Sample Problem
Dr. Ed U. Cator believes that watching aggressive TV programs is bad for children. To test this idea, he shows both kindergarteners and sixth graders an hour of TV a day: half of the subjects in each age group watch a World Wrestling Foundation bout, the other half watch C-Span. He then observes children during recess and counts the number of overt aggressive acts per hour committed by each child:
Kindergarteners watching wrestling: 4
Kindergarteners watching C-Span: 1
Sixth graders watching wrestling: 10
Sixth graders watching C-Span: 2
Answer the following questions.
1. Does Dr. Cator have a testable hypothesis? Why or why not? If not, what would have to be done to change it into one?
2. How is the variable of aggression being operationalized (as L-, O-, T-, or S-data)? How could each of the other three approaches have been used to operationalize this same variable?
3. What kind of research design is Dr. Cator using, and how do you know?
4. Identify a potential confound in this study and explain how you know it is a confound. Discuss how it might be resolved.
5. Graph the results and discuss whether there is or is not an interaction effect in these data.