Research Methods Practice

Directions:Explore 6 studies by clicking on the Then, answer the questions in the table on your handout.

"Bewildered by the negative reactions he seems to engender in people, Nathan hires a focus group to help him become likeable."

This experiment investigates how positive and negative reinforcement can affect a player’s game on the court.

Novotny and Polonsky (2011) carried out a correlational study, using surveys to look at the rate of prejudice against Muslims in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The sample was made up of 716 university students from seven Czech and Slovak cities. All students were second or third-year undergraduates.The survey was divided into four sections: knowledge about Islam; subjective views of Muslims and Islam; geographic knowledge of the Islamic world; personal characteristics of the participant.

Prejudice

The researchers found that one’s level of knowledge about Islam negatively correlated with a perceived threat – that is, the more the participants knew about Islam, the less they felt threatened by Muslims.

The case study of Jodie, the girl with half a brain.

Using a pre-defined coding system, the researchers found that group glee was often the result of suspense, taboo-breaking, physical stimulation, or simply moments of unstructured play. They also observed that group glee was sustained when the teacher joined in with the students.

Sherman (1975) carried out a non-participant naturalistic observation to study the phenomenon of group glee in preschoolers. Group glee was defined as "joyful screaming, laughing and intense physical acts" which quickly spread in the group. Each day, three separate groups of children from each class were taken from the free play area to participate in a directed lesson. Each lesson was scheduled for 20 minutes. A stationary video camera with a wide-angle lens was used to video-record the session. The children were divided into age groups but were mixed with respect to sex and race.

Group glee in pre-school

Marmot et al. (1997) analyzed data from over 7000 British civil servants to find out whether employees in lower position jobs - that is, with less control over their work environment - would develop heart problems over five years. To gather their data, the researchers used a series of questionnaires and carried out health screenings. When the researchers analyzed the data they found that the rate of heart problems in the lowest levels of the system was 1.5 times the rate in the highest levels.

Health in the workplace