Question:
The assignment consists of choosing a psychological model, designing a psychological experiment, simulating data with the statistical software R, organising and analysing those data using the model comparison approach, and presenting a brief research report.
The assignment contains three elements:
- A graphical psychological model that shows the relationship between variables.
- An organised data frame (table) of the simulated data.
- A research report of maximum 800 words that follows the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
2 Check your exam timetable later in semester. The second semester exam period is 13th – 24th Nov, 2017.
The research report should contain the following sections:
Introduction: Explains the rationale of the study, including the psychological model. It introduces the psychological model and states the hypothesis (or hypotheses) tested in the study.
Method: Contains the details necessary for another researcher to replicate the study. It includes the subsections “Participants”, “Materials” and “Procedure”.
Results: It presents descriptive statistics and inferential statistics using the model comparison approach.
Discussion: It indicates whether the hypothesis was supported by the data, which model best fits the data, and relates the results of the present study with previous research. It also discusses the limitations of the study and offers suggestions for future research.
References: A list of the references used in the previous sections. (This part is NOT included in the word count).
Answer:
Introduction.
The purpose of this research report is to critically analyze the psychological model. The rationale for a psychological model is based on understanding the human behavior, exploring people’s values and perspectives along with the process of broadening their career and horizons of life. To start with, it is very important to have a clear and distinct understanding of a psychological model. A psychological model is a theory that is applied in psychology so as to offer predictions on specific results as well as explanation of specific psychological processes under consideration (Brandmaier & Linderberger, 2013). Again, the psychological model is applied to evaluate the individual performance via use of response as well as cognitive characteristics. Finally, psychological model has been applied in the design in the layout of different instruments and designing different psychological experiment (Bandura, 2006). There are different types of psychological models that are well established as different theories of psychotherapy. They include psychoanalysis and psychodynamic therapies, behavior therapy, cognitive therapy, humanistic therapy and integrative or holistic therapy (William, 2007). If a statistical analysis is conducted on the most widely applied Psychological model, then it is determined that the behavior therapy psychological model will be selected among the models. This implies that the model to be considered in this report will be behavior therapy model (Wilding, 2015). A hypothesis is conducted as follow.
Hypothesis.
Statistically, a hypothesis is an assertion that has not been proved (Haidt, 2006). This could be either a null hypothesis or alternative hypothesis. Null hypothesis tests a positive assertion while alternative hypothesis tests negative assertions.
Null hypothesis.
It is denoted as H0 in statistics. HO: Behavior therapy psychological model is applicable in determining the data for designing a psychological experiment.
Alternative hypothesis.
It is denoted as H1 in statistics. H1: Behavior therapy psychological model is not applicable in determining the data for designing a psychological experiment.
Decision.
From the hypothesis tested in the study, we accept the null hypothesis and reject the alternative hypothesis. Thus, in summary, behavior therapy psychological model is applicable in determining the data for designing a psychological experiment.
Methods.
This study is very important to other researchers who aim at investigating different cases of psychological aspects. In order to replicate this study, the researcher should understand that behavior therapy psychological model aims at determining role in developing normal as well as abnormal behaviors. Therefore, there is need to test hypothesis to the remaining four models of psychology.
Participants.
In this case, the participants in this case are the researchers who need to gather information necessary for testing hypothesis. This could be positivist or interpretivist researcher based on the motive. However, due to testing of hypothesis, positivist researcher is the most appropriate. Another participant is the sample. This is to be determined from a given population under consideration. Finally, a data analyst will be very crucial in the study. An