Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment 1: Developing a Research Idea
This assignment is the first part of your semester-long research project. As a first step, you will need to
decide who, if anyone, you would like to work with. Next, you will need to develop an idea of what you
would like to study. Third, you will collect existing evidence to place your study within a broader
context. You will do this by using PsycINFO.
Requirement One:
You should work with one or two research partners. If you need to work alone,
you must meet with me to explain why. This is a difficult project to complete by
yourself.
Requirement Two:
Your experiment will need to have either: (a) two independent variables or (b) one
independent variable and one individual difference variable.
Requirement Three:
Your experiment will need two dependent variables. You may think of one
variable as the main dependent variable of interest and the other as a secondary
dependent variable.
Suggestion One:
Work only with people that you like and trust. You will be working on this
project throughout the entire semester.
Suggestion Two:
Keep the project simple! Experimentation can take much longer than nonexperimental methodologies. Think of things that you can quickly and easily
manipulate.
Suggestion Three:
Talk with me about your idea before turning in this assignment. I can help a lot
with making your study stronger and easier.
Suggestion Four:
Design your study so that you are confident that at least one of your variables will
have a powerful effect on a dependent variable. You will not be using an
extremely large sample, so you will need a strong manipulation in order to
conclude anything interesting. After working on the project throughout the entire
semester, you will probably want to have significant results.
Suggestion Five:
You will be working on this project for an entire semester. Find an idea that is
interesting and enjoyable.
Suggestion Six:
Do not tell your friends or classmates what you are going to be studying. You will
probably want them to be your participants, and you will not want them to be
biased by knowing what the experiment is about.
IMPORTANT: You must turn in the names of who (if anybody) you plan to
work with and descriptions of each of the four variables before collecting
your articles using PsychINFO. Each description should be about two
sentences long.
After having your project idea approved, you should gather a number of resources. Each article
that you gather should be a primary source in which original research is described.
The minimum number of articles that you are required to use in your final report differs
depending upon the size of your research team. If you are working alone, you will need four
articles. If you are working with one research partner, then you will need to use five articles. If
you are working in a team of three, then you will need to use six articles.
Not every article that you gather will turn out to be relevant to your topic. Therefore, you should
collect at least two more articles than you will actually use. (For example, a group of two should
gather seven articles.)
Some articles might not be easily available. For example, it will be very unlikely that you will be
able to find anything that is identified as a dissertation abstract. Do not try to obtain a
dissertation; it will not be worth the effort. Other articles may not be available at our local
college library. You are welcome to try to obtain these articles through interlibrary loan;
however, you should realize that it may take some time and some articles that you request may
never arrive. Therefore, if you use interlibrary loan, you must order one more article than you
would otherwise need for this assignment. (To be safe, if you need four or more articles from
interlibrary loan, you must order a total of two extra articles). In addition, you should avoid
requesting articles through interlibrary loan that appear to be in obscure sounding journals.
You will need to gather entire copies of all of these articles in order to write your final report.
You should turn in the following:
a) The list of variables.
b) A photocopy of the first page of every article that you found.
c) A photocopy of the PsycINFO abstract of any article that you have requested through
interlibrary loan.
d) A typed page listing each of your articles. For each article, describe - in one to three
sentences - why the article may be important to your research.
Be certain to include the names of all group members on the first page.
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment 2: The Method Section
This assignment is the second part of your semester-long research project. For this step, your
group should write the method section for your project.
Your method section should be written in APA style. You should use the example in your
Research Methods textbook as an example (beginning on page A29). Notice that it should be
double-spaced and composed of three separate sections B participants, materials and procedure.
If your study will use any questionnaires or other printed materials, you should include them in
an appendix in addition to describing them in the Amaterials@ section.
You may choose to write your method section in either past or future tense. The advantage of
writing it in past tense is that you will not need to revise it as much after carrying out your
research.
You will not be able to write a final draft of the Aparticipants@ section at this time since you
probably do not know exactly how many participants you will have. For now, simply write
***** in place of any numbers that you will need to fill in later.
There is no perfect page length for this assignment. On the one hand, you should write in a
concise style. On the other hand, you should not leave out any important details. I should be
able to read your method section and know exactly what you plan to do. You should have
enough detail provided so that I could carry out your study exactly as you plan to do it.
You should also turn in a copy of the first half of Assignment 1 (or a revised version of
Assignment 1 if you have changed any of the variables in your study). I need this information to
evaluate how well your methodology will be able to address your research question.
Remember to save a copy of this Method section. You will be turning it in a revised version of
this Method section at the end of the semester B when you will be turning in the full APA style
report.
This assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
1)
Grammar, writing style and formatting
2)
The ability of your design to successfully test your hypotheses
3)
The thoroughness of your description
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment #3
One-Sample t-Test
1.
Formulate and report a potentially interesting research question for which you would use
a one-sample t-test. Remember, such a question should seek to determine if your sample
was taken from a population with a particular mean.
2.
Present your hypothesis:
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Write your null hypothesis in both words and symbols.
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Write your alternative hypothesis in both words and symbols.
3.
Collect data from at least 10 individuals.
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Describe how you went about collecting the data to answer your research
question.
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Report these observations.
4.
Use SPSS to conduct your t-test. Attach your SPSS printout to your homework.
5.
Prepare a results section using APA style. (You will want to use the example in your
textbook as a guide.)
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Report whether you are using a directional or a non-directional test. Explain why.
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Report the results of your statistical test, including the p value.
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On the basis of your calculated t, do you choose to reject or retain the null
hypothesis?
6.
What conclusions can you draw from your study?
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment #4
Independent Samples t-Test
Formulate and report a potentially interesting research question for which you would use an
independent samples t-test.
Present your hypothesis:
$
Write your null hypothesis in both words and symbols.
$
Write your alternative hypothesis in both words and symbols.
Collect data from at least 20 individuals.
$
Describe how you went about collecting the data to answer your research
question.
$
Report these observations.
4.
Report your decision rule.
5.
Use SPSS to conduct your t-test. Attach your SPSS printout to your homework.
6.
Prepare a results section using APA style. (You will want to use the example in your
textbook as a guide.)
$
Report r2 if it is appropriate to do so.
7.
What conclusions can you draw from your study?
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment 5: The IRB Proposal
This assignment is the fourth part of your semester-long research project. For this step, your group
should complete an IRB form to receive permission to conduct your research.
Your group must respond to all of the questions on the AApplication for Approval to Use Human
Participants in Research@ for Saint Mary=s College.
Some questions are more straight-forward than others. My advice is to begin immediately with all of the
questions that you know how to answer now. Several questions can be answered very quickly, but others
require more effort.
The items which requires the longest response are Part 3 and especially Part 6. Fortunately, much of the
writing for these items has already been completed. You should free to include a revised version of your
AMaterials@ and AProcedure@ sections to respond to much of these items. Remember to include a
debriefing form, an informed consent form and any experimental questionnaires as well.
This assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
1)
Grammar, writing style and formatting
The thoroughness and accuracy of your responses
The quality of your informed consent form
The quality of your debriefing form
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment 6: The Introduction and Reference Sections
This assignment is the fourth part of your semester-long research project. For this step, your group
should write the introduction and reference sections for your paper. You should also turn in photocopies
of each of your complete articles.
Your introduction section should be written in APA style. You should use the example in your textbook as
an example (beginning on page A-31). Notice that it should be double-spaced and begins with the title of
your paper. Notice also the format that is used to refer to the past articles. The authors of an article are
listed, followed by the date of the article.
The introduction of an APA style paper typically has the following outline. First, the general topic area is
introduced in a way that engages the reader and makes clear why the topic is important. Second, past
research on the topic that is relevant to the new study is discussed. It is very important that this section is
organized around important ideas and concepts, not organized by discussing each past article in turn. The
third part of the introduction is a specific statement of the research question to be addressed in the paper.
And finally, the fourth section includes a hypotheses that are supported with logic and evidence from past
research.
Recall that the number of articles that you are required to use differs depending upon the size of your
research team. If you are working alone, you will need four articles. If you are working with one research
partner, then you will need to use five articles. If you are working in a team of three, then you will need to
use six articles. You will be expected to refer to at least this number of articles within your
introduction.
APA style requires that you write in a concise fashion. Your introduction should be at least three
pages long, but no more than five pages long. In general, smaller research teams will be
expected to have shorter introductions; larger research teams will be expected to have longer
introductions.
The reference section should also be written in APA style. You should use the example on page
A-36 of your textbook as a guide. The handout will also be very important to assure that you are
using the correct format exactly.
This assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
2)
Grammar, writing style and formatting of the introduction
3)
The organization of the introduction around your main ideas
4)
Your understanding and reporting of the existing evidence
5)
Your ability to logically argue in favor of your clearly stated hypothesis
6)
Including at least the required number of photocopied past articles
7)
Careful attention to APA style in the reference section
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment #7
Independent Samples One-Way ANOVA
8.
Formulate and report a potentially interesting research question that compares three or
more groups along a single dimension.
