Research Methods, Spring 1995
Department of Psychology
University of California, Riverside
Dr. Curt Burgess
Teaching Assistants: Paul Atchley, Diane Christian, Teresa Damush,
Alden Hori, Carol Sanchez, Tiffany Wright
|
Julia Buchanon, Tommy Coleman,& Cynthia Picone University of California, Riverside The effect of gender on the standing distance of two individuals engaged in a conversation was examined. A total of 40 participants were employed. Participants were students from the University of California Riverside walking within the commons area. In conducting the experiment, two experimenters (1 male, 1 female) posed as surveyors. A third experimenter made observational assessments of the distance that the participants stood from each surveyor. It was hypothezied that conversational distances would be closer when surveyors and participants are of the same gender. Initial results indicate that this may not be the case.
Jerry Otteson, Micah Crossman, & Scott Parker University of California, Riverside The differences between left- and right-handers as it relates to political affiliation was evaluated. Studies have been done in the past concerning the effects of lateralization on individuals' behaviors, specifically relating to college major choices and career selection (see Fry, C., 1990 & Coren, S., 1982). Our hypothesis was that left-handed individals are moreliberal in their political beliefs, and that right-handers are more conservative in their political beliefs. Ten left handed and ten right handed college students were surveyed in a quasi-experimental design.
Janis Maggs, Ngoc Nguyen, Robert Bradfield University of California, Riverside The link between religious commitment and moral development was investigated. Female college students were given questionnaires in order to assess their individual levels of religious commitment, as defined by church attendence, prayer rates, importance of prayer, and importance of a divine being in their lives. Subjects were classified into one of three levels of religious commitment (low, medium, or high). The dependent variable, level of moral development, was rated by Standard Issues Scoring of Form C of Kohlberg's Moral Development Questionnaire. We expect to discover that there is no relationship between level of religious commitment and level of moral development. Although statistical tests have not yet been conducted, subjective impressions while scoring seem to indicate that all subjects are scoring at nearly the same levels. Level of religious comimtment does not seem affect which level of moral development a subject achieves.
Olga Alferez, Huong "Hollie" Nguyen, Jerry Li Niu University of California, Riverside The hypothesis was that people of an ethnic background were going to be more willing to help people out than white people. Questionnaires with twenty-one questions were handed out to 33 random participants at the University of California, Riverside. The questions asked for age, ethnicity, gender, and questions on their willingness to help. The average age was twenty-two years old. There were fifteen Asians, nine Hispanics, six Whites, and three Middle Eastern people. The questionnaires have shown that ethnic background do not matter as much as gender. Females seem to be more willing to help people out than males. The ethnic has not been the factor in the study as expected. The conclusion found was that ethnicity was a factor but not a significant as gender.
Victoria M. Ly, Ayanna Smith, Kevin McCohn University of California, Riverside
Kristie Greene, John Jung, Floreen Kim University of California, Riverside The gender differences between males and females were studied for college students based on the hypothesis that males spend more time on the computer than females. Upper division psychology students from the "Research Methods" course participated in this experiment. To determine types of computer usages and time spent, questionaires were distributed during laboratory hours. Genderwise, 21 males (N=21) and 43 females (N=43) responded. The questionaire consisted of the following: 1) access to and owning a computer, 2) finances, 3) education, 4) communication, and 5) entertainment. The results were congruent to the hypothesis. There were significant differences between genders. Males vs. females in : 1) owning a computer- 85.71% vs. 67.44%, 2) finances- 28.57% vs. 4.65%, 3) education- 100% vs. 97.67%, 4) communication- 76.19% vs. 48.84%, 5) entertainment- 76.19% vs. 55.81%. The overall mean for the time spent on the computer for males was 32.98 hours per week and for females it was 4.012 hours per week. Therefore , the results supported the hypothesis
Ta Shen Yang, John Kim University of California, Riverside The pupose of this experiment was to assess whether major selection isaffected by the gender of the student. 148 students (74 male and 74female) living in the dorms of University of California, Riverside wereinterviewed and questioned on their major. It is found that males weremore likely to choose a science major and females were more likely tochoose a humanities major. This corresponds to researches done previouslythat females tend to choose a major that involves less math. Males tendto choose a science major because their attitude on math is more positive.
habits and average grades Jennifer Benson, Erica Flynn, Katherinne Pallares University of California, Riverside The gender differences in study habits was investigated by distributing a survey consisting of five questions that included: gender, average grades, study habits, year in school, and major. The subjects investigated included 92 college students of which 23 were male and 69 were female. These students were randomly selected from various places on campus and asked to fill out a survey. We expect that females will have higher average grades than males, and long term studying will produce higher grades than cramming.
