Exercise 5.

2
Many were concerned about the operations of the infamous BCCI, the
international banking institution. If the Government had desired to probe into the details,
would this investigation have called for:
1. A causal or correlational study? Why?
2. An exploratory, descriptive, or hypothesis-testing study or case analysis? Why?
3. A field study, lab experiment, or field experiment? Why?
4. A cross-sectional or longitudinal study? Why?


1. This would have been a correlational study since the details desired are to be probed
into without trying to establish cause and effect relationships.
2. It would be a descriptive study describing the operations of BCCI.
3. This would be a field study since data will be collected in the natural environment.
4. This will be a cross-sectional study since the data will be collected at only one point in
time.
Exercise 5.3
You want to examine how exposure to thin or heavy models in advertisements influences a
persons self-esteem. You believe that the effect of exposure to models in advertisements
depends on the extremity of the model's thinness or heaviness.

Discuss the design decisions that you as a researcher will make to investigate this issue, giving
reasons for your choices.

An experimental study (causal study) will be needed since the goal of the study is to test a
cause-and-effect relationship.

A pretest will help you to select advertisements containing female models for the
following four conditions: moderately thin, extremely thin, moderately heavy, and
extremely heavy;
- participants view an advertisement booklet containing ads with female models.
- participants rate each model in terms of size (-5 =extremely overweight, +5 = extremely
thin) and attractiveness (-5 = extremely unattractive, + 5 = extremely attractive).

Based on these scores, you will be able to select advertising models in each condition.
Note that models should differ from each other in terms of size but not in terms of
attractiveness (you have to perform post hoc comparisons to test for this).

In the actual experiment, participants must be randomly assigned to one of the four
conditions of the 2 (model size: thin vs. heavy) and (extremity of model size: moderate vs.
extreme) between-subjects design. Participants are then provided with a booklet
containing ads: ads with models, pertaining to their condition, and filler ads with no
models (randomize the order of the ads). Eventually (after one or more filler tasks)
participants complete a self-esteem scale such as for instance the Appearance Self-
Esteem Scale (Heatherton and Polivy 1991).

Exercise 5.5
War on Cancer
Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center predicts that cancer
treatment will undergo major changes. Several drugs are being developed to battle
cancer without harming healthy tissues. It is a question of discovering which of these
drugs does the job best.
Design a study that would help find which drug would do the trick.
An experimental study (causal study) of the Solomon Four-Group design will be
needed. A count of the healthy tissues in cancer patients at more or less the same stage
of cancer progress will first be taken, with about 20 patients in each group. Each group,
but the control group, will be treated with the different new drugs. The cancer cell count
will be taken both before and after treatment for a period of time (say, 3 to 6 months) to
see which has the most beneficial effect. Thus it would be a longitudinal study with some
manipulation (drug variation) and control (matched or randomized groups). The unit of
analysis will be groups.

7. Below are three scenarios. For each, indicate how the researcher should proceed with
the following, giving reasons:
a. The purpose of the study
b. The type of investigation
c. The extent of researcher interference
d. The study setting
e. The time horizon for the study
f. The unit of analysis.
Scenario A
Ms. Joyce Lynn, the owner of a small business (a womans dress boutique), has
invited a consultant to tell her how she is different from similar small businesses within a
60-mile radius, in regard to her usage of the most modern computer technology, sales
volume, profit margin, and staff training.
Answer
This will be a descriptive study (describing how she compares with the others).
Data will be collected from small businesses on the use of computers, sales volume, profit
margin, and training programs and comparisons made. Some of these descriptions might
be qualitative, as for example, in describing training methods. This will be a field study
(using many similar small businesses), and researcher interference will be minimal. It will
be a one-shot study, and the unit of analysis will be small business systems.
Scenario B
Mr. Paul Hodge, the owner of several restaurants is concerned about the wide
differences in the profit margins of the various restaurants. He would like to try some
incentive plans for increasing the efficiency levels of those restaurants that are lagging
behind. But, before he introduces this, he would like to be sure that the idea will work. He
asks a researcher to help him on this issue.
Answer
This would be a causal, hypothesis-testing study. It will be a field experiment, using
one or two restaurants to manipulate incentive plans and see if this causes an increase in
profit margins in those restaurants. Because of the manipulation, there will be some
researcher interference with the natural flow of events. The time horizon for the study
would be longitudinal since data will be obtained on sales, profits, etc., both before and
after the manipulation. The unit of analysis would be the restaurant.
Scenario C
A manager is intrigued why some people seem to derive joy from work and get
energized by it, while others find it troublesome and frustrating.
This would be a correlational, hypothesis-testing, field study with minimal
researcher interference. It will be a one-shot study and the unit of analysis will be
individuals.