10b Mathematics Expert Only - No others accepted

You also need to address your DV- right now, it's not clear what it is or how it's being measured. If you've got multiple DV's then you need to either run a bunch of one-way tests, or look at using statistical tests that we haven't learned yet like the MANOVA.

Each Section Comments

1. Introduction

Professor note: Add supporting evidence and more of a summary of existing research, with references.

2. Research Questions

Professor note: This would be tricky to answer quantitatively.

1. How do war heroes and heroines learn how to connect with reality and civilians by undergoing a virtual reality therapy that is both humanistic and uses a patient centered approach?

Professor note: Be more concrete in your quantitative research questions; if you're looking at virtual reality therapy, then your questions should ask things like "Does VRT significantly impact..." or "Is there a significant relationship between...".

3. Hypotheses

Professor note: Just like in the DAA assignments, you will need to state null and alternative hypotheses for each of your research questions. They should be very well aligned. These are not currently stated as null and alternative hypotheses. Keep the focus on the variables you're interested in and that you will study.

4. Quantitative Approach

Professor note: A couple of comments. First, these variables were not mentioned in your research questions or hypotheses. I would think that the IV would be VRT and the DV would be some outcome measure related to trauma. I'm not sure where these are coming from...

Second, if the study is correlational, then your research questions and hypotheses should be worded as the correlation or relationship between variables.

5. Variables

Professor note: This is a lot of variables! If treatment is one of them, then it's likely this is a quasi-experimental study (correlational studies don't typically involve a treatment or intervention).

1. Mental ability

2. Stress

3. Relationships

4. Emotions

5. Treatment

Which of these variables are dependent variables?

Professor note: You've got a lot of DV's here. As you know, the designs we have studied in this class have included one or more IV's, but always only one DV. So, you'll need to use statistical tests that we haven't learned about yet in this class, or run multiple tests to look at the effect of the IV on each individual DV.

1. Awareness

2. Mental ability

3. Stress

4. Relationships

5. Emotions

Question: Which of these variables are other variables of interest? Specify how they are of interest (for example, covariate, confound, etc.)

Professor note: OK, I think I'm getting the idea here. I'm still not clear on your DV's or how those would be measured, BUT I think you could have two IV's here-- one being the treatment (a treatment group and a control group), and the other being the psychologists perception of VRT (positive, neutral, negative). If you did a factorial design, you'd have 3 research questions and 3 hypotheses- one for each of the main effects (VRT and psychologist perception) and the third for the interation between treatment and psych perception. Thoughts?

Question: Will you use existing measures in your research? If yes, describe the reliability and validity data of the measure.

Professor note: This needs to be much more specific-- how are you going to measure each of your DV's? For each DV you will need to have a scale or instrument that measures it. Using existing instruments is the way to go. You would also need some kind of way to categorize psychologist perceptions of VRT if you were going to include that as an IV.

6. Sample

Question: Explain how this sample is (and is not) representative of the population. Include a discussion of any inclusion or exclusion criteria for participation.

Professor note: Be extremely specific about your sample. How many of each group? Trauma diagnosis or self-identitied? How will you know if they meet criteria?

7. Procedures

Question: What are the participant recruitment procedures?

Professor note: ALL subjects need a signed letter of consent. Children need parental consent. I'm not clear on why each subject needs another person with them or how that fits into the study.

Question: What are the study procedures? (What will you do and where will you do it in obsessive detail)

Professor note: I am not clear from this what exactly you are doing. How will the study start? Will subjects go somwehere to do the study? When will informed consent be obtained? How will informed consent be obtained? What is the next step after getting informed consent? What specific tests or instruments will be done at what point? How many sessions will there be? You've detailed out "phases" here but I am not clear as a step by step process what will happen at each step. This is a complex study so needs very clear instructions.

Professor note: Are you going to use VRT with everyone? If so is this a pre-test/post-test type study? If not, how will you assign subjects to either the treatment or control group? Be very specific.

8. Statistics

Question: What statistics will be used in this study? Be specific for each hypothesis to be tested which variables you will use and which statistical test. Separate them by number.

Professor note: Given that you're using a treatment and either a pre-post assessment or groups, this would need to be evaluated using inferential statistics. What you have here doesn't reflect inferential statistics. I would recommend a one-way or a factorial ANOVA for each DV, OR you could do a factorial MANOVA which is a multivariate test, to accommodate multiple DV's, but we haven't studied that one yet...