Rda2012

It is widely recognized that the growth of the Internet in recent years has led to people of all ages having unprecedented access to both hard-core pornography and ‘soft’ erotic materials. Over a similar time period, there has also been a massive increase in levels of infection of sexually-transmitted diseases, not only HIV/AIDS, but also other diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea. Researchers contend that these two phenomena are linked, and further that the increasing availability of ‘soft’ erotic material in particular actually promotes irresponsible sexual behaviour. In an attempt to establish whether this is in fact the case, this study attempted to explore the effects of exposure to ‘soft’ erotic material on attitudes towards responsible sexual behaviour.

Forty-four female (mean age = 24.7 years) and thirty-one male (mean age = 26.2 years) postgraduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand volunteered to participate in the study. Subjects were told that they were participants in a study on information processing and that they would have the opportunity to discuss the study and their results upon completion of the data collection phase of the study.

Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Individuals in both groups completed the Sexual Attitudes Survey A. Group 1 was then shown an Internet-based short movie entitled ‘Reckless Abandon in the Western Cape’ (restricted to no under-18’s and classified as ‘soft’ erotic material). During the same time-frame, Group 2 was shown an Internet-based ‘neutral’ movie entitled ‘The Mating of South African Birds’, which described the courtship behaviour of various species of birds indigenous to the Western Cape. Once they had finished watching the movies, both groups were asked to complete the Sexual Attitudes Survey B (an alternate but equivalent scale to Survey A).

Mean scores obtained by both groups on the Sexual Attitudes Survey are presented in Table 1.

	Survey A	Survey B
Group 1 (n = 39)	92.8	85.7
Group 2 (n = 31)	93.3	92.2

Statistical analysis of results indicated a statistically significant difference in attitudes for individuals in Group 1 but no statistically significant difference for individuals in Group 2. Based on this the researchers concluded that exposure to ‘soft’ erotic material negatively affected attitudes towards responsible sexual behaviour.

1. What is the research question underpinning this study?

Does exposure to ‘soft’ erotic material have an effect on attitudes towards responsible sexual behavior?

2. Briefly state the hypothesis being tested here.

Exposure to ‘soft’ erotic material does have an effect on attitudes towards responsible sexual behavior

3. What is the independent variable?

Exposure to ‘soft’ erotic material

4. How was the independent variable operationalised?

Group 1 was then shown an Internet-based short movie entitled ‘Reckless Abandon in the Western Cape’ (restricted to no under-18’s and classified as ‘soft’ erotic material). During the same time-frame, Group 2 was shown an Internet-based ‘neutral’ movie entitled ‘The Mating of South African Birds’, which described the courtship behaviour of various species of birds indigenous to the Western Cape.

5. What is the dependent variable?

Attitudes towards responsible sexual behavior

6. How was the dependent variable operationalised?

Individuals in both groups completed the Sexual Attitudes Survey A before the manipulation and the Sexual Attitudes Survey B after the manipulation. Thus attitudes towards responsible sexual behavior was operationalized using the Sexual Attitudes Survey – Forms A and B

7. Which group is the experimental group?

Group 1 – They were shown an Internet-based short movie entitled ‘Reckless Abandon in the Western Cape’ (restricted to no under-18’s and classified as ‘soft’ erotic material).

8. Which group is the control group?

Group 2 – They were shown an Internet-based ‘neutral’ movie entitled ‘The Mating of South African Birds’, which described the courtship behaviour of various species of birds indigenous to the Western Cape.

9. What type of research design has the researcher employed? Substantiate your answer.

Quantitative. True-experimental because control and experimental group present, IV was manipulated (the film that contained ‘soft’ erotic material), there was random assignment. Pretest-postest control group design because both groups were prested and post tested.

10. Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of using this research design

Advantage - Pretest establishes baseline on attitudes

Disadvantage – Prestest introduces possibility of carryover effects

11. Which research design would you have suggested had you been commissioned to do the research initially? Substantiate your answer

Solomon four group design since this overcomes pretest effects

12. Based on the results of the study, the researchers’ clearly made causal conclusions. Discuss whether or not these conclusions are appropriate by making reference to notions of causality.

Conclusions justified since covariation criterion met because experimental and control group present, temporal precedence met because the IV was manipulated, non-spuriousness met to an extent because random assignment present

13. Identify and discuss five possible threats to the internal validity of this study.

History – it is possible for something to occur in the context for one group but for the other

Diffusion – all are postgraduate students on campus. There is the possibility for the experimental group to find out what the control group is receiving and vice versa.

Differential Attrition – it is evident from group sizes before and after that people dropped out of the study

Hawthorne effects – students could respond in a particular way simply because they are taking part in a study not in response to the manipulation

Good subject effects - students could respond in a socially desirable way because they are being altruistic subjects

Interactional experimenter effects – students can be responding to biological or psychosocial characteristics of experimenter rather than to the manipulation

14. Suggest three ways in which you think the internal validity of this study could have been improved.

History – have standardized conditions for both groups

Diffusion – make sure students have no opportunity to meet or conduct study over shorter time period.

Differential Attrition – use quasi controls

Have random sampling.

