Lecture Gp: 101 / 102 / 103 / 104 Tutorial Gp.

: A / B / C / D Name: _________________________

CC2413 Fundamental Psychology for Health Studies

Tutorial 2: Understanding Research Methods

Activity A: Answer the following items base on the information you got from the video programs titled
“Research Methods” ~03:00 – 13:20 (Lib. AVM BF121 .P78 no.2), and “Discovering psychology – 1.
Past, Present, and Promise” ~05:00 – 09:40 (Lib. AVM BF121 .D57 2001 pt. 1-2 / you can also view
the Annenberg Media programs online with a broadband connection from www.learner.org – View
Programs)

1. Children have autism(自閉症) because of the rejection by their parents. True or False?

2. Research conclusion/findings may be inaccurate if it doesn’t collect data from a __________________

sample.

3. a) In the study which examined students’ response to an attractive opposite-sex teacher, which type of
data was collected?
(a) Self-Report data
(b) Physiological data
(c) Behavioral data

b) How would you feel if you were the teenage participants of this study?

References for T2’s exercise

Stone, D. (Series Producer), & Ratner (Director). (199-?). Psychology, the study of human behavior no. 1 & 2. [Videorecording]. Fountain

Valley, CA: Coast Telecources.

Weiten, W. (2004). Psychology: Themes and variations (6th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

WGBH Boston with the American Psychological Association (Series Producer). (2001). Discovering psychology pt 1-2 (updated ed.)

[Videorecording]. S. Burlington, VT: Annenberg.CPB.

Activity B: Case-analysis – Part I

In psychology, one of the key theories on learning proposed by Albert Bandura stated that we learned by
observation. Studies found that children who are exposed to violent TV program would learn from the
models in the program and behave more aggressively afterwards. Janet, as an undergraduate student who
majors in Psychology in the XYU in Hong Kong, is thinking that the viewing of a series of scandal of the
Japanese and Canton-pop idols get caught as a result of their illegal drug uses would actually decrease,
rather than increase illegal drug uses among teenagers because of their observation of these models being

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punished. So, she decided to find out the answer to her hypothesis through a scientific investigation.

After consideration on the use of the various types of research methods, Janet conducted a survey to find
out the answer to her hypothesis because she felt that she could collect data from a large sample at a
relatively low cost, and she could hardly observe teenagers’ illegal drug uses in either the natural settings or
in laboratory. She designed a standardized questionnaire and asked teenagers on a few discussion boards to
fill out the questionnaire for him regarding their viewing of the news reports of the scandals of these
Japanese and Canton-pop artists, and the types and frequency of illegal drugs’ taking behavior they have
before and after the viewing of these news reports.

After she analyzed the data statistically, she found a negative relationship between the viewing of news
reports of these pop stars and the illegal drugs’ uses among teenagers. A total of 96 out of 160 sampled
participants reported that they had less frequent use on various types of illegal drugs after the viewing of
news reports of these pop idols get caught. So, she concluded and reported her findings at her school
journal that watching the pop idols get caught caused a decrease in illegal drug uses among teenagers in
Hong Kong.

i) Do you think Janet has conducted a scientific study? As someone who is knowledgeable of research
methodology, please give your evaluation on Janet’s study. Do you agree with Janet’s research
conclusions? Why?

Case-analysis – Part II
If Janet decided to run an experiment instead of doing a survey,

ii) What is the hypothesis of her experiment? Please identify the Independent variable (IV) and Dependent
variable(s) (DV)(s) for Janet’s experiment, and stated the operational definitions of these variables.

iii) How should Janet select his sample? What should be her criteria in selecting his sample?

iv) How should Janet decide who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group? What could
be the manipulations for the experimental group and the control group?

v) What might be 1) social desirability bias, and 2) the experimenter bias in Janet’s experiment? How can
we avoid these flaws in Janet’s study?

vi) Would there be any practical/ethical concerns in Janet’s experiment? Why?

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