Respond to two of your classmates postings. In 5+ sentences, share how their posting reinforces your understanding of the scientific method. Provide constructive, thoughtful feedback designed to build an engaging dialog. For example, can you guess what your classmates research goal is based upon the details provided? You can also, expand upon the discussion through the sharing of additional websites, articles, interactive tutorials, or videos relevant to your classmates area of interest or concepts addressed.
1. Observe and ask: What are you interested in studying?
I would be interested in learning more about the role social media plays on the mind, specifically if and how social media can lead to depression.
Look for information: What does the empirical literature have to say on your topic of interest? Briefly describe, in four sentences or more, one empirical study pertaining to your topic. (cite and reference)
Social media is a platform that continues to evolve and spread throughout the world daily. While some positive attributes are associated with social media, studies are starting to find that they may be equally causing mental harm to others. In a study conducted among college students, social media is a factor in causing depression (Lauckner et al., 2018, p. 38). While this research is not perfect, as it could have had a more diverse group of people in the study, it would be an excellent base for future studies.
Hypothesis: What is your testable hypothesis? Present operational definitions for your independent and dependent variables.
My testable hypothesis would be to see if spending a specific time on social media increases the risk of depression. My independent variable is the amount of time people spend on social media. My dependent variable is the number of participants that are experiencing depression.
Research Design: Provide a rough look at the inner workings of your research design.
Participants: How many participants do you think you will need to establish a representative sample of your target population? (Why this number?)
I would want 100 participants to partake in this study. I want to have ten groups of 10 people. Each group will have a specific time they spend on social media. I.E., Group 1 would spend 1 hour or less on social media per day. Group 2 would spend 2 hours per day and so on. Group 10 are the participants that spend ten or more hours on social media per day. Each group will also consist of 5 males and five females.
Who would you like to include in your sample? (Explain.)
I want the participants to be ranging from the age of 18-30. This age is the typical demographic that tends to use social media. While teenagers and younger use social media, I want to see how this affects college students and adults.
Procedures: Share an idea for procedures you could follow to test your hypothesis.
I do not want the people in this study to change too much from their everyday life. The participants will be categorized based on the amount of time they spend on social media. They will carry on their day as usual, but each person’s phone will have a social media tracker on their phone. The app will help track and analyze the amount of time spent on any social platform each day. Each person will also be checked for any prior or existing mental health conditions. At the end of each day, the participants would also take a Montgomery-sberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) test. This would be to monitor any behavioral changes.
What is one confounding variable you should plan for?
Participants could use other technological devices besides their phones, such as computers, Ipads, smartwatches, etc.
Ethics in Action: List two principles of ethics you must keep in mind while designing this study.
3.04 Avoiding Harm and 3.10 Informed Consent. I want to avoid harm. While this study should have a relatively small impact on the participant’s lives, I want to make sure their mental health is looked after. Psychologists are on standby if the participants need to be seen. If the psychologist them to stop or the patient no longer feels stable, they can stop participating in the study.
Class contributions to terminology: while preparing your answers to Items 1-5, what terms or concepts challenged you? Provide here one term, or concept, that felt rusty in its application. Provide a link to a resource the explains or defines that term.
I needed to take a little more time to understand what a confounding variable was. After some research, I felt more comfortable in understanding it. Here is a great link that I used that explained it reasonably well. Confounding Variable Link
References:
American Psychological Association. (2003, June 1). Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. https://www.apa.org. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.html
Carmody, T. J., Rush, A. J., Bernstein, I., Warden, D., Brannan, S., Burnham, D., Woo, A., & Trivedi, M. H. (2006). The Montgomery sberg and the Hamilton Ratings of Depression. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 16(8), 601-611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2006.04.008
Lauckner, C., Hill, M., & Ingram, L. A. (2018). An Exploratory Study of the Relationship between Social Technology Use and Depression among College Students. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 34(1), 33-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/87568225.2018.1508396
Spunt, B. (2011, October 30). What Is a Confounding Variable. Psychology In Action. https://www.psychologyinaction.org/psychology-in-action-1/2011/10/30/what-is-a-confounding-variable#:~:text=A%20somewhat%20formal%20definition%20of,to%2099%25%20of%20the%20population
2. Observe and Ask: What are you interested in studying?
I would not provide many details, but one day an emergency meeting was called to inform us to watch over what we say and how we talk since the individual in question attempted to commit suicide after having a conversation with a particular manager at around 2 AM from a bridge where he wanted to commit suicide. The person is life though I was stuck with the situation. This is what I want to research or am interested in studying. Can suicide be cured? Or will these thoughts keep reoccurring over and over? Are there effective treatments that do work, or they only suppress the thoughts?
Look for information: What does the empirical literature have to say on your topic of interest? Briefly describe, in four sentences or more, one empirical study about your case.
A lot of information is available on suicide prevention measures, treatment, and how to cope or clinical trials. Suicidal thoughts refer to planning or thinking about committing suicide; thus, they are linked to physical health or mental conditions, drug misuse, alcohol, or various medications. Additionally, suicidal thoughts are signs and symptoms of a particular underlying problem that can be analyzed and settled. In most cases, treatment is very effective though the initial step is to seek help.
Hypothesis: What is your testable hypothesis?
The testable hypothesis of this topic is to analyze the effect of suicidal ideations within society. The independent operational variable is suicide which means intentionally ending one`s own life. In contrast, the dependent variable is the social meaning of a group of persons living together through ongoing relationships within the same social territory.
Research Design: Provide a rough look at the inner workings of your research design
The study will use an experimental research design since it is used to analyze two sets of variables accurately. The first variable can test the difference of the other set of variables since it is perceived to be constant (Saylor Academy, 2012). Therefore, the study will be highly based on quantitative research techniques.
Participants: How many participants do you think you will need to establish a representative sample of your target population? (Why this number?)
Who would you like to include in your sample? (Explain)
I would select two hundred people to represent the target population since it captures almost three-quarters of the target population. I will include teenagers because they represent the highest number of populations exposed to suicide cases.
Procedures: Share an idea for guidelines you could follow to test your hypothesis.
What is one confounding variable you should plan for?
I would begin by specifying the null and alternative hypotheses, then decide the significance level. Next, conduct the data collection process and decide to accept H0 or reject. Finally, I would interpret the results and conclusions. The confounding variable I have planned for is suicidal ideation.
Ethics in Action: two principles of ethics you must keep in mind while designing this study.
I would consider the ethical principles while designing this study to maintain respect for human dignity and rights, including privacy and confidentiality (UMGC, 2021). And to ensure goodwill and nonmaleficence for all individuals during the study.
Class contributions to terminology: while preparing your answers to Items 1-5, what terms or concepts challenged you? Provide here one term, or concept, that felt rusty in its application. Provide a link to a resource the explains or defines that term.
The term that challenged me during the study was suicide. The concept that felt rusty upon application of the term is society
References
Saylor Academy (2012). Research Methods in Psychology. Retrieved from: http://www.opentextbooks.org.hk/system/files/export/35/35300/pdf/Research_Methods_In_Psychology_35300.pdf
UMGC. (2021). Ethical Guidelines and Considerations. Retrieved 4 April 2021, from https://content.umgc.edu/file/07d7799d-e998-4430-9d29-b46fc863f775/2/Introduction/guidelines.html
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