Taryn Alba, Bonnie Brown, Vacharee Thongsiri, Moly Tith, Jennifer Zerbey University of California, Riverside This experiment was to observe 100 men (50 bald, 50 non-bald) to determine if men that are bald are more likely to have facial hair than non-bald men. These men were observed in shopping areas in the Inland Empire area of California. It was found that there was no significant difference between bald and non-bald men. It was hypothesized that bald men would be more likely to have facial hair than non-bald men in an attempt to compensate for their lack of cranial hair. Our results may have been affected by many confounding variables such as old age, small sample size or differences in facial hair due to professional differences of the participants.
Danielle Pekar, Tina Tamayo, Kim Duelke, Cathy Jung University of California, Riverside Fifty male students attending the University of California, Riverside participated in a studycompleting a questionaire. Included within this particular survey were various stereotypesof both blondes and brunettes. The age of each man interviewed varied from seventeenand older. This study determined that men do sanction particular stereotypes regardingboth blondes and brunettes. These beliefs and their age pretty much determine who theywould prefer to date and who they would prefer to marry. Therefore, younger men wouldprefer to date blondes because they consider them 'more fun' while older men prefer tomarry brunettes because they consider them to be 'more down to earth.' The first part ofthe survey given asked for their age and hair color preference. The next part of the surveyconsisted of stereotypes given to both blondes and brunettes. During this part of theexperiment, each subject was to check the box that he felt best described his feelingsabout each of the strereotypes. Then the blonde streotypes were compared to thebrunettes, based on the way the males responded to the questionaire.
Irma Hernandez, Enette Claxton, Stefanie Schaeffer, Kami Suzuki University of California, Riverside The characteristic trait of greed as an extrinsic motivation for monetary reward of males and females was ovserved unobrtusively by experimentors. This experiment was conducted and measured by affixing 72 cents in coins of two quarters, two dimes, and two pennies to the floor of the bell tower of the U.C. Riverside campus. The subjects that were used in the experiment were random individuals that consisted of 157 males, and 156 females. The subjects were derived on two seperate occassions of half hours intervals during the same days. The results indicated that the ratio of males who attempted to retrieve the coins was less than females who attempted to retrieve the coins. The hypothesis of the experiment held that more males than females would attempt to retrieve the coins. The findings were not congruent with our hypothesis.
Daniel Brown, Celeste Davis, Tiffany Hinz, Lucinda Mok University of California, Riverside In this experiment we hypothesized that males would choose more prestigious career goals than females and that females would choose less prestigious career goals than males, according to three relative majors: humanities, sciences, undeclared. We asked 104 college students (52 males and 52 females) at the University of California Riverside what their majors were and what career choices they aspired. A panel of three judges were randomly chosen to judge the prestigiousness of each career choice made by each subject on a scale from 0 to 4.
Charles Palmer, Nicole Myers University of California, Riverside This study evaluated the dating frequency among fraternity members and non-fraternity members at University of California, Riverside. Participants consisted of randomly selected fraternity members and male, non-fraternity members. Surveys were distributed and results showed a significant difference in dating frequency among the samples.Fraternity members dated on average more than non-fraternity members and were more inclined to date sorority members than non-sorority members. Results further showed the inverse for non-fraternity members who were more inclined to date non-sorority members than sorority members.
Jennifer Y. De Vito, Amy E. Donoghue, Joannah B. Manuel, Rick A. Rhay University of California, Riverside
Dolores Gomez, To Ai On, Amie Duong, Anh Tuan University of California, Riverside
Timothy R. Niacaris, Anne Choi, Katharina Scora University of California, Riverside Locus of control and self efficacy have often been used to determine the way individuals account for their successes and failures. Self efficacy is a measure of the degree to which individuals feel they can solve problems they are confronted with, while locus of control is a measure of whether individuals attribute their successes and failures to their own merits or uncontrollable influences from the environment. Although extensive work has been done on task specific locus of control and self efficacy, very little has been done on the effects of task performance on generalized locus of control and self efficacy. We are interested in the effects of experimentally manipulated success and failure on perception of locus of control and self efficacy. A measure of locus of control and self efficacy (LOCSE) was administered to 30 college students as a pretest followed one week later by an easy task (success condition), an impossible task (failure condition) or no task (control condition). After exposure to this experimental manipulation, subjects were once again given the LOCSE measure. We expect that students exposed to the success condition will experience an increase in perceived self efficacy and an internal shift in locus of control, while subjects exposed to the failure condition will experience a decrease in self efficacy and an external shift in locus of control, however sufficient data has not yet been collected to support this hypothesis.