Get bigger sample sizes

Use triangulation

Use interviews or focus groups to supplement qualitative data

SELF STUDY:

1. The best description of internal validity deals with the questions of:

whether the observed outcomes of an experiment are the result of the experiment itself rather than the result of some extraneous factor

2. When a researcher is concerned that the results which she observes after an experiment might have occurred because of the composition of the group itself rather than because of the experimental treatment, with which of the major threats to internal validity is she most obviously concerned?

Selection Bias

3. If a researcher is concerned that it might have been some extraneous event that occurred while the experiment was going on rather than the experimental treatment itself which caused an observed outcome, with which of the following threats to internal validity is he most obviously concerned?

History

4. A primary school teacher finds that her Grade One pupils are having trouble with their basic mathematics concepts. She therefore tries a new teaching method and plans to evaluate it at the end of the year to see if it has made an improvement. She will consider her program successful if the children have mastered a large number of skills at the end of the year which they had not mastered at the beginning of the year. Which of the following is the most obvious threat to the evaluation of the program?

Maturation

5. Each year a primary school teacher provides a lesson in his physical education class on ‘The Rules of International Soccer (Football).’ In 2010, since it was a Soccer World Cup year, he decided to revise and upgrade the lesson. He initiated his lesson to coincide with the start of the televised portions of the World Cup. In the final exam, he asked his usual ten questions about International soccer. He found that the 2010 students scored substantially higher than the students from the previous three years had on the same questions. He concluded that his new program had been effective. Which of the following is the most obvious threat to the internal validity of the study?

History

6. Changes in subject’s behaviour which occur through the realisation that they are the subjects in a scientific study are called:

Hawthorne effects

7. The use of recorded laughter to accompany television and radio comedy shows is a well known and widespread practice. The authors chose to investigate the effects of audience laughter on individuals’ responses to humour. Forty undergraduate psychology students at the University of Aberdeen were placed in one of two conditions:

a) an experimental condition, in which participants listened alone to a radio comedy program, 'Arnold Brown and Company ' (BBC Radio, 1990) with the natural laughter of the audience present on the track, and

b) a control condition that listened to the same recording without the laughter.

After listening to the tape, the participants were presented with a questionnaire to assess their humour response. The questionnaire consisted of 7-point rating scales assessing funniness and enjoyability. Statistical analyses revealed the following:

Funniness - F (1,36) = 8.33, p = 0.007 **

Enjoyment - F (1,36) = 7.89, p = 0.008 **

** significant at 0.01 level of significance

Those participants who listened with laughter present gave significantly higher

ratings of the funniness and enjoyability of the recording.

1. State the hypothesis being investigated in this study.

The presence of audience laughter is associated with individuals’ responses to humour

2. What is the independent variable?

Presence/ansence of audience laughter

3. What is the dependant variable and how has it been operationalised?

responses to humour – was operationalized using a questionnaire consisting of 7-point rating scales assessing funniness and enjoyability.

4. What type of research design has the researcher employed? Substantiate your answer.

Quantitative. Quasi-experimental because control and experimental group present, IV was manipulated (the presence or absence of audience laughter), there was no random assignment. Postest only nonequivalent control group design because both groups were only post tested.

5. Discuss one advantage and one disadvantage of using this research design

Advantage – no pretest so no carryover but also disadvantage no baseline

Disadvantage – no random assignment so no non-spuriousness. Also no other controls for extraneous variables

6. Which research design would you have suggested had you been commissioned to do the research initially? Substantiate your answer

Pretest-posttest control group design or Solomon four group design (with justification) will be correct

7. Would the lecturer be justified in stating a causal hypothesis for this study? Substantiate your answer by making reference to notions of causality

No. Conclusions not justified since covariation criterion met because experimental and control group present, temporal precedence met because the IV was manipulated, but non-spuriousness not met because no random assignment present. They also did nothing else to control for extraneous variables.

8. Identify and briefly discuss five possible threats to the internal validity of this study.

History – it is possible for something to occur in the context for one group but for the other

Diffusion – all are postgraduate students on campus. There is the possibility for the experimental group to find out what the control group is receiving and vice versa.

Selection bias – no random assignment to control or experimental groups

Hawthorne effects – students could respond in a particular way simply because they are taking part in a study not in response to the manipulation

Good subject effects - students could respond in a socially desirable way because they are being altruistic subjects

Interactional experimenter effects – students can be responding to biological or psychosocial characteristics of experimenter rather than to the manipulation

9. Suggest three ways in which this study may be improved.

History – have standardized conditions for both groups

Diffusion – make sure students have no opportunity to meet or conduct study over shorter time period.

Selection bias – use random assignment, use quasi controls

Have random sampling.

Get bigger sample sizes

Use triangulation

Use interviews or focus groups to supplement qualitative data

Rda2012

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Link to access RDA IIA yearmarks

RDA YEARMARK ANNOUNCEMENT

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Nicky Israel revised consultation times

Monday, June 4, 2012

RDA YEARMARKS

Monday, May 28, 2012

Herbert Hove and Elsabe Smit Consult times - June 2012

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Nicky Israel - consultation times

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Internal validity class exercises