Short Assignment 1: Research Methods (5% of final grade)
Read the paragraph below and respond to the questions that follow. Do not make assumptions about the study design outside of what is presented below; use only this information to inform your answers.
Dr. I.M. Bright is studying the most effective type of message to give children to engage them in conservation efforts. Specifically, she wants to know whether positively framed messages (e.g., “Do X to save the coral reefs/animals!”) or negatively framed messages (e.g., “Don’t do Y or you will hurt the coral reefs/animals”) are more effective in eliciting children to donate to conservation causes.
In her study, 8- to 10-year-old child participants listen to a negatively framed message or a positively framed message. She assigns all of the children in the negatively framed message condition to hear about the importance of coral reefs and all of the children in the positively framed condition to hear about the importance of endangered animals. She then offers participants the opportunity to donate a monetary token to the relevant cause. Dr. Bright found that children who received positively framed messages were more likely than those who received negative messages to donate their tokens rather than keep them for themselves. She also found that older children were more likely than younger children to donate their tokens. Dr. Bright concludes that positively framed messages are more effective at getting children to donate to conservation efforts and that older children are more generous than younger children in this particular context.
Questions
(1) What research design did Dr. Bright use to conduct her study? (1 POINT)
(2) What is/are the independent variable(s) in the study? (1 POINT)
(3) What is/are the dependent variable(s) in the study? (1 POINT)
(4) What is/are the quasi-experimental variable(s) in the study? (1 POINT)
(5) Define the term “research confound.” Does Dr. Bright have any research confounds in her study (and if so, what are they)? (2 POINTS)
(6) Dr. Bright made two conclusions in her research. Are these conclusions valid. State YES or NO and explain WHY using appropriate research terminology. (4 POINTS)
(a) Positively framed messages were more effective than negatively framed messages in this context:
(b) Older children were more generous than younger children in this context:
