Psychology Psy assignment 1st

Overview

Religiosity and spirituality can influence every facet of a person’s life. Studies show their relationship with job satisfaction, anxiety, stress, political ideology, and overall happiness, to name a few (note I’m not citing articles because you will need to find relevant articles for whichever of these you choose – however, in a research paper one could not make these assertions without appropriate citations). Religiosity and spirituality can also be examined across the lifespan or in relation to aspects from one’s childhood. However, how people define and examine religiosity and spirituality varies considerably. To scaffold the expectations of creating, conducting, and presenting original research, this research project is divided into parts. In your first portion, the Research Design Assignment, you will design your study, creating a proposed survey to collect data. The survey must be constructed following the instructions in this assignment exactly, as it has exempt status from the IRB because it is purely for educational purposes.

Note: this study is for educational purposes only – you will not present or publish the data and can only collect data from friends and family. You will need to collect data from at least 20 people after your survey has been approved.

You must have approval from your instructor before you can begin data collection. Approval will be based on the survey you submit as part of your Research Design Assignment due the first week of class. You may choose to administer your survey in person (face-to-face), or virtually using email or social media to a minimum of 20 people. Please note this assignment is for educational purposes only, and has constraints to remain exempt from IRB approval yet compliant with the ethical standards of our field. Thus, you must use the operational definitions of constructs provided in this document. The target population and sampling methods are limited. Namely, your target population must be obtainable by soliciting participation from adults (18+ years of age) who are friends or family (e.g., Sunday school class, small group, book study, a group of family members, friends – NOT coworkers, particularly any person who works for you or could in some way be perceived as being coerced to participate). A second constraint is that anonymity must be assured. This means that you, as the researcher, cannot pair results with any one individual, and no identifying information of any kind (e.g., name, email address) should be requested or noted. You should not distribute this in places of work, ask professors to post your survey in their courses, or use public places to collect data. If you have any questions regarding these procedures, contact your instructor.

Survey Construction

You must select ONE demographic variable, ONE variable from the “Variables of Interest #1” section, and ONE variable from the “Variables of Interest #2” section in this document.

· Remember - a demographic variable is used to describe your sample - the variable is NOT part of your research question or your analysis. A demographic variable helps provide the scope of external validity of your research (example – if only people between the ages of 18 – 25 ( M = 20.3, S = 2.5) complete your survey, then the descriptive statistics from the demographic question lets people know your conclusions are restricted to a population of this age group). Again, it is NOT included in your statistical analysis or hypothesis. It is merely used to describe your sample. You should not discuss your demographic variable in your introduction as a variable of interest. It will not be in your hypothesis.

· Select TWO variables of interest as a basis for a hypothesis – one from each section (Variable of Interest #1 and Variable of Interest #2). Please note they are only numbered to clarify what is considered a variable within each section– do not use the numbers in your research paper as that is not scientific or meaningful. You will have the constructs in your hypothesis and will operationally define them using the scales provided here. *Some of the variables have a citation based on the development of the questions used to assess it – you’d need to cite the provided article if you select a variable with that information provided (and it does not count towards the number of articles you must discuss). All articles cited in this document are available within the JF Library.

· Final considerations when creating your survey: Make sure to include the following Disclosure verbatim at the top of your survey. Then, have all questions in a single, professionally formatted survey. There is an example survey on the last page of this document for you to model. You cannot add/delete/modify information from the disclosure or variables as shown in this document. They must be used in their entirety as provided here. Here is the required disclosure that must be included at the top of your survey:

Disclosure: I am asking you to complete this survey as part of the requirements for my statistics project in a graduate level psychology course. Your answers will remain completely anonymous. No personal information about you will be linked to this survey. Please do not put your name or any other identifying information on the survey. The results of this survey will be used only for educational purposes and will not be published or released to the public. You must be 18 years old or older to complete this survey.

Directions : <create appropriate directions here - these may vary but should include to only give one response per question – note you may need different directions for each subsection>

Demographic question: Select ONE demographic question.

1. Biological Sex:

a. Answer options (select one): Male, Female

2. Gender:

a. Answer options (select one): Male, Female, Other

3. Age in years: (Have it blank for participants to enter a number)

4. Racial Category (note these answer options are based on the OMB Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, published by NIH on April 8, 2015 – if you are collected data outside of the USA, this may not be an appropriate demographic variable):

a. Answer Options (select all that apply): American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Hispanic or Latino; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander; White; Other

5. Marital status (including living common law):

a. Answer options (select one): Now married; Widowed; Divorced; Separated; Never married

Variable of Interest #1 Select ONE of the following scales to measure your first variable of interest. Example: if you select the Intrinsic Spirituality Scale your construct is “spirituality” and your operational definition is that you will use the “Intrinsic Spirituality Scale” developed by Hodge (2003). The participant will answer 6 questions from this scale, but you will average their responses and use this averaged score in your analysis). Note – you have 6 options. Choose ONE.

