Section Three:

Decision-making in research methods and statistics Overview of the task For this section, there are three research questions below (worth 10% each). You need to decide what the best assessment of each research question might be. In particular, for each one, you need to decide on the appropriate research design. You must provide a brief, rational justification for each of your answers.

1. Identify type of study design needed, including within or between groups where relevant.

2. Identify, label and justify all relevant factors/independent and dependent variables.

3. Identify and justify the correct statistical test required. Example 12

Here is a basic example – do remember that the three used for assessment may require a more complicated design. This example is 100 words, but you do have 450 words for all three designs combined, and some might require more detailed responses than others.

Example: What research design might you set up to test the following hypothesis?

H1 Dog owners get more exercise than cat owners.

1. A between groups design would enable assessment of dog vs. cat owners.
2. The independent variable would be pet ownership with two levels (cat owners vs. dog owners) because the study would have a group of cat owners who were measured on exercise and a group of dog owners.

The dependent variable would be a recording of the number of miles walked by dog and cat owners over a seven-day period.

3. An independent samples t-test would consider the difference in number of miles walked between the cat and dog owner groups.

Question One (10%)

What research design might you set up to test the following hypothesis?
H1 People remember images better than words but remember words better than sounds.

Question Two (10%)

What research design might you set up to test the following hypotheses?
H1 People who attend a 12-week counselling programme will have higher levels of cognitive rumination than those who attend a 24-week programme.
H2 The level of improvement in cognitive rumination will depend not only on amount of counselling (12 weeks or 24 weeks), but also whether the counselling took place within a residential treatment facility or as an outpatient of the same facility.

Question Three (10%)

What research design might you set up to test the following hypotheses?
H1 It is hypothesised that a person’s level of self-control is a better predictor of longterm smoking abstinence than either time spent at a cessation programme or length of time spent with a quit smoking group.