Deck 2: A: The Research Process: Ideas to Innovations

Question 1

A research protocol includes both an informed consent and a debriefing.Discuss how these two items are similar to as well as different from each other.

Answer 1

Informed consent is a part of the standard ethical procedure that takes place at the beginning of a research study.It is designed to inform the participant about what the study requires of them,as well as tell them about the risks and benefits of participation.The informed consent ensures that participants are making the choice to take part in the study freely and without manipulation or coercion.The debriefing generally takes place at the end of a research study.It is designed to explain the purpose of the study and disclose any deception used by the researcher.This is also the time for participants to ask questions about the hypothesis or procedure.The informed consent and debriefing are similar in that they are required components of a study aimed at ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines and standards.The two differ in the specific purpose and timing of delivery.

Question 2

Professor McAdams is interested in examining the relationship between playing video games and aggressive behavior.Differentiate the types of results he would obtain if he used a between-subjects research design as compared with a within-subjects research design.

Answer 2

A between-subjects research design uses a data collection method in which each participant is only assessed on the dependent variable once.In this type of study,Professor McAdams would compare the results across participants,where some individuals would be assigned to play video games (experimental condition)and others not (control condition).This study design would reveal whether playing video games leads to a difference in violent behavior between the two groups of participants.A within-subjects design is a data collection method in which each participant is assessed on the dependent variable more than once.In this type of study,Professor McAdams would assess his participants at the start of the study to get their degree of aggressive behavior.Then have all participants play video games.At the end of the study period he would assess participants again to ascertain their level of aggressive behavior.This study design would reveal whether playing video games leads to a change in the aggressive behavior demonstrated in participants,controlling for their own baseline (or starting level of)aggression.

Question 3

Kaila is interested in studying whether participation in beauty pageants is related to intelligence.How might she design a nonexperimental study to investigate this relationship?

Answer 3

A nonexperimental study (or correlation)examines naturally occurring relationships between variables.Kaila has many possibilities for designing a nonexperimental study.For instance,if Kaila hypothesizes an association between pageants and intelligence,she can ask two groups of women to take a standardized IQ test.One group of women would be those who have participated in beauty pageants.The other group of women would be those who have chosen (on their own)not to participate in beauty pageants.She would then compare the scores of these two groups using statistical analyses.A significant finding would suggest that these two variables are associated or connected in some way.This type of study would not be able to tell whether there is a causal relationship between the variables.

Question 4

Clay believes the adage "An apple a day keeps the doctor away." If he is going to experimentally examine this saying,how would he operationally define the independent and dependent variables?

Question 5

How do research psychologists share their findings with others in their discipline?