Unit 1 -- Research Hypotheses & Designs

Intro:

When considering a study, it is important that the type of research hypothesis (associative or causal) is "matched" by the type of research design (i.e., we need properly conducted true experiments to evaluate a causal research hypothesis). When evaluating the quality of a study it is important to know whether it is a between groups or within-groups design.

Goal:

This exercise will give you some more practice at identifying the major types of bivariate research hypotheses and major attributes of research designs…

  • Between groups designs have different groups of research participants receiving different treatments or procedures (also called between subjects or cross-sectional designs).
  • Within-groups designs have one group of participants completing both of the different treatments or procedures (also called within-subjects or longitudinal designs).
  • True experiments involve random assignment of individual participants to the different treatments or procedures and manipulation of those treatments by the researcher.
  • Non-experiments may or may not involve treatment manipulation, but do not include random assignment of individuals.

Topics:

There are six topics in this exercise:

  1. Identifying associative research hypotheses
  2. Identifying causal research hypotheses
  3. Identifying True Experiments
  4. Identifying Non-experiments
  5. Identifying Between groups designs
  6. Identifying Within-groups designs

Reading:

The first several slides of this PowerPoint describe research hypotheses and specify the three major types -- we'll cover the rest of the slides during the next class. Prelude to Research Designs Lecture (pdf)

Exercise:

Go to the Psyc350 Canvas section, open the Modules & look in “Unit 1 Pink Things” --  complete the exercise titled  U1 -- Hypotheses & Designs Prelude

Due Date:

Please have this done before the next lecture -- we will be building on this information then!