Robert Ridenour
Ps300 Professor Christie Suggs
Unit 2 Project
10-28-12
Specific Project Situations 1. A researcher was able to modify the behavior of a mentally impaired eight-year-old girl. The maladaptive behavior was spoon banging during mealtime in school. The researcher measured the girl's behavior before, during and after an intervention where she was immediately given her food upon entering the cafeteria. The research was able to show that this treatment was effective in helping the girl to stop her spoon banging behavior (Horton, 1987).
After reading through the different case studies I find this one to be more like Single-case design because “Researchers describe, predict, and control variables in order to understand and treat the behavior of one individual.” (Zechmeister, 2001) This uses the Scientific Method by observing all aspects of her behavior, manipulating the variable, and testing it to see if it helped. I don’t see any ethical issues wrong with this method. 2. A team of researchers studies gender differences in need for affiliation. Need for affiliation was measured by observing students entering the college cafeteria and recording whether each student was alone or with other students. Females were significantly more likely than males to be in the presence of another person when entering the cafeteria. This finding is consistent with a description of females as having a greater need for affiliation (Latane & Bidwell, 1977).
This one comes off to me as being more of Observational and Correlational Designs over anything else. With Observational and Correlational designs “Researchers measure variables through observation or surveys to describe and predict behavior.” (Zechmeister, 2011) I can see this one used the Scientific Method by observing the students and they passed and taking note of them. With this method, the only thing that I could find as being ethically wrong with it is the people might not know they are being surveyed. If there was a note as they passed through the door or something that let the individuals know that they were being observed it would be okay with me. 3. A researcher studies the effectiveness of two different approaches that small groups use in making decisions. The researcher randomly assigned 20 groups of two participants to use a cooperative approach and 20 groups of two people to use a competitive approach. The researcher measured the degree of satisfaction with the final decision that each group member reported after the group had reached its final decision. The members of the groups who used the cooperative approach reported more satisfaction than did those who used the competitive approach.
This one comes off as Experimental to me after reading it and doing some research on it. For Experimental “Researchers manipulate an independent variable to determine the effect on a measured dependent variable. The goal of experimental designs is to
