Assignment - Idea Stage & Design Stage

The purpose of this activity is to help you develop an idea/design for an Experimental project.

The basic approach is to find an existing material (such as existing M&Ms or a published article) and then add something new to the study.

To conduct an experimental project, you need:

-IV/DV: Independent variable & Dependent variable

-Hypo: Hypothesis (or theory) about why the IV causes the DV

1. Existing Material:

We will identifu the "existing material" together as a group for this week's project. The following week for the next project I will teach you how to use PsycINFO to find a "published article" as your existing material.

2. Add one new thing

Similar to the past activity about generating ideas for Surveys, first ask yourself the following questions (What interests you, and why? When you are talking with your friends, what topics do you talk about, and why? What are your most memorable personal experiences, and why? What topics do you think other people care most about, and why?)

Then, engage in more sophisticated idea-generation strategies by asking yourself:

- What psychological theories do I care about?

- What other things (topics, constructs) could I manipulate as the IV?

- What other things (topic, constructs) could I measure as the DV?

3. What is my hypothesis/theory?

You must develop a reason why you think the IV causes the DV.

Try writing out in a Word document the reasoning/rationale behind your argument.

In the following week I will help you use PsycINFO to develop hypotheses/theories.

4. Put the exact M&Ms of your study into a Word document

Manipulate IV: Two groups (control picture plus a manipulated picture)

Measure DV: 1 question (continuous)

Mediator: 1 question about "vvhy" you think the IV causes DV (continuous)

Demographics: 1 question about Sex (female, male)

5. Present your project to the class

When developing your idea/design, and when presenting your project to the class, we will focus on the following aspects:

- IV & DV What is your IV construct? What is your IV manipulation? Do they match?

               What is your DV construct? What is your DV measure? Do they match?

- Hypothesis What is your hypothesis? Does it match your IV & DV?

                   What evidence will answer the hypothesis/research question?

Attachment:- Assignment.rar