RESEARCH METHOD

Instructions:

This is an open book, open notes assignment. It comprises of 26 questions with a total of 200 points. The points for each question are listed in parenthesis.

Please note that the multiple-choice questions only require one best answer.

Good luck!

7. (20 points) Develop a theoretical framework with a diagram for the following situations and state two different hypotheses, one in the null and the other, in the alternate.
   1. If a company sustains its high earnings year after year, its credibility as a successful company would be enhanced and the public will believe it has further prospects for growth. This will help to explain how sustained earnings will increase the stock value of the company. Faith in the managerial competence of the key people in the company will hold the stock value high, even in times of mild recession. Usually, the higher the dividends, the higher the stock value; however, if the higher dividend declared is perceived as a stunt to hoodwink the public, the stock value will not go up. Only when the public expects that the dividend policy will be maintained by management in the future will the stock value of the company be influenced by the higher dividends that are declared.
8. 2. When a product is of good quality, consumer confidence in the product grows, and the stronger becomes the decision of the consumer to purchase the product. A reasonable price and a good brand name also induces the consumers to purchase the product. Of course, the more the consumer needs the product (such as basic needs or essentials), and the better the price, the quality, and the brand name, the greater the prospect for the consumer making the decision to buy the product. Usually, the better known the brand name, the greater the desire to purchase a product bearing the good brand name. However if a prospective consumer happens to have a strong brand loyalty for another brand than the one marketed, then, the brand name of the product will not influence the purchase decision.

1. A researcher wants to examine the effects of 3 middle school violence prevention programs on rates of student violence. Rates of student violence are measured by documented disciplinary action by school authorities such as detentions and / or expulsions, police reports, as well as student surveys. All 7^th graders enrolled in 3 school districts in Illinois are required to take a violence prevention program. Students within each high school in each school district are randomly assigned to one of 3 violence prevention programs. Data are collected both immediately before and 6 months after the interventions are completed. The researcher plans to statistically analyze whether there are significant drops in school violence following the violence prevention programs and whether there are significant differences in the rate of drop between programs.
2. 1. (4 points) What type of design is used in the research above?
3. 2. (6 points) Below are 2 types of threats to the internal validity of quantitative research designs. For each threat state whether think it could affect the validity of the design above. Explain your answer for each.

• Diffusion of treatment:
• Testing:

10. A researcher wanted to examine whether adding a high-quality diagram / illustration helped middle school students understand a short text on photosynthesis. He randomly selected 12 students from a list of all middle school students attending a large urban school district. The researcher randomly assigned 6 of these students to the text only condition and the other 6 students to the text + diagram condition. Each group was first given a pre-test for prior knowledge about photosynthesis. Then both groups were given their respective texts to read. Participants were told that they would be tested on the content of the text at the end of the session. The text only group read a short (1 page) verbal description of the process of photosynthesis. The text + diagram group read the same text as the previous group but with a high-quality diagram added to illustrate the process of photosynthesis. Both groups were given 20 minutes to read the text. The researcher then administered both groups the posttest on photosynthesis (the posttest was the same as the pretest). An analysis of pretest scores showed no differences between the groups in terms of prior knowledge. A t-test of posttest scores was then conducted to see if there was a significant difference in performance between the 2 groups. The t-test indicted that there was no significant difference in posttest scores between groups at the = .05 level.
11. 1. (4 points) What type of quantitative research design was used in the study described above? Explain your answer.
12. 2. (6 points) Could maturation and testing be threats to the internal validity of the research design described above? Explain your answer for each in a few sentences.