Group 7 Research Proposal

Research Question: 
How does reward/punishment from guardians affect the temperament in children?

Hypothesis:
Children with more strict/consistent parenting results in mid-tempered children when the parents are around.

Sample:
Our sample would be parents with children of the ages between 6-14 in Butte, Montana, chosen because it would have been simpler to attain due to the close proximity.

Research Method(s):
We would employ a structured interview for our research method. We would bring parents in and give them scenarios and record what their response would be in terms of reward or punishment for the child(ren). We would be looking for any signs that would show whether the punishment/reward would affect the temperament in the long term on the psyche of the child.

Research Design:
 We would use a cross sectional design so that we may study children in the age groups in order to save a bit of time and money as we could effectively take responses in a time efficient way.

Group 7 Members
Keeley Pochervina
Amy Babb
Steven Boney
Maggy Adamson
Alye Fjell

Group Six Research Practice

Research Question

Do children respond differently to each parent’s authority at different ages?

Hypothesis

As a child matures, the way that the child responds to authority from each individual parent changes.

Sample

For our study, we will study twenty boys and twenty girls from the United States starting at the age of two and follow them until they are twelve.

Research Method(s)

We would use a naturalistic observation approach so that we can monitor children and parents in situations that parental authority occurs the most often (their home). We will also ask the parents to fill out surveys over the course of the study to gain their perspective on how they think their child responds to their own authority.

Research Design(s)

We would use a longitudinal design to follow the children from ages two to twelve. We believed this was the most effective method because, in order to draw accurate results, we would have to follow the same children throughout the duration of the study. This would allow us to observe how the dynamic changes as the child ages.

Madison Kale

Natalie Sloan

Johannah Forsberg

Lynsi Peterson

Kelsey Kolman

Group 10 Study Development

Group 10: Tyler LaPier, Rae Tiner, Jamie Albert, Nikole Davison, &Kayla Kelly

1/22/2019

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCH. GROUP STUDY

·       Research Question: At what age do children develop empathy? 

·       Research Design: 

We will find 40 mothers with newborn babies throughout the state of Montana volunteering to case study, following the development of each infant to the age of 9 and monitoring monthly changes to determine when empathy has developed; separating data of genders and noting individual differences/characteristics.

                     Defined observation identifiers of empathy:

1.    Understands that she/he is a distinct person from those around her/him and that other people may have different feelings and perspective than her own.

2.    Can recognize feelings in themselves, others, and name the emotion.

3.    Can regulate her/his own emotional responses.

4.    Can put herself/himself in someone else’s shoes and imagine how someone might be feeling.

5.    Can imagine what kind of action or response might help a person feel better.

·       Hypothesis:

Children should develop empathy before puberty but anticipate outliers in the collected data, females will develop empathy before males.

·       Sample:

Randomly selecting 40 mothers with newborn babies throughout the state of Montana, following the development of each infant to the age of 9 (Ideally 20 male and 20 female). The sample size will maintain n<34 for statistical significance acknowledging/ possibility of losing 15% of participants.

·       Research Method:

Longitudinal design – Observational/Case Study

·       Explain why chosen research method is best suited method:

Characteristics will be determined through observation of the individual. Longitudinal design will give a detailed account of each individual developing empathy. The data will hopefully show a generalized average interval for the development of empathy for males & females. Parenting, environment, gender, and individual life events will contribute/influence development; observations and case study will allow for noting parental influences.

Https://www.someecards.com/users/profile/Monica1858886. (n.d.). [Digital image].
Retrieved January 23, 2019, from https://some.ly/Rx4GPEk/

Group 2 Study Development

Parent's Reaction to a Child's Violent Behavior

Group #2: Brett, Katherine Bell, Ravyn Frey, Sydney, Abigail, and Ashlee Odney*

Research Question: “How does a parent’s reaction to a child’s violent behavior influence the child’s future actions?”

Hypothesis: Since this research question could go so many different ways, we decided to simply predict that yes, a parent’s reaction to a child’s violent behavior does indeed influence a child’s future actions. [To try and predict exactly how a parent's reaction to a child's violent behavior would effect their future actions (either positively or negatively) could be one hypothesis and to try and predict exactly how the child would react to their parent's reaction (either positively or negatively) could be another.] Obviously, there would be an issue with cohort effects as well due to the fact that we would want to follow up on how the reactions would effect the children's future interactions. 

Sample: A sample taken from elementary schools around the US (grades K-5/ ages 4-11) would be the targeted group. This group is appropriately representative because these ages are typically when a parent’s actions/discipline tactics are most impactful. 

Research Method(s): We initially thought that we could create a way to naturalistically observe a parent’s reaction to their children’s violent behavior in a park or somewhere public but after presenting to the class and discussing the possible ethics issues involved in an observation or experiment on violence in particular, we decided that it would probably be best to rely on survey as a research method. However, this research method also leaves room for error and inaccuracy. 

Research Design(s): All research methods that we discussed in class decidedly had their downfalls due to issues with ethics. Creating a simulated environment and using the research method of experimenting would mean we would have to almost promote violence or devise a plan to have violence be the outcome and that’s not ethical for a psychologist to do. Similarly, if we were to naturalistically observe, we would be obligated to report any signs of violence. If we were to use survey, we would have to generate questions to children and parents that would try to determine exactly how a parents reaction to a child’s violent behavior could potentially effect a child’s future actions and that would be incredibly difficult.  

*If I didn't get your last name up here make sure you comment on this post so he has all of our names. Sorry guys! Also, please feel free to add anything I forgot or clarify any points that I missed. Thanks!

Research Practice

Research Question:

Can music be used to lower the stress of a child after a "traumatic" event?

Hypothesis:

Yes, upbeat music can be calming and de-stressing to stress ridden  children between the ages of 12-14 and have gone through a traumatic parental divorce.

Sample:

50 students in the state of Montana who have had parents get divorced within their middle school career. (Ages 12-14).

Research Method(s):

Survey - The survey will ask what kind(s) of music the children listen to and if that music helps them cope with their trauma.

Experiment - The experiment would split the children into three groups. One group would listen to upbeat music, one group would listen to whatever music they prefer, and one group would not listen to any music.

Research Design:

Correlation Design because it may help the children cope but the music may not be the cause of the potential reduced stress levels observed in the children.

Created by: MacKenzie Koetter, Matthew Flamand, Rylee Johnson, Carlin Gillespie, and Alivia Drake.

Prompt for the week of January 22nd - Study Development

Here is where you will discuss how your group designed a study to address your peers' research question. Only one post is required per group. This discussion should have the following information:

Research Question – Be sure to write this in a clear, full sentence.

Hypothesis – Be sure to write this in a clear, full sentence. How you write this will also be highly dependent upon your chosen method.

Sample – Be specific enough for the reader to evaluate if this group is appropriate and representative.

Research Method(s) – Briefly describe what this would look like. Be sure to justify why this(these) would be the best method(s).

Research Design(s) – Again, explain why these designs would work better than others.

Be sure to include everyone's name on this post who participated in designing the study, and again, only one post per group is necessary.