Question

Question #5: Educational psychologists were interested in the impact the "Just Say No!" Program and contracts on drunk driving among males vs. female teenagers. With the cooperation of school officials, 16-year-old students were matched and randomly assigned to one of two groups, with equal numbers of males and females in each group. Group A participated in a "Just Say No!" program, which required a one-hour information session instead of P.E. for six weeks. Students were presented with written factual information, motivational lectures, guidance films, and assertiveness training. Students were also encouraged to sign a personal responsibility contract that stipulated that they would not drink and drive. Group B participated in regular P. E. classes for the six-week experimental period. Please answer the following questions and justify your answer.

(a) Identify the experimental design.

(b) What is the independent variable? Quasi-independent variable? What is the dependent variable?

(c) Diagram this experimental design.

(d) State at least one potential confounding variable?

(e) How many main effects, interaction effects, simple main effects of A, and simple main effects of B are there?

Answer 1

A) The design of this study is experimental design study as it has a control group and an experiment group.

B) The independent variable is the showing of movies, speeches, and positive stimulus in experiment group; the quasi independent variable would be the gender for the two groups; and the dependent variable is the impact on behavior vis à vis drinking and driving.

C) Your design will go in a horizontal flow chart structure, where you will let start with number of participants branching out into two groups and the two groups further branching out into their respective IVs and then DV, if any impact found.

D) Confounding variable could be personal characteristics, where some people are already of the belief that it shouldn't be done. Or confounding variable here could also be not owning a car.

E) For group A there are 5 main effects (ranging from provision of factual information to signing of personal accountability contract). The interaction effect is 6 in number with each subset of independent varibale influencing the other and on the dependent variable. For group B there is just one main effect which is PE.