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The major assignment for this course is a survey project culminating in an APA-format paper. It is due on the day of the final. You (and your survey group) will be designing, writing, administering, and analyzing the survey. It will be on a topic of your group's choosing.

Note: For reasons given below, at a minimum there must be two continuous variables, and four categorical variables. One of the categorical variables must have only two categories, one must have more than two, the other two must have two (or, possibly) more categories.

Note: If you have a special project in mind, based on data you have already obtained, talk with us about whether it is appropriate for use in Psych 30.

Note: With our approval, you may gather data via the net.

Note: It is not usually desireable to gather substantially more data than the minimal ammount. Make sure you talk this over with us if you wish to.

• Survey Team and Topic

  You may form a group of up to 3 people to work on the project. You may work alone if you wish. Let us know, in writing, by the date given in the schedule, who your team is, and what your topic is. Here is a list of previous topics:
  • How external opinions affect self esteem
  • GPA and Gender
  • The Effects of Fashion Magazines on an Individual's Body Image
  • Does Pornography objectify Men's Views of Women?
  • Conformity to Social Trends
  • Gender Differences associated with Atrractiveness and Personality
  • Do Opposites Attract? Self-esteem, attrraction and extroversion/introversion
  • Athletic Excellence: At what cost?
  • African Women's views on Body Image
  • Influence of Conservatism or Religiousness on Religious and Political Issues
    
    

• Survey Design

  The survey must be able to support the kinds of analyes covered in this class. This includes:

  The most relevant data visualization(s) T-test(s), with report and visualization One-way ANOVA, with report and visualization Two-way ANOVA, with report and visualization Correlation Analysis, with report

  
  This means that you need at least the following:
  • For the correlation analysis there must be two continuous variables.
  • For the T-Test(s) and the ANOVAs, there must also be one or two predictor (independent) variables and one response (dependent) variable. Here the response is still a continuous variable, but the predictors are categorical. The response can (and often will) be one of the variables used for correlation.
  • For T-Test(s) the predictor must have two categories.
  • For simple ANOVA the predictor must have more than two categories.
  • For two-way ANOVA the two categorical variables can each have two or more categories. You must make sure you have responses in all combinations of the categories, thus it is recommended that each variable have only two categories.
  • The predictors for the T-Test(s) and ANOVAs should all be different variables.
  • Thus, at a minimum, there must be two continuous variables, and four categorical variables. One of the categorical variables must have only two categories (T-Test), one must have more than two (simple ANOVA), the other two must have two (or, possibly) more categories.

  You can refer to the Variables and Analyses table to see how the variable types match up with analysis types.

  The schedule specifies when the preliminary draft of the survey form and the final draft of the survey form are due. After the survey form is approved the data are then gathered. A printout showing they have been entered into ViSta must be handed by the date specified in the schedule.

• Survey Analysis

  Each student is urged to perform their own data analyses, although cooperation with other students in the survey group is expected and encouraged.

• Paper

  Each student is required to write their findings up in a formal APA-style paper. Co-authorship of papers by some or all of the students in a group is permitted. A more complete description of the project and what is required for theproject paper appears here.

• Schedule

  It is very important that you are actively involved in the class project throughout the semester. There are several stages involved in the process, and you will need to be on top of them all to be able to prepare a successful final write-up. You simply cannot expect to acquire the knowledge for the project without being actively involved. Pay attention to the due dates given in the schedule.