Marilynn Dodson, Tam Osifeso, Claudia Ramirez University California, Riverside A study of 40 college females was conducted to determine if views on premarital sex differs between virgins and nonvirgins and how the differences relate to age. The hypothesis' for this study are 1) virgins 21 and under approve of premarital sex in the context of a committed relationship 2) nonvirgin 21 and under approve of premarital sex regardless of relationship 3) virgins over the age of 21 do not approve of premarital sex regardless of relationship and 4) nonvirgins over the age of 21 approve of premarital sex in the context of a committed relationship. Data was collected by female, psychology students answering questionnaires containing questions that when calculated, for each individual, determined whether views on premarital sex were restricted or unrestricted . A comparison of scores will be assessed to determine differences between the scores based on virginity and age. Expected outcomes to this experiment are similar to the hypothesis' in that we expect that virgins 21 and under approve of premarital sex in the context of a committed relationship while virgins over the age of 21 do not approve of premarital sex regardless of relationship and nonvirgins 21 and under approve of premarital sex regardless of relationship while nonvirgins over the age of 21 approve of premarital sex in the context of a committed relationship.
Lizeth Porras, Naraya Altieri, Rosie Pannes University of California, Riverside When we choose our friends we often do not base this choice on gender. Yet, the friendships that have been made may be able to predict a person's masculinity. We will address the question of whether masculine men prefer to have more male or female friends. There were 64 male students from the University of California, Riverside who were randomly chosen to complete the BEM questionnaire with an additional question on the preference of female friends. The BEM and the extra question on friend preference were scored and we will use ANOVA to find our results. Results hope to show a positive correlation between a man's masculinity and his preference to have more friends of one gender or the other.
Jeffrey LaDue, Anna Lijesen, Rebecca Wiley University California, Riverside The problem under investigation is to determine how different kinds of music, with and without lyrics, affects reading comprehension. This was determined by having each of the subjects listen to rock music with lyrics, rock music without lyrics, classical music with lyrics, and classical music without lyrics. We also tested a control group that didn't listen to any music. Each participant read a prepared magazine article for 45 seconds while listening to each type of music. They were then asked 3 relatively easy questions about the article, which we used to measure comprehension. We also recorded how many words were read in the alotted time. The participants were students at the University of California, Riverside, and lived in the residence halls. The results indicated that rock music with lyrics lowered reading comprehension of the students more than the classical music did. The findings showed that our hypothesis was correct in stating that music with lyrics lowered reading comprehension skills.
Daniel Brown, Celeste Davis, Tiffany Hinz, Lucinda Mok University California, Riverside |
Gabriele Carr, Ricky Lam, Kate Martinez-Dickey University California, Riverside The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether gender or companionship have any influence on the amount of time a subject will spend trying to pick up a quarter permanently glued to the ground. The participants were found on the Universtiy California of Riverside campus and were of varying age and gender. A quarter was glued to the ground and subjects' attempts were observed and timed. It was found that males will spend a longer amount of time than females attempting to pick up the quarter, and a person with a companion will spend more time than a person that is alone.
on Exercise Anchella Lagumbay, Anthony Ortega, Shelley Phanngam, Lisa Weisbart University of California, Riverside The time of day and type of music were manipulated in order to find their effects on the distance ran on a treadmill machine. The participants consisted of students from the Universiity of California, Riverside recreation center. The number of miles were recorded for each subject in 5 minute intervals for a total of 15 minutes. Each interval represented one level of our independent variable, type of music. These levels included no music, fast music, and slow music. Our second independent variable, time of day, included two levels of morning and evening. The results indicated that participants ran a longer distance in the evening than in the morning, with a mean difference of 0.10 miles. They also ran longer when they heard fast music as compared to the other levels. The mean distance for fast music was 0.45, for slow music it was 0.42, and for no music it was 0.39. From our data, it looks as though there was no interaction between time of day and type of music.
