The Lab in Research Methods in Psychology
PSY 3071
Fall 2016
Past Idea Statements from Students that Were Approved
1. This study would recruit 100 students to participate in a survey in which
they would be asked their age, gender, height, and weight. They will also be
asked to check their body type on the morphological picture scale (see the
attachment). Another survey will be given that will ask questions concerning
their attitudes towards various body types. The basic idea is to determine
the degree of negative attitudes towards overweight people, if any, in light of
recent media attention on skinny models, and promotion of "big is
beautiful." It may be society today is more embracing and postive regarding
weight and body type than it was a decade ago (or more)
2. Student involvement on campus is very important and can change a
students outlook on their college experience. I will create a survey that asks
students about their level of involvement on campus whether it be sports,
extra-curricular activities, greek-letter organizations, religious groups etc. I
will be testing whether or not involvement on campus increases a students
overall satisfaction with their undergraduate career. The survey will be given
to all ages, races, genders and cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this
study would be to show students that participating and getting involved on
campus can increase their overall satisfaction with their undergraduate
college experience.
Skip Comment: No making up your own survey. All studies must use valid
and reliable surveys that have been used in previous research.
3. I would like to measure the effectiveness of small toys (stress balls, Koosh
balls, etc) in an adult learning environment for new employees in a retail
store learning various new tasks. There will be two groups: one group that
has "toys" to play with while in class and another group that does not have
any external stimulation while learning. The ball will be the independent
variable, and a quiz that is given at the end of the training will be the
dependent variable. The quiz will cover various questions from the topics
that were discussed each day and will consist of multiple choice, true/false,
and short answer questions. The topics that are trained will be company
culture, products, sales process, and AT&T. I will be the facilitator, thus
creating the learning environment, and the methods of learning will be
strictly lecture and hands-on experience. They will be primarily focusing on
skills that they need for their new job, but will also need to apply their
memory to the material so that they retain as much as possible when they
go to the store for their first shift. My hypothesis would be that if an adult
has something to play with quietly while learning in an adult learning
environment, retention of the material taught will be higher.
