Writing Assignment #2: Experimental Design

Experimental Design (Attempt 2)

For this assignment, you will design a novel experiment about a topic of your choosing. The experience of completing the first assignment and the feedback you received on it should help you craft your experimental design.

Below you will find a breakdown of what your study needs to include, followed by an example of what that might look like. Please note that the examples below are brief for the sake of clarity, and your experiment should be more detailed than the passages below. For example, you should have specific details on the levels of your independent variable and how you measure your dependent variable.

Your experiment should not be copied from existing research literature. Please also remember that your study must be an experiment. Please refer to our lectures and the book for clarification on this, and feel free to seek help from us if you are having trouble understanding.

Your assignment should be between 1-2 pages double spaced, 12 point font, with 1 inch margins. You will be awarded points by adequately including the following components:

Background Information/Introduction                                                                                   ____ / 2

General Research Question                                                                                                     ____ / 2

Specific Hypothesis and Explanation                                                                                     ____ / 2

Identified Independent Variable                                                                                            ____ / 2

Operationalized Independent Variable                                                                                   ____ / 1

Explained Independent Variable Manipulation                                                                      ____ / 1

Identified Dependent Variable                                                                                               ____ / 2

Operationalized Dependent Variable                                                                                     ____ / 1

Stated Expected Results                                                                                                         ____ / 1

Discussion of Importance/Implications                                                                                  ____ / 3

Study is an Experiment                                                                                                           ____ / 3

TOTAL                                                                                                                                  ____ / 20

Examples. This is a breakdown of what your study needs to include, followed by an example of what that might look like. Please note that the examples below are brief for the sake of clarity, and your experiment should be more detailed than the passages below. For example, you should have specific details on the levels of your independent variable and how you measure your dependent variable.

Background/Reasons for experiment: This section should indicate where you got your idea(s) and why you might do a study on this topic.

Example: A wealth of previous research shows that negative feedback that comes from outside a social group leads in-group members to feel closer to and more identified with their own group (Hogg, 1996). For example, a verbal attack from man against a group of feminists might result in the women feeling even more positive about other feminists and feminism in general.

Research Question and Hypothesis: This section should pose a question and a specific prediction.

Example: Given these findings, would a similar process happen within a dyadic relationship? That is, if a threat comes from outside a friendship or romantic relationship, would that relationship be strengthened?  It seems likely that such external threats would bring a couple together, just as group members become closer after outgroup threats.

Study Design: This section should outline an EXPERIMENT that tests some facet of your question. This must be an experiment where a researcher MANIPULATES an independent variable and then measures a dependent variable.

Example:In the proposed study romantic couples will be randomly assigned to be presented with either positive or negative feedback about their relationship (independent variable). The couples’ closeness and identification will then be measured to assess the impact of this feedback (dependent variable).

Proposed Results and Conclusion: This section should discuss results that confirm your hypothesis, what those would look like, and what those results would mean for your prediction.

Example: Those couples who get negative feedback about their relationship should feel closer and more identified with their partner than those couples who get positive feedback. This would support the idea that couples and members of larger ingroups behave in analogous ways when confronted by threats from people outside of their group.

Discussion of implications: Why is this finding important? How does it inform existing psychological theory, our understanding of “real world” processes, or potential attempts to make the world a marginally better place to live?

Example: [In this case, you could talk about how this would suggest to us that the psychological experience of being in a “couple” resembles that of belonging to a group with more members, and why that might be important. You could talk about how couples who go through difficult times might, somewhat ironically, be more likely to stick together, depending on the nature of those difficult times. Etc.]