Psychology 242

Project 1: Survey

For this project you will design, conduct, and report a survey. Your survey will test a hypothesis about a relationship between two variables. The project has three items to be turned in:

• Project 1a – Turn in survey (Turn in 1 copy for grading, plus 1 copy for administering)
• Project 1b – Turn in data (Using the “digital drop box” in Blackboard)
• Project 1c – Lab report for survey due (in APA style)

Project 1a is a group project – each group will develop one survey. You will also work as a group to collect the data and create a data file containing all the responses to your survey (Project 1b). You may also collaborate with the other members of your group for data analysis (although you may also choose to analyze the data yourself). The final write-up of the results of the survey (Project 1c) is an individual assignment.

Project 1a: Survey Instrument

Each group will create one survey. On the day that the survey is due, your group should bring two copies to turn in (along with a cover sheet with all group members’ names on each copy). Your survey should be formatted to fit on 3 pages or less (not including the cover sheet) and should have your group number at the top of the first page. In addition, each group member should turn in a peer evaluation form along with Project 1a.

Your survey should test a hypothesis about the relationship between two variables. The hypotheses you will test are as follows:

Even numbered Groups: People who like pets are more introverted than those who do not.

Odd numbered Groups: People who are “night owls” are more extroverted than “morning people.”

There are many existing scales that measure introversion and extroversion. You will probably want to look up one of these in a textbook, journal, or other source and select items from it to measure this variable. For the second variable in your hypothesis, you will probably have to make up your own questions.

Project 1b: Turn in Data

By the due date listed in the syllabus, your group must place a copy of your survey data in the Blackboard digital drop box (under Student Tools). This should be an Excel file or SPSS data file in which you have entered all of the data from your survey. The filename should clearly identify your group, such as “group1-survey-data.xls” if it is an Excel file for example.

Project 1c: Survey Lab Report

Project 1c is an individual assignment in which you will report the results of your survey. This lab report must be written in APA style. Because it is a lab report rather than a full paper, however, the introduction does not need to include a literature review. You are required to include at least one reference, but it can be an Intro Psych textbook or a source from which you obtained items for your survey. The entire lab report should be in 12-point font double-spaced, and you are limited to 10 pages including the appendix. (This is not a minimum! It does not have to be exactly 10 pages – it just can not be any longer than that.)

Some points to keep in mind when writing your paper:

• Your introduction should clearly state your hypothesis and explain it.
• Method
• Include the subsections: Participants, design, materials, procedure
• Your method section should clearly describe the scales that measure each of the variables from your hypothesis.
• You should describe the precautions you took to prevent response bias (tending to always say “yes” or always say “no”) and other biases such as social desirability.
• You should identify the source of any questions or scales you took from previous research, and provide any relevant information about the reliability and validity of those scales in the method section.
• Include your survey questions in an appendix
• Results
• Your results section should include a measure of the reliability of your survey
• Your results section should describe how you translated the responses on the survey form to numerical data, and how you combined the questions of each scale to create a single measure for each variable
• You should provide means and standard deviations (or standard errors) for each variable you have defined
• You should use a correlation to test your hypothesis about the relationship of the two variables
• Discussion
• You should discuss the reliability and validity of the measures in your survey
• You should state whether your hypothesis was confirmed
• You should offer possible interpretations that could explain why the hypothesis was or was not confirmed.

Project 1a: Evaluation of Group Member Contributions

When working as a group, each group member has a responsibility to contribute his or her share of the work and effort. To help the instructor to evaluate each individual’s contribution, you will provide your own evaluation of each of your fellow group members. You should take this responsibility very seriously, and make your responses accurate and candid. Fill out this evaluation and turn it in separately from your group’s survey. You may staple a blank page in front of it to make it more confidential when you turn it in, or you may place it under my door before class.

Your Name: _______________________________________ Group # _________

Please list the other members of your group (in alphabetical order) and provide the following two ratings for each of them. Do not include yourself. First, estimate the percentage of the work on Project 1a that each group member contributed. (The total will be less than 100 since you are not including your own contributions.) Next, please grade each of your fellow group members’ effort on Project 1a using the following 4 categories:

• O = outstanding; this person put forth extra effort beyond what was necessary
• S = satisfactory; this person put forth an appropriate amount of effort
• N = needs improvement; this person did not really pull their weight, but they made some effort
• U = unsatisfactory; this person did not contribute at all

Unless there are particular problems, it is expected that most people will be given a rating of “S.” An “N” or “U” should really indicate that a problem exists, and a rating of “O” should be pretty infrequent as well.

Group Member’s Name Percent of work done Effort (O, S, N, or U)

_______________________ ___________ ________

_______________________ ___________ ________

_______________________ ___________ ________

_______________________ ___________ ________

Please describe any particular problems or concerns you have with the way your group is functioning. If everything is OK, leave this blank.

Problems and Comments: _____________________________________________________________