9.
State the null and alternative hypotheses for your test.
10.
Collect your data. You should include at least 6 different individuals in each condition.
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Describe how you went about collecting the data to answer your research
question.
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Report these observations.
11.
Use SPSS to conduct a one-way ANOVA. Attach your SPSS printout to your homework.
12.
Use SPSS to calculate a Scheffe test for your data and attach the printout.
13.
Prepare a results section using APA style.
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Report the results of your ANOVA first. Briefly describe what this tells you.
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Report the results of the Scheffe test if it is appropriate for your data.
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On the basis of your analysis, do you choose to reject or retain each of your null
hypotheses?
14.
What conclusions can you draw from your study?
Sample Results Section:
A one-way analysis of variance compared mean ideal family sizes of Catholics, Jews, and
Protestants living in the Unites States. This test was found to be statistically significant at
an alpha level of .05, F (2, 18) = 7.04, p < .01. The strength of the relationship, as
indexed by eta2, was .34. A Sheffe test indicated that the mean for Catholics (M = 3.00,
SD = .82) was significantly greater than the mean for Jews (M = 1.00, SD = .84). The
mean for Protestants (M = 2.20, SD = 1.29) did not differ significantly from the mean for
either of the other groups.
Psychological Research Methods and Statistical Analysis II
Assignment 8: The Completed Project
This assignment is the fifth and final part of your semester-long research project. For this step, your
group should finish everything that remains. Your completed project should contain the following:
A)
B)
C)
D)
E)
F)
G)
H)
I)
J)
K)
Title Page
Abstract Page
Introduction (which is already completed)
Method (which is already completed)
Results
Discussion
References (which is already completed)
Figure 1 and 2: Line graphs displaying your results
Appendix A: Your SPSS output
Appendix B: Your signed informed consent forms
Your questionnaires and other materials completed by your participants
Your first step at this point should be to finish collecting your data, if you have not done so
already. You may also prepare your title page and start to write your abstract page. Remember
that the entire project should be written in APA style. You should use the example in your
textbook as an example (beginning on page 471).
The abstract should be a short summary of the entire paper. It is titled, AAbstract.@ It includes a sentence
or so on each of the following: an overview of the problem under study, a description of the sample, a
description of the methodology, a description of the findings, and a statement about the conclusions or
applications.
After we have begun discussing the two-way ANOVA, you may begin to analyze your data using
SPSS. Use α = .10. Remember to save your output, so that you may attach it to the end of your
project. You may then write your Results section. This section will be very short and should
mimic the format on the back of this assignment sheet. Notice that your results section should
refer to AFigure 1.@ You will need to prepare this figure to summarize your findings.
Finally, you will need to write a discussion section. You should limit this section to a maximum
of two double-spaced pages. Here are some recommendations for writing the discussion:
A)
Begin by describing the most important result of your research.
B)
Provide context by relating what you have found to past research.
C)
Discuss potential limitations of the research.
D)
Discuss possible applications of your findings.
E)
Discuss future directions that researchers could take this research program.
This assignment will be graded according to the following criteria:
L)
Formatting of the title page
M)
N)
O)
P)
Q)
information
The quality of your abstract
The accurate analysis of your data.
A correct, concise and informative results section
A clear, accurate figure summarizing your findings
A well-written, grammatically correct discussion that includes all of the necessary
Sample Results section for a two-way ANOVA:
Attitude change scores were subjected to a two-way analysis of variance having
two levels of message discrepancy (small versus high) and two levels of source expertise
(high versus low). All effects were tested at an alpha level of .10.
The main effect of message discrepancy yielded an F ratio of F(1, 24) = 30.0, p <
.10. The strength of the relationship, as indexed by partial eta2, was .21. The mean
attitude change for large-discrepancy messages (M = 5.0, SD = 4.27) was significantly
greater than the mean attitude change for small-discrepancy messages (M = 2.4, SD =
1.3).
The main effect of source expertise was such that the messages from the highexpertise source (M = 6.3, SD = 2.7) produced significantly more attitude change than the
messages from the low-expertise source (M = 1.7, SD = 1.2), F(1, 24) = 326.7, p < .01.
The strength of the relationship, as indexed by partial eta2, was .58.
The interaction effect was significant as well, F(1, 24) = 46.7, p < .05. The
relevant means can be found in Figure1. The large discrepancy messages produced more
attitude change when source expertise was high rather than low. However, the small
discrepancy messages resulted in more attitude change when source expertise was low
rather than high. The strength of the interaction effect, as indexed by partial eta2, was .17.