Designing Research Studies

Designing research studies can be super fun. You start with your research question and then try to come up with the best, and most practical, way to investigate that question. There are a vast range of studies that could be designed for a single research question or topic. You just have to design 2…
You will first choose one of the following 3 research questions. Then, you will design two studies examining the same research question. One of those studies will be correlational in nature, while the other will be experimental. Specifically, Questions 2-6 are for the correlational study and questions 7-11 are for an experimental study. Finally, the last question is more general.
Respond to the following items about your correlational study:
Question 1
Research Question Options (please choose one)
Group of answer choices
Is there a relationship between audience members’ opinions of a movie and their mood?
Is there a relationship between time spent playing violent video games and aggression?
Do students learn more from an online, hybrid, or face-to-face class?
Question 2
Briefly describe your hypothesis.
Question 3
What is your directional hypothesis?
Question 4
How will you operationally define and measure the two variables?
Question 5
Who would be the best sample for your study (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age, specific exclusionary criteria, etc.)? How many participants would your recruit?
Question 6
What characteristics of your study make it correlational?
Respond to the following items about your experimental study:
Question 7
Briefly describe your study.
Question 8
What is your null hypothesis?
Question 9
State your independent and dependent variables. How will you operationally define and measure these two variables?
Question 10
Who would be the best sample for your study (e.g., gender, ethnicity, age, specific exclusionary criteria, etc.)? How many participants would your recruit?
Question 11
What characteristics of your study make it experimental
Respond to the following item in a general sense (not specific to your two studies):
Question 12
Finally, describe (in your own words) the main distinction between experimental and non-experimental (e.g., correlational, quasi-experimental) designs. List the pros and cons of each.

Last Completed Projects