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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
Sara Ruckdeschel
Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies, Liberty University
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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
1. An example of a descriptive laboratory design I created, consists of school counseling
trainees, and undergraduate students. The school counseling trainees will have the
students complete the O*NET Interest Profiler in a lab setting. Once finished, the
trainees will discuss the results with the students and answer any questions. The students
will complete a survey on how accurate they feel the O*NET Interest Profiler relates to
them and how well they feel the trainee assisted them.
A. The intended purpose of this study is to obtain data on how the school counseling
trainees can guide students through the O*NET Interest Profiler and answer
questions.
B. The methods that would be used in this design are observations and surveys.
C. This study would be low in experimental control and low in external validity because
there is no manipulation of variables, and the results have low generalizability outside
of the lab.
D. I would predict that the students would evaluate the trainees as being capable of
relaying the results and answering questions about the O*NET Interest Profiler
because most of the information is explained to the user after the questions are
completed.
E. The advantage of this study is that the data is easily collected through a survey. A
limitation is that the results are not able to be generalized to a setting outside of the
laboratory.
2. An example of a descriptive field design I created consists of the researcher collecting
data of recorded sessions between school counselors and students.
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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
a. The purpose of this study is for the researcher to obtain data on how often
students will go to their school counselor to talk about scheduling classes versus
talking about personal issues in their life.
b. The methods that would be utilized in this study are recorded sessions and
observations.
c. This study would be low in experimental control due to not randomizing
participants and lack of control of the variables. The external validity would be
high due to how well this will generalize outside of this research study.
d. The outcomes I predict that would come from this study would be that most
students will only see their counselors for class scheduling issues, whereas a small
number of students will seek guidance about personal issues.
e. An advantage of this type of study is that it can be generalized to other similar
settings, the limitation is that this type of study cannot show a cause-and-effect
relationship.
3. An example of an experimental laboratory design I created consists of a randomized
collection of students ages 13 through 18 who are addicted to nicotine. The researchers
will give half of the students a placebo pill and the other half a pill that will curb the
craving for nicotine. The students will have to come to the lab every day to take the pill.
The students will write down every time they have a craving on a provided log as well as
completing the Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence before the treatment
begins and at the end of the treatment. The Fagerström Test for Nicotine
Dependence measures the intensity of the nicotine cravings throughout the day,
the level of compulsion, as well as how many cigarettes are smoked during the
day.
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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
a. The purpose of this study is to see the effects of a placebo and an actual pill that
will lessen the craving for nicotine in students.
b. The methods utilized in this design are the Fagerström Test for Nicotine
Dependence survey.
c. This design is high in experimental control and low in external validity as the
researcher has established the variables.
d. I would predict that many students who took the real pill would crave nicotine
less than those who took the placebo.
e. An advantage of this study is because it is high in internal validity it can show
causal relationships, and a limitation is that it is low in external validity which
results in low generalizability.
4. An example of an experimental field study would be to give an exam to a group of
students after completion of a career skills course. Half of the students will get version
one of the exams and the other half will get version two of the exams.
a. The purpose of this study is to measure how well the career course was taught and
how much information the students retained. The two versions of the test will
account for the validity of the material retained
b. The method used in this design is the exams being given to the students.
c. This design is high in experimental control and external validity due to the
researchers controlling the variables and the high level of generalizability.
d. It is hard to predict the outcome of this design, however, if the class was taught
well and the students were high achievers then it can be assumed that the students
would do well on the exam.
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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
e. An advantage of this study is that it gives researchers a chance to study cause and
effect as well as generalizability. A limitation of this design is that causality can
be better studied in an experimental lab design, and generalizability can be better
studied in a descriptive field design.
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STIMULUS QUESTIONS ASSIGNMENT
References
Heppner, P.P., Wampold, B. E., Owen, J., Thompson, M. N., & Wang, K. T. (2016). Research
Design in Counseling (4th ed.). Cengage Learning
Instrument: Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND). (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://cde.drugabuse.gov/instrument/d7c0b0f5-b865-e4de-e040-bb89ad43202b
.