Judy Slane, Marisol Toro, Connie Tran University of California, Riverside Two study settings, the library and commons, were chosen at the University of California, Riverside, to investigate if a correlation exists between their opposing atmospheres and academic performance. The library, with traditionally quiet surroundings, is more conductive to learning, as oppossed to the noise caused by socialization at the commons. Thus, library students will be expected to exhibit superior academic performance. Five male, and five female students were surveyed at each location. This study was restricted to sophomores and juniors. The experiment desing (2x2), consisted of two independent variables, place of study (library, commons), and subject's gender (female, male), and it was conducted as a between subjects study. The dependent variable, average grades (A, B, C, D, and F), was the standard by which academic performance was measured. Overall, the average grades of subjects who studied in the library were higher than those who studied in the commons. Also, gender diffrences were found, male subject's performance was better than that of females with regards to library study.
An Analytical Study of University Students Gerald Gardner, Stacy Kelemen, Maureen Roy University of California, Riverside To determine whether there is any variance in preferred social settings due to gender a study was undertaken on two different entertainment lunch hours. The subjects observed were both male and female students at the University of California, Riverside. This study attempts to confirm previous studies done by A. Feingold (1994), B. D. Smith, et al. (1990), Y. Sugiyama & S. Ichimura (1994), and E. Sundstrom & M. G. Sundstrom, (1977). This study is a two by two between subjects quasi-experimental design. A Chi-square comparison was preformed to determine if there was a significant difference in gender preference for social interaction. With a chi-square critical value of 3.85 with one degree of freedom, test statistics reveal that there are no significant gender differences at the alpha .05 level. Thus we can conclude with a 95% confidence level that there is no difference between males and females as to whether they sit inside versus outside during entertainment lunch hours. The implications are that social preference and entertainment is non-gender specific.
Fraternity/Sorority Members or Non-Members? Sam Bath, Mona Chen, Michele Latino University of California, Riverside The question under investigation was to see if there were any potential differences among men and women, whether in a fraternity/sorority or not, in the amount they purchased for their car. There were 100 participants from University of California, Riverside. These students were given a questionnaire to fill out asking their sex, if they were in a fraternity/sorority, or neither, and the price they paid for their car. The results showed that there was a significant difference between men and women, where males paid more for their cars. However, there was not a significant difference between students within a fraternity/sorority and those who were not. It was concluded that men, in general, pay a higher price for their cars' than women.
for a Date Sandy Anderson, Andy Pi, Rupinder Sidhu, Clarissa Park, Kelly Stow University of California, Riverside
Grade Point Average Sylvia Cordova, Sheree Sheehan, Killarney Suniga, Thao Nguyen University of California, Riverside An experiment was conducted to decide whether or not membership in a sorority or fraternity effects university student's grade point average. One hundred questionnaires were distributed randomly to students attending the University of California, Riverside. The questionnaire inquired about job status, age, gender, membership in a sorority or fraternity, and cumulative grade point average at the University of California, Riverside. The overall hypothesis is that students that are members of a sorority or fraternity will have a overall lower grade point average than those students that are not members of a sorority or fraternity and that females will have an overall higher grade point average than males.
Janice Allen, Lisa Horn, Ryan Quist, Sunnarak Thong University of California, Riverside
Amy Goldman, Mitra Bustamente University of California, Riverside For our paper, we decided to study how hair color and hair length in women effect males preferences to date them. Our hypothesis was that males would not necessarily like to date only long hair blondes, disproving the myth that blondes have more fun (have a better social life). Surveys were distributed to 37 male students at the University of California, Riverside. Questions on the survey included preferences of hair color and length in women, and the majority of hair colors and lengths of their previous dates, and preferences of hair color and length of dates in the future. Our results showed that the majority of males surveyed preferred to date women with medium or long brown hair. These results correlate with our hypothesis that not all men like women with long blonde hair.
Lisa R. Amin, Korey T. Watari University of California, Riverside The purpose of this study was to see if gender plays a role in the conscientiousness of college students, the hypothesis being that women are more conscientious students than men. Subjects were selected at random simply by observing their behavior in the campus library as one of two situations: studying or not studying. The subjects consisted of 87 men and 60 women being either undergraduate or graduate students. The results of chi squared analysis indicated that there is no significant difference between conscientiousness and gender. Therefore, there is no reliable difference between the conscientiousness of female vs. male students.
Kim d'Arc, Richelle B. Sarmiento University of California, Riverside The grade point averages of students who lived in either on-campus dormitories or off-campus apartments were investigated. It is thought that students who live in off-campus apartments have more time to study and live in a much quieter atmosphere with less distractions than students who live in the dorms. The comparisons of g.p.a. were deternined by the results of a questionaires distrributed among 20 students: ten who live in the dorms and ten who live in off-campus aparrtments. Results indicated that the students that lived in apartments had higher g.p.a.'s than students who lived in the dorms. It was also discovered that apartment residents had longer study hours than dorm residens. Dorm residents also admitted to having many distractions that hinder them from studing. Apartment residents indicated longer study hours than dorm residents. The findings are reflective of the hypthesis of apartment residents living in a better study atmosphere, therefore they tend to perform better academically than dorm residents.
Gema Moreno, Rochelle Patterson, Debra Warner University of California, Riverside This paper is designed to examine the way in which women of diverse ethnic backroundsview the severity of the two major eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia. The women surveyed were between the ages of 18-25. The women were divided into two groups: caucasian and minority (non-white). As portrayed by the media, the ideal height and weight of a "beautiful" woman should be 5' 10" and 120 pounds. Unfortunately few women actually meet these standards which leads to an alarmingly high number of women who resort to drastic measures in order to become thin. The fact that our society and media is Eurocentric, and American standards of beauty are also centered around white women these two diseases are not considered to be prominate in minority populations. With this in mind we surveyed 40 women enrolled in psychology 102, half were caucasians and the other half were minoritys and we looked at how each group viewed the severity of both diseases. The expectation is that caucasian women will view the diseases as more severe than the other group because the assumption is that they have had more personal experience with them. The findings seem to show however that the viewpoints may be more a function of personal experience regardless of ethnicity.
Sara J. Kovacs, Juliet Le, Tammy Nguyen The experiment was done to research the amount of hours spent studying per week according to college students' residence and class status. Thirty-eight University of California, Riverside students participated by volunteering to fill out a questionairre. The survey asked the amount of hours students spent studying per day, the hours spent studying per week, whether the students lived in a dorm or on campus, and the class status of the students. The students were categorized into two groups, the first being a sophmore or lower and the second included a junior or higher. We hypothesized that there would be a difference of hours spent studying between students who lived on or off campus. We also believed that student status would have an effect on the time that students studied. Contrary to our hypothesis, the results indicated that there was no significant difference betwen the amount of hours spent studying per week with those students who lived in a dorm or students who lived off campus. It was found that class status also had no effect on the amount of time students studied per week. There was no interaction between class status or place of residence, which showed that neither had a significant effect on each other. This experiment indicated that the amount of hours that students studied was not affected by the home environment or the level of student status.
Dorothy Epstein, Janice Normandy, Diana Dunn, Deborah Louis, Elizabeth Hanson
Kevin M. Reynolds University of California, Riverside Gender differences in the effects of employment on grade point average were investigated. This was tested on 108 University of California, Riverside students using a questionnaire to gather data. Employment was defined as working 10 or more hours per week. In addition only students who had continuously taken a full course load throughout their college career were included in the study. A full course load was defined as 12 or more units per quarter.
Eilleen Jane D. Asuncion, Barbara J. Bertrand, Liz H. Hoang, Tracy L. Thompson University of California, Riverside The authors of this research conducted a between-subjects study of 106 females, ages 18 years and up, located on the campus of University of California, Riverside. The subjects were interviewed to determine the pre-set age group they belonged to and which length of hair they preferred on males; short, long, or no preference. The results of this study indicate that overall short hair is preferred on males, no preference was next, and long hair on males was the least preferred. The most dramatic results were those found when interviewing the younger subjects; 40 of the 58 asked, preferred short hair. It would be interesting for future studies in this area, to consider the hair length of the female subject, ethnicity, or political persuasion (liberal vs. conser-vative, to see the possible correlations that could be drawn.
Ed Kim, Helen Kim, Stacy Nguyen University of California, Riverside Our experiment strove to find out the effects of attractiveness on people's helping behavior. Our hypothesis was that when an individual is well groomed, s/he would receive more help from people of the opposite sex as opposed to if s/he was not well groomed. The experiment utilized college students randomly approached in a crowded environment. Our experiment had both a male and female experimenter dressed either attractively or unattractively. The experimenters would walk by a person and drop a small object. The two dependent variables were whether the subjects helped the experimenter or not and the reaction time from the time the object was dropped to the time when the subject picked it up (if the subjects helped). The independent variables were gender of the experimenters, gender of the subjects, and the dress status of the experimenters. The results supported our hypothesis, with the most amount of help from female subjects going to the well groomed male experimenter, and the most amount of help from male subjects going to the well groomed female experimenter. |