Assignment #3 Part 1,2,3,4 - An illusory correlation occurs when

Short Answer Assignment #3

Part 1

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to help you better understand illusory correlations and the third variable problem as well as practice identifying potential third-variable causes.

TASK: Read the following information and use your textbook and class notes to answer the following questions and identify a third-variable cause for the correlations below.

CRITERIA: You will be successful on this assignment if you can: (a) Provide a correct answer to all of the questions using course concepts and descriptions that are clear to another reader.

ASSIGNMENT:

An illusory correlation occurs when two variables are significantly correlated – increases in one variable tend to co-occur with increases (or decreases) in the other variable – but changes in one variable do not cause changes in the other variable.

Often times, illusory correlations between two variables are the result of a third-variable problem – a secret, unmeasured third variable causes reliable changes in both variables. For example, the number of horses owned throughout life is significantly correlated with lifespan. This is a real, significant correlation, but does it mean that owning a horse causes a person to live longer? Or, alternatively, is there a secret third variable that causes both variables to rise. Think about it – what is the third variable? … Wealth is the secret third variable that causes increased number of horses owned and increased lifespan!

Based on this information, your textbook, and class notes, answer the following questions:

1. What is a third-variable problem? If you still don’t understand this term, look it up in your textbook.

2. In your own words: How can a third-variable problem create an illusory correlation?

3. Name a potential third-variable cause for the correlations below. Explain your reasoning.

A. The more air conditioners are sold in a day, the more drownings tend to occur that day.

B. Countries with more butter have happier citizens.

C. Children who start text-messaging at a younger age test higher in reading ability.

D. More time spent on social media is related to lower grades in college.

E. Towns with more churches per square mile tend to have a higher crime rate.

F. Increased flossing is related to longer lifespan.

 

G. Eating unhealthy food during childhood is correlated with prison time in adulthood.

H. Among teens, listening to music with sexual lyrics is correlated with sexual activity.

Part 2

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice your research skills while building your understanding of cross-lag correlations and research design.

TASK: Using the UTA library, find a journal article describing a cross-lag study about a topic you are interested in exploring further. Once you have read the article and have a good understanding of the study, answer the following questions.

CRITERIA: You will be successful on this assignment if you can: (a) Provide a correct answer to all of the questions using course concepts and descriptions that are clear to another reader.

ASSIGNMENT:

Using the UTA Library website, find a journal article about a cross-lag study. To do this, you can simply search “cross-lag study,” “cross-lag correlations,” or “cross-lag panel study.” You can also add specific variables to your search; pick something that you are interested in learning more about. For example, you could search for “cross-lag study parental warmth and self-esteem” and you will find the Brummelman et al., 2015 study which you cannot use for this assignment. Be patient, it will take a bit of searching to find an article to use for this assignment. Read the questions below, before you search for your article so you know exactly what you need to complete this assignment. Once you have found an article that depicts a cross-lag study, read it, and once you have a good understanding of the research, answer the following questions.

1. Provide the APA formatted citation for the journal article you read for this assignment.

2. Sketch the cross-lag figure within the article below. Make sure to clearly label the variables, auto-correlations, and cross-lag correlations. Include the cross-sectional correlations if the article provides them.

3. Overall, what do the cross-lag correlations suggests?

4. Using the variables within the study, describe the three possible patterns from a cross-lag study.

Part 3

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to help you better understand key terms in psychological research including experiments, random assignment, independent and dependent variables, and study design.

TASK: Read the following prompt and use your textbook and class notes to answer the following questions.

CRITERIA: You will be successful on this assignment if you can: (a) Provide a correct answer to all of the questions using course concepts and descriptions that are clear to another reader.

ASSIGNMENT:

To complete this assignment, follow the prompts below, and answer the questions.

1. Search on YouTube: An Experiment by Kiley Hamlin: Helpers and Hinderers… start it at 0:30

A. What was the main finding of this study?

B. What was the independent variable?

C. What was the dependent variable?

D. Was the design independent-groups, within-groups, or concurrent measures? Explain.

2. In an experiment by Cohen (2003 – Party over Policy), participants were asked to evaluate the quality of two welfare-reform programs – one that was fiscally conservative; another that was fiscally liberal – and choose which program they preferred. Each participant read the same two programs, but they were randomly assigned to be told that either: (a) The conservative program was written by a Democrat; liberal program by a Republican or (b) The liberal program was written by a Republican; conservative program by a Democrat. The significant majority of participants preferred whichever program was written by a politician from their own political preference, regardless of the substantive content of the program.

A. In your own words, what did this study find?

B. What was the independent variable?

C. What was the dependent variable?

D. Was the design independent-groups, within-groups, or concurrent measures? Explain.

E. What was a control variable – held constant between groups?

3. In an experiment by Zadro, Williams, and Richardson (2004), participants learned to play a simple game of “Cyberball” with other participants on a computer. Cyberball is a simple, dumb game. It is simply a game of “catch” with two other participants (see graphic below). In reality, the other two players are not real – they are automated. The automated players are programed to include the participant in the game of catch for several rounds (left image below) and then eventually exclude the participant (right image). Incredibly (given that the game is so simple and dumb), several studies have shown that being excluded in this way hurts people’s feelings. Specifically, in this study (Zadro et al., 2004), post-Cyberball self-esteem scores were significantly lower than pre-Cyberball self-esteem scores.

Social exclusion (Cyberball). Note Participants played two rounds of a... |  Download Scientific Diagram

A. In your own words, what did this study find?

 

B. What was the independent variable?

C. What was the dependent variable?

D. Was the design independent-groups, within-groups, or concurrent measures? Explain.

E. What is another dependent variable that would have been interesting to measure? Explain.

Part 4

PURPOSE: The purpose of this assignment is to help you practice designing a research study and gain a better understanding of manipulation checks, experimental demand, and design confounds.

TASK: Read the hypothesis below and answer the following questions that will help you design your own study to test it.

CRITERIA: You will be successful on this assignment if you can: (a) Provide a correct answer to all of the questions using course concepts and descriptions that are clear to another reader.

ASSIGNMENT:

Read the hypothesis and answer the questions.

Hypothesis: You think that a group of people who go through a painful experience together will report stronger social bonds than a group of people who do not go through a painful experience. Design a study that test this idea.

1. What is the manipulation in your study?

2. What are the groups in your study?

3. Describe the general procedure of your study that ensures you will maximize the strength of your manipulation.

4. How will you measure the dependent variable?

5. Will demand characteristics influence the results of your study? How can you control for them?

6. How will you control for your own experimenter bias?

7. Do you need to include a manipulation check? If so, how will you include it?

8. What are potential design confounds that may influence the results of the study?