1. Intrinsic Spirituality Scale measures the degree to which spirituality is a motivating factor in one’s life

Hodge, D.R. (2003). The Intrinsic Spirituality Scale: A new six-item instrument for assessing the salience of spirituality as a motivational construct. Journal of Social Service Research 30 (1), 41 – 61. https://doi.org/10.1300/J079v30n01_03

See page 48 in the article for the exact questions and answer options

· Analysis: Answers to 6 items (ratio): average the scores so total range is 0-10 ( use this number for your statistical analysis). To help with your interpretation:0 represents an individual for whom spirituality is not operative in their life as a motivating factor; 10 indicates a person who is motivated by their spirituality to the highest degree possible.

2. Underwood’s Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES) or

3. Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS)

NOTE: Both measure experiences of God’s love, presence, guidance, and closeness during daily life and are provided in the following article:

Underwood, L. G. (2011). The daily spiritual experience scale: Overview and results. Religions, 2(1) , 29-50. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010029

You can use all 16 questions of the Underwood DSES or you can opt to use the shortened, 6 question version referred to as the Brief Multidimensional Measure of Religiousness/Spirituality (BMMRS), also provided in this article.

· See Table 1 in the article for the directions, questions, and answer options used for the 16 question Underwood’s DSES, or the shortened BMMRS 6 item scale (note the asterisk at the bottom of the table that indicates which questions were selected and/or combined for the shortened version).

· Answer options should be quantified by ranging from 1 (“Never or almost never”) to 6 (“Many times a day”).

· Answers to these 6 items should be averaged, for individual final averages ranging from 1-6 (use two decimal places) where more frequent daily spiritual experience is represented by higher mean scores.

· As discussed in the referenced article, there is more than one way to score it – you should follow the directions listed here for consistency.

4. Brief Religious Methods of Coping (RCOPE) positive subscale assesses sense of connectedness with a transcendent force, a secure relationship with a caring God, and a belief that life ha a greater benevolent meaning

5. Brief Religious Methods of Coping (RCOPE) negative subscale this subscale reflects underlying spiritual tensions and struggles within oneself, with others, and with the divine

NOTE: Both RCOPE subscales are provided in the following article:

Pargament, K., Feuille, M, & Burdzy, D. (2011). The brief RCOPE: Current psychometric status of a short measure of religious coping. Religions, 2(1) , 51-76. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel2010051

· Both subscales are shown in Table 2 of the cited article (Pargament et al., 2011). These questions should have responses ranging from 1 ‘not at all’ to 4 ‘a great deal.’

· Analysis: To be consistent with the norms shown in Table 6, sum the scores of your subscale so that values will range from 7 – 28, with higher values reflecting a larger degree of (positive or negative) religious coping.

6. Prayer Importance Scale (PIS) developed for the rapid assessment of persisting in prayer regardless of external circumstances (e.g., lack of results, unhappiness, the feeling of distance from God), as well as treating it as a coping strategy – note this scale is universal / neutral of religion

Tatala, M. & Wojtasinski, M. (2021). The validity of Prayer Importance Scale (PIS). Religions, 12(1) , 1032. https:// doi.org/10.3390/rel12111032

See page 3 of the article for the six questions that make up the PIS (numbered under “The final list of test items included”). Response options should range from 1 = “definitely not applicable” to 5 = “definitely applicable.” Responses should be averaged, so that final scores range from 1 – 5, with higher values indicating more importance of prayer.

Variable of Interest #2 Select ONE of the following variables to measure your second construct of interest. (E.g., if you select the construct “depression”, your operational definition will be the “Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression scale. You would include the 20 questions from the CES-D and then combine them to a single score ranging from 0-60 for your statistical analysis). Note questions #9-12 do not have citations as they are well-defined and are not psychological constructs.

1. Depression from the Center for Epidemiological Studies – Depression (CES-D) scale: a 20-item measure that asks a participant to rate how often over the past week they experienced symptoms associated with depression, such as restless sleep, poor appetite, and feeling lonely.

Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population.  Applied Psychological Measurements,  1(3), 385-401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306

*Use the 20 questions as shown in Table 1 but have response options range from 0-3 for each item (0 = Rarely or None of the Time, 1 = Some or Little of the Time, 2 = Moderately or Much of the time, 3 = Most or Almost All the Time).

· Analysis: Reverse score #4, 8, 12, and 16. Then, you add up all scores. Scores range from 0 to 60, with high scores indicating greater depressive symptoms.

2. Shyness This 9 question self-report survey assesses a person’s tension, discomfort, and inhibition that may occur in the presence of others (“shyness”).

Cheek, J.M. & Buss, A.H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41 (2), 330-339. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.41.2.330

Use the 9 questions listed in Table 1 for the “Shyness” scale. Have participants rate agreement with the items on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (neutral), 4 (agree), and 5 (strongly agree).

· Analysis: Reverse score question #2 (“I don’t find it hard to talk to strangers”). Then add the values from the nine questions to obtain a single score ranging from 9-45, which higher scores represent higher levels of shyness.

3. Loneliness use the RULS-6 scale.