Research Activity 1: experimental/ survey design

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*********DUE DATE: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9 by 11:55pm********** Assignment Overview: This assignment is designed to get you thinking about how you would design a quantitative research study based on the concepts we’ve discussed in class. For this activity, you have a choice: You can choose to propose an experimental research design or a survey research design. You should only choose one. When you save your assignment in Word, please include in the title of your document “experiment” or “survey”. The explanation for each option is outlined below. Regardless of which option you choose, your final assignment should be 5-6 pages, typed, double-space in a 12-point font (Times New Roman or something similar) with standard margins that are set in Microsoft Word (1 and 1.25 inch margins). Assignments should be clearly written and free from all typos and spelling/grammar errors. Assignments not conforming to these specifications may be subject to grade penalties. Assignments do not need a title page; if you include references, you should format them according to APA 6th edition style.

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OPTION 1: Experimental Design Assignment Instructions: For this activity, you are tasked with designing an experiment studying one of the following variables:

• Relational satisfaction • Generosity or altruism • Political preferences • Learning achievement

You must choose to include one of the variables listed above in your study. You can decide whether it is going to be your independent variable or your dependent variable. This means that you will choose at least one other variable to include in your study. This second variable can be anything (that would make logical sense to study in relationship to the variable you choose from the list above). Step 1: Introduction Once you’ve chosen your variable of interest from the list above, you should begin your paper by stating a clear research question that you are setting out to answer. Then you should identify your independent variable and dependent variable. You should also provide a conceptual definition and an operational definition for each. Your operational definition should reflect specific indicators that you identify as important for measuring your variables. When thinking through your operational definition, be sure to identify what level of measurement you will gather from your variables (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio). When outlining your IV and DV, you need to articulate at least one hypothesis regarding the relationship you would expect to see between your variables. When stating your hypothesis, be sure to outline the direction of the correlation you would expect to see between your variables. You should also provide a rationale for your proposed hypothesis. That is, explain why you predict the relationship you outline in your hypothesis. (You may draw on a theory or previous research you are familiar with to explain your prediction or you may use logical reasoning to explain your prediction). Step 2: Methods

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Discuss your proposed experimental design. First, identify your participants. Discuss how you will gather your sample, and whether you need to consider any inclusion criteria (who you will purposely include in your sample) or exclusion criteria (who you will purposely exclude) for your participants. Be sure to clearly identify a sampling method and outline how you plan to use that method to gather your sample (i.e., practically how will you implement the sampling method you choose – for instance, if you need a sampling frame, identify what it will be). You should justify your choice of sampling method and discuss at least one benefit and one drawback inherent with your sampling method choice. You should also outline which experimental design you would choose (post- test, pre-test/post-test, Solomon 4 group, or quasi-experimental design) and then describe, based on your chosen design, what your experiment would look like. That is, walk us through your experiment in detail: Be sure to include a discussion of the differences between your control group and experimental group(s), and outline the treatment condition(s) in your group. This design should align with the IV and DV you outlined in Step 1. Step 3: Critique Identify at least one threat to internal validity and one threat to external validity in your design. Also discuss at least one potential confounding variable that could introduce spuriousness into your results, and how you would attempt to address this confounding variable. Discuss the criteria for causality and how your experimental design attempts to address all of these criteria. Lastly, what are the overall weaknesses in your design? What are its strengths? Outline at least one reason why this design is superior to a survey research design in answering your specific research question. Though you will not have any statistics to analyze, you should also discuss one potential instrumental and symbolic value of your hypothetical findings (that is, assuming that your findings support your hypothesis, how are your findings likely to be instrumentally and symbolically relevant?) Using the criteria and format suggested above, write your paper. Again, your paper should be 5-6 pages long, double-spaced. It should address all of the questions raised above. When writing your paper, it is essential that you connect your answers to the questions detailed above to concepts discussed in class. Be sure to proof and correct your work.

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Step 4: Upload your paper under the correct assignment by the due date. Double-check to make sure that your assignment was successfully submitted through Sakai.

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OPTION 2: Survey Design Assignment Instructions: For this activity, you are tasked with designing a survey studying any of the following:

• Relational satisfaction • Generosity or altruism • Political preferences • Learning achievement

You must choose to include one of the variables listed above in your study. You can decide whether it is going to be your independent variable or your dependent variable. This means that you will choose at least one other variable to include in your study. This second variable can be anything (that would make logical sense to study in relationship to the variable you choose from the list above). Step 1: Introduction Once you’ve chosen your variable of interest from the list above, you should begin your paper by stating a clear research question that you are setting out to answer. Then you should identify your independent variable and dependent variable. You should also provide a conceptual definition and an operational definition for each. Your operational definition should reflect specific indicators that you identify as important for measuring your variables. When thinking through your operational definition, be sure to identify what level of measurement you will gather from your variables (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio). When outlining your IV and DV, you need to articulate at least one hypothesis regarding the relationship you would expect to see between your variables. When stating your hypothesis, be sure to outline the direction of the correlation you would expect to see between your variables. You should also provide a rationale for your proposed hypothesis. That is, explain why you predict the relationship you outline in your hypothesis. (You may draw on a theory or previous research you are familiar with to explain your prediction or you may use logical reasoning to explain your prediction).

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Step 2: Methods First, identify your participants. Discuss how you will gather your sample, and whether you need to consider any inclusion criteria (who you will purposely include in your sample) or exclusion criteria (who you will purposely exclude) for your participants. Be sure to clearly identify a sampling method and outline how you plan to use that method to gather your sample (i.e., practically how will you implement the sampling method you choose – for instance, if you need a sampling frame, identify what it will be). You should justify your choice of sampling method and discuss at least one benefit and one drawback inherent with your sampling method choice. You should also outline if you are developing a questionnaire with independent survey questions or a type of index or scale and explain your selection. Identify the format of your survey and whether it would be a self-report or other-report study (or a combination). Be sure to discuss at least one benefit and one drawback of your choice to use a self-report or other-report design. In addition, you should outline at least three rules or principles discussed in class for creating a successful survey, and how you accomplished these in your survey, index or scale. In an appendix included at the end of your paper, you should create a 10 question survey (or index or scale) to measure your variables. Make sure that these questions adhere to the criteria for good survey designs (as discussed in class) and include questions that are clearly designed to measure all of your necessary variables. Step 3: Critique Identify at least two possible threats to validity in your survey design. Also discuss at least one potential confounding variable that could introduce spuriousness into your results, and how you would attempt to address this confounding variable. Lastly, what are the overall weaknesses in your design? What are its strengths? Outline at least one reason why this design is superior to an experimental research design in answering your specific research question. Though you will not have any statistics to analyze, you should also discuss one potential instrumental and symbolic value of your hypothetical findings (that is, assuming that your findings support your hypothesis, how are your findings likely to be instrumentally and symbolically relevant?) Using the criteria and format suggested above, write your paper.

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The text of your paper should be 4-5 pages long, double-spaced with an additional 1-page appendix at the end (so 5-6 pages total). The appendix is where you will include your 10 example survey questions). Your paper should address all of the questions raised above. When writing your paper, it is essential that you connect your answers to the questions detailed above to concepts discussed in class. Be sure to proof and correct your work. Step 4: Upload your paper under the correct assignment by the due date. Double-check to make sure that your assignment was successfully submitted through Sakai.