Examples of Research Studies in Psychology

Pet Ownership and Heart Attack Survival

1.A medical researcher wants to know if pet ownership increases the probability of living one year after a heart attack. A total of 200 coronary patients were asked if they owned a pet and were followed up one year after a heart attack to see if they were still alive.

2.A memory researcher is interested in how atypical actions in an event (e.g., the cash register falling on the floor while your in line at the grocery store) are remembered over time. 50 people participate in a grocery store event and are asked to recall everything that happened immediately afterwards, 1 month later and 6 months later. She records the number of atypical actions recalled each time. Does the recall of atypical information decline over time?

3.Dr. Sims is interested in whether or not her Supplemental instructor is helping students with their work in her research methods class. She accrues the students grades from this semester and compares them to the past 4 years of grades. Unfortunately, she does not know the standard deviation for the past four years of grades.

4.A study was conducted to examine the impact of speaking in public on college students. A class of 15 statistics students participated in the study. At the beginning of a lecture the students recorded their systolic blood pressure.  During the lecture the instructor called on each student to stand and answer questions about topics in the lecture.  After speaking the students once again recorded their blood pressure.

5.A random sample of 3rd grade children were placed in a special program to improve their reading ability. After a 10 week intensive program, do they read significantly better than average 3rd grade children, that is, as compared to the national norms? Let’s assume that we know both the national norm AND its standard deviation.

6.Does the type of movie children are watching make a difference in the amount of snacks they will eat? A group of 50 children were randomly assigned to watch either a cartoon or a live action musical (25 to each). Crackers were available in a bowl, and the investigators compared the number of crackers eaten by children while watching the different kinds of movies.

7.In the study described above, the next weekend they took all 50 children and put them into groups based on their weight. Each child in the live action group was weighed and a second child in the same weight category was put in the cartoon group. The number of crackers were now assessed for all children.

8.Dr Nomack believes that Obsessive compulsive disorder can best be treated by using a combination of SSRI’s and cognitive therapy. He currently has 1,000 clients diagnosed with this disorder who are being seen in his practices. He has randomly assigned each client into one of the following treatments groups:  No therapy; SSRI alone’ CBT alone; SSRI and CBT in combination. After a 12-week interim, he then assesses all 1,000 clients on the Big T Obsession and Compulsion rating scale.    He expects that those clients who are receiving both SSRI’s and CBT will show the fewest symptoms after the treatment phase.  

9 What happens to the probability of committing a Type I error if the level of significance is changed from alpha = 0.01 to alpha =  0.05?  What happens to the probability of committing a Type II error? (2 pts)

10 In a study to determine the effectiveness of pain management therapy in persons with chronic pain, twenty individuals experiencing chronic pain were randomly selected. Ten of these individuals were randomly assigned to receive pain management therapy and the other ten to receive no therapy. Descriptive statistics for each group are provided below. A t test was Conducted, and the data is below.  

11.I am wondering if alcohol effects reaction time? I watch how many drinks a person has.  I record the number.  Then I ask them to complete a reaction time task.  I record that.  Below are my results from my analysis. (8pts)

1. What test was used and why did I use this test?
2. What are my variables (be specific: identify type and name)? And what type of measure are both variables?
3. What are my hypotheses?
4. What do these results tell us? Explain what you the results are in a sentence or two and then be sure you report my STATISTICAL findings in APA format!

12.I am interested in knowing whether how often a person attends church has an impact on their attitudes toward the abortion. I know…controversial but I did it anyway.  Look at the charts below and analyze the data by answering the questions below the data output matrices.

What type of test is this and why did I choose this specific test? 1 point

Write my Null and alternative hypotheses. 2 pts

Do I reject my null? 1 pt

What is my obtained statistical value? 1 pt

Is it significant? 1 pt

What are two ways to know this answer? 2 pts

Write the sentence and APA statistics format for these results. 4 pts