The magnitude of the main
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effect (R2) of personality was .27, which means 27% of the variation in the
scores was due to the main effect of personality. The means of the rating scores
for the three levels of personality, positive, neutral, and negative were 8.80,
6.75, and 3.20, respectively. The Ryan-Einot-Gabriel-Welsch Multiple Range Test
(REGW) (df = 36) for personality showed . . .
The ANOVA showed that there was a significant main effect of
profession, F(2, 36) = 43.71, p = .03, R² = .18. The means of the rating scores for
the three levels of profession, president, robber, and teller were . . . The REGW
(df = 36) for profession showed . . .
The ANOVA showed that there was a significant interaction effect of
personality and profession, F(4, 36) = 31.61, p = .004, R² = .03. Figure 1 shows
the means of the interaction of personality and profession. The REGW (df = 12)
for positive personality adjectives showed . . . The REGW (df = 12) for neutral
personality adjectives showed . . . The REGW (df = 12) for negative personality
adjectives showed . . . The REGW (df = 12) for the profession of bank president
showed . . . The REGW (df = 12) for the profession of bank robber showed . . .
The REGW (df = 12) for the profession of bank teller showed . . .
Discussion
The results show that there was a significant main effect of personality.
The rating scores for the three levels of personality adjectives, positive, neutral,
and negative, showed that each level of personality was significantly different
from the other two.
¶
(This is from paragraph two of the Results section.)
Main effect of profession?
(from paragraph three)
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¶
Interaction effect of personality and profession?
¶
Prediction supported? Please explain. Hypothesis supported?
Please explain.
¶
R2 results?
second largest?)
(from paragraph four)
(from paragraph four)
(Which effect had the largest influence on the dependent variable, the
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Appendix A
Informed Consent Form
This study is designed to investigate your impressions of people
who are described with various adjectives. There are no correct or
incorrect answers. You are just asked to give your impression of the
person described. Recording your impressions will take about 5 minutes.
You are not required to produce data for this study, but it might
make this course (PSY 302) more interesting if you did. If you do not
want to use your own impressions, you will be supplied with a set of data
from someone else. This research has not been submitted to the
Institutional Review Board of Missouri State University because only you
and John Rosenkoetter will see your results. If you do not like the first
set of results you produce, you can redo everything until you get results
that you do like. Your participation in this research is voluntary, and you
are free to withdraw at any time.



I acknowledge that I have been informed of and understand the
purpose of this study and that I freely consent to participate. I
acknowledge that I am at least 18 years of age.
Print name: __________________________________________________________
Sign name: __________________________________________________________
Date: ____________________________________
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Appendix B
Stimuli Sheet
Stimulus
Stimulus
Rating
Number
Words
Score
———————————————————————
1. Nervous bank president
_____
2. Helpful bank robber
_____
3. Incompetent bank teller
_____
4. Cruel bank president
_____
5. Ungrateful bank robber
_____
6. Unhappy bank robber
_____
7. Inoffensive bank president
_____
8. Friendly bank teller
_____
9. Helpful bank president
_____
10. Unhappy bank teller
_____
11. Stupid bank teller
_____
12. Dishonest bank president
_____
13. Happy bank robber
_____
14. Cheerful bank president
_____
15. Unsophisticated bank robber
_____
16. Cruel bank robber
_____
17. Unsophisticated bank teller
_____
18. Helpful bank teller
_____
19. Dependent bank president
_____
20. Incompetent bank president
_____
21. Cruel bank teller
_____
22. Nervous bank teller
_____
23. Optimistic bank robber
_____
24. Inoffensive bank robber
_____
25. Unhappy bank president
_____
26. Happy bank president
_____
27. Friendly bank robber
_____
28. Optimistic bank teller
_____
29. Dependent bank robber
_____
30. Incompetent bank robber
_____
31. Dependent bank teller
_____
32. Stupid bank robber
_____
33. Happy bank teller
_____
34. Optimistic bank president
_____
35. Dishonest bank teller
_____
36. Ungrateful bank president
_____
37. Cheerful bank robber
_____
38. Dishonest bank robber
_____
39. Ungrateful bank teller
_____
40. Inoffensive bank teller
_____
41. Cheerful bank teller
_____
42. Friendly bank president
_____
43. Nervous bank robber
_____
44. Unsophisticated bank president _____
45. Stupid bank president
_____