DEsigning a Psychology experiment , 1000 word maximum report Essay

DEsigning a Psychology experiment , 1000 word maximum report consisting of an hypothesis and a method section - Essay Example 3. METHODOLOGY This project requires cause and effect hypothesis testing and therefore the design chosen is an experimental design (Srinagesh, 2006), with a quantitative research methodology. 3.1 Participants (Sample) The sample for this research will consist of two groups of college students. The sample will be drawn from among college students. The sample will consist of 40 college students in all. Twenty of these will be those whose parents have been divorced while twenty will be those whose parents are both alive and living together. In order to control the variable of gender, each group of participants will be composed of ten males and ten females. The students will be approached along with a briefing letter about the experiment and they will be asked to sign an informed consent form if they are willing to participate in the research. 3.2 Variables The independent variable in this study will be the divorced or not divorced status of the participants’ parents while the dep endent variable will be the scores obtained on the questionnaire titled: ‘Student readiness Inventory’ (ACT, 2011). 3.3 Research Design and Method This experiment involves hypothesis testing and is based on quantitative methods. ... oups, one will consist of children whose parents have been divorced and the other will consist of children whose parents are living together, therefore, an independent groups design fits the aim of the study. This design will also remove the threats to validity due to order effects (Brian, 2002). This methodology was chosen because the nature of the study is experimental rather than exploratory. Hypothesis was devised after some quick review of literature and theory. It is expected that the null hypothesis will be rejected. 3.4 Research tool/ Instrument After reviewing a considerable number of studies that attempted to focus the effects of divorce on academic achievement, it was decided that questionnaire be used as research tool (Anderson & Taylor, 2008). The ‘Student readiness Inventory’ was selected to be used as a research tool. Student Readiness Inventory is a questionnaire that was developed by a non-profit organization called ‘ACT’, in order to identi fy the at-risk students in the field of academics. The rationale for selecting this inventory is twofold: first, if Grade Point Average would have been used to gauge academic success, it would not have taken into account the psychosocial factors that affect academic performance in children of divorced couples. Secondly, the Student readiness inventory was preferred over Grade point average because different individuals’ parents got divorced in different years. Tracking down the Grade Point Average of the students in the year following the divorce would have been a challenging task. Therefore, it was decided to run the Student readiness inventory, which is a short inventory and is very easy to score. 3.5 Data Analysis Descriptive statistics will be used to analyze the data. According to Kazmier (2004),