Reference no: EM131445826

1. Write a non directional research hypothesis about children of divorced parents and a behavioral intervention. Explain the logic of your hypothesis based on previous research and common sense.

2. Differentiate between the three factors (independent, dependent, and extraneous variables) in an experimental design and explain how this design differs from other research methods.

3. Design a psychological experiment that focuses on anxiety. Describe your study design, write your research hypothesis, and identify the independent, dependent, and extraneous variables. Explain the logic of your choices. Base your experiment on some previous research.

4. Differentiate between the four methods of recording or measuring a dependent variable.

5. There are two parts to this question.

(a) Compare and contrast the five basic control techniques. Appraise their advantages and disadvantages.

(b)  Consider that you are a medical researcher investigating a cure for a disease. Make an argument for which of the five basic control techniques would be most integral to your research and explain why.

6. Compare and contrast sequence and carryover effects. Predict a situation in which such effects would be explainable and acceptable in a research project.

Read the following article and answer the questions that follow: Gordon, C. M., & Carey, M. P. (1996). Alcohol's effects on requisites for sexual risk reduction in men: An initial experimental investigation. Health Psychology, 15, 56-60.

1. How do you think the researchers chose their participants for this study (precedent, availability, or type of research project)? Explain.

2. How do you think the researchers decided on this particular number of participants (finances, time, availability, type of research project, power concerns)? Explain.

3. What is the independent variable?

4. Identify at least three dependent variables. What was the hypothesis?

5. What was the hypothesis?

6. How might experimenter characteristics have affected this study?

7. How might experimenter expectancies have affected this study?

8. How might demand characteristics have affected this study?

9. In studies such as these, researchers often include one or even two placebo conditions. For example, participants might be given flat tonic water and are TOLD that it contains alcohol, but there really isn't any. Or, participants might be given alcohol and are told that it DOESN'T contain alcohol, but it really does. Why do you think researchers would include these conditions?

8. Interpret the meaning of Guthrie's book entitled Even the Rat Was White (1976).

9. A student proposes to recruit research participants by going to the student cafeteria at 7:30 a.m. and asking students who are walking in for breakfast to sign up for the study. Evaluate this recruitment method with respect to external validity.

10. A female psychology student is interested in assessing male participants' attitudes about female sexual reproductive rights. She intends to administer an attitudinal survey to each participant in person. Critique this research design and potential threats to internal validity.