ACTION ITEM -- 1. Simple Experiment Homework - F23
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
University of California, Los Angeles *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
MISC
Subject
Medicine
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
5
Uploaded by EarlEnergySardine25
Simple Experiment Homework
Due Week 4 Lab
Student Name
:
[Jayla Castro]
Proverb: “Misery loves company”
Meaning of Proverb:
People who are suffering take comfort in being with others who
are also suffering.
Assignment Scenario:
The UCLA Hospital wants to assess whether adult patients waiting for a painful medical
procedure prefer to sit in a waiting room alone, or with other people who are also waiting for
the procedure.
Accordingly, the hospital hires YOU as a research consultant to assess the preference of
patients. Your task is to propose a study—using one independent variable with two levels—to
answer this question.
Instructions:
In accordance with the proverb
AND
the assignment scenario
above, describe
your simple experiment design by answering the questions below.
Reminders:
(1) Your
assignment
must
be based upon the above proverb
and
scenario
(2) This proverb and scenario is
different
from those you have completed while in your
lab section.
(3) For more clarity, the
rubric
posted on the course Bruin Learn site provides
more detail of what is expected within your responses.
1
I.
Study Design (19 total possible points)
1. Based on this scenario, design a simple experiment (i.e., one IV with two levels) and
construct a hypothesis that is consistent with the described scenario. Be sure to
include significance and directionality in your hypothesis statement.
a) Identify your independent variable (IV), and the two levels of this IV. Make sure to
effectively explain this IV by clearly defining your construct and operational definition
(3 points).
[
The independent variable would be the social presence in the waiting room and the
two levels of that would be waiting alone in the waiting room or waiting with other people who
may be going through the same painful situations. The construct, social presence, refers to the
physical presence of another human being waiting in the waiting room when a patient is
preparing for a painful medical procedure. It represents the degree to which a patient is in the
company of other people during this waiting period. The operational definition involves putting
the patients in categories. Alone, at this level means the patient wants to be physically isolated
from other patients before going in for their procedure. However, with others at this level,
means that the patient would rather be accompanied by other people in the room as they go
through a very stressful painful ordeal.
]
b) Identify the dependent variable (DV), how it is measured, and the scale of
measurement used. Make sure to effectively explain this DV by clearly defining your
construct and operational definition as well as clearly identifying and describing your
scale. Your DV should lie on an interval or on a ratio scale to allow for powerful
statistical tests of data (3 points).
[
The dependent variable would be the Patient preference which reflects the patients
willingness to have people in the waiting room with them or alone at this time. This is
quantitatively assessed by a scale. A Likert scale would probably be the best for this study
because the ordinal scale can accurately identify the different levels of presence preferences for
the patient for example; 1 being a very strong preference for waiting alone, 2 being a moderate
preference to waiting alone, 3 being no strong preference: neutral to the either situation, 4
being a moderate preference to waiting with others, and 5 being a strong preference for waiting
with others.
This data in return can be analyzed with a t-test since there are two different
groups being compared, an Alone, and a With Others group.]
c) Effectively describe your proposed hypothesis by clearly including all needed
portions of a simple experiment hypothesis statement:
●
(a) significance
●
(b) directionality
●
(c) backed up by reasoning drawn from the proverb and scenario itself
2
(5 points).
[
The significance in this hypothesis is patients waiting for a painful medical procedure
will feel a significant difference in their preferences for the waiting room experience, based on
the level of social presence. As for directionality we can hypothesize that the patient will feel a
stronger presence by waiting in the company of others (With Others) as opposed to being
(Alone). This is drawn from the proverb “misery loves company” which represents that people
find a lot of comfort or support in the presence of others during challenging or painful
experiences. From a medical standpoint patients may be anxious or in pain, the presence of
other patients in the waiting room might provide a certain level of comfort or emotional
support. I’d say it’s very reasonable to expect that patients will make the preference for the
social presence (With Others) over isolation (Alone) when waiting for a painful medical
procedure.
]
2. Describe how the IV will be manipulated in your study by Indicating whether your
proposed study will be a between-subjects or a within-subjects design and effectively
explain why you have selected this design type by providing your rationale for your
choice of design. Make sure your design and rationale is in line with the assigned
proverb and scenario (3 points).
[
The independent variable being Social Presence, can be manipulated by using the
between subjects design for this study. This aligns with the “Misery loves company” proverb
because it suggests that people prefer the company of others during a difficult time. The study
being a between subjects design minimizes the possibility of carryover effects. However, the
patients in the (Alone) group wouldn’t be affected by the presence of others, and vice versa.]
3. Sketch a figure (i.e., a line graph or a bar graph) with results that are consistent with
your hypothesis and make sure your figure is appropriate for your chosen IV. Check to
make sure you have positioned your IV and DV on the appropriate axes and included
correct axes labels. Finally, your displayed results must be consistent with your
hypothesis in part 1c (5 points).
*Note: Use the excel or google sheet, “Simple Experiment Proverb Activity Graphing
Tool” to create the appropriate graph and then paste the graph here.
3
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
[
See the graph.]
Alone
With Others
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Chart Title
Patient A
Patient B
II.
Lecture Connection (11 total possible points)
Recognizing that experimental conclusions can be limited when certain extraneous
variables are not properly controlled:
1. Effectively describe one extraneous variable in your study whose potential affects you
think need to be controlled and explain
why
you think this extraneous variable needs to
be controlled. Make sure your description includes a detailed connection to your
proposed study and a clear indication of the potentially ruinous effect(s) of the described
extraneous variable on interval validity if not controlled (5 points).
[
I think one extraneous variable that could happen with this study is if the patient
preferred being with other people in the waiting room but the other people were very noisy
and annoying and complaining about their procedure that the patient would be having which
could cause more anxiety in the waiting patient. I think if we controlled the behavior level or
the noise level in the waiting room we could eliminate this variable.
]
2. According to lecture and lab, there are three general methods we can use to control the
potential effects of an extraneous variable to rule out alternative explanations for any
observed effects and increase our confidence that the manipulation of the IV is what
caused the observed differences in the DV.
4
a) Fully explain each of these three general methods (1 point).
[
]
b) Which of these three general methods would you use to control for the effects of the
extraneous variable you identified in number 1 above? Fully explain how you would
implement this method in your study (2 points).
[
The three levels that we can use to effectively control different studies are to keep
them consistent, to vary it randomly, and to counterbalance.]
3. If you wanted to add a third level to this independent variable, what would you suggest
and why? Clearly describe this third level and effectively explain the benefit it would add
to your study (3 points).
[
I think for the third level of this experiment, I would add would have to add the ability
to allow your own family to wait with you in the room. ]
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for this Activity:
●
Differentiate
between correlational and simple experimental designs
●
Distinguish
the differences in the underlying construct and the operational definition of
that described construct
●
Formulate
operational definitions of manipulated independent and measured
dependent variables
●
Explain
the difference between an extraneous variable whose effects have been
controlled and a confounding variable
5