Question

Robin Mosier had just returned from her psychology class and was eager to tell her roommate about an idea she had. Julie Hansen had taken the same class the previous semester, so Robin was hopeful that Julie could help her out. The psychology professor gave the class an assignment to come up with a research design to test some hypothesis. Robin’s idea came from the job she had held the past summer. Robin began to describe her idea. “Last summer I worked in data entry of the records department of a bank. Sometimes it wasn’t always clear how we should fill out certain reports and forms. I was always pretty reluctant to go to my supervisor, Mr. Kast, and ask for help. So were the other female workers. But I noticed the guys didn’t seem to be reluctant at all to ask him for help. So I got this idea; see, I think women are more reluctant than men to ask a male superior for help.” “Okay,” replied Julie. “So now you have to come up with a way to test that idea?” “Right,” said Robin. “I was thinking maybe I could make up a questionnaire and ask students in my class about it. I think people would know if they felt that way or not.” “Maybe so,” Julie said, “but maybe they wouldn’t want to admit it. You know, it could be one of those things that either you don’t realize about yourself, or if you do, you just don’t want to say so.” “Well, if I can’t just ask people about it, maybe I could do some sort of experiment,” Robin commented. “What if I gave students some tasks to do, but the ­instructions weren’t too clear? If I’m right, more men than women will ask a male experimenter for help.” “Do you think you’d get the opposite effect with a female experimenter?” asked Julie. “You mean, would more women than men ask a female experimenter for help? I don’t know. Maybe,” answered Robin. “If that’s the case,” said Julie, “you might want to test both male and female experimenters with both male and female subjects.” Robin scratched some notes on a pad. Then she said, “Do you think an experimenter in a study is the same thing as a boss on a job? You see your boss every day, but you may be in an experiment for only about an hour. Maybe that would make a difference in whether you sought help.” “I’m sure it could,” replied Julie. “I know I would act differently toward someone I might not see again than toward someone I’d have to work with a long time.” “I know what I’ll do,” Robin responded. “I won’t do the experiment in a lab setting, but I’ll go back to the company where I worked last summer. I’ll ask the male and female office workers how they feel about asking Mr. Kast for help. I saw the way they acted last summer, and I’d bet they tell me the truth.” “Wait a minute,” cautioned Julie. “Just because some women may be intimidated by Mr. Kast doesn’t mean that effect holds for all male supervisors. Mr. Kast is just one man. How do you know it holds for all men? That’s what you want to test, right?” Robin looked disconsolate. “There’s got to be a good way to test this, although I guess it’s more complicated than I thought.”

Questions: 1. What research method should Robin use to test her idea? How would you design the study?

2. If this idea were tested using a laboratory or quasi-experiment method, what variables should be eliminated or controlled in the research design?

3. If this idea were tested with a questionnaire, what questions should be asked?

4. If this idea were tested with the observation method, what behaviors would you look for?

5. What other variables might explain the employees’ attitude toward Mr. Kast?

Answer 1

1.According to me Robin should use Questionnaire method of research study to test her idea. She shall prepare a set of questionnaire regarding her idea. The questionnaires should related to the idea how female employees are behaving in their workplace with male supervisor and vice versa.

2. If the idea is tested in a laboratory, dependant variables such as how the female employees behaves while asking for help from male supervisors in workplace shall be controlled.

3.in case of questionnaire methodology several questions pertaining to behaviour of female employees towards their male supervisors while asking for help shall be formulated and distributed among female employees to get their feedback.

4.If the idea of Robin is tested through observation method, then questions like what type of help should a female employee take from her male supervisors, why a female employee is hesitant to ask for an help from her male supervisor, how she feels while asking questions etc shall be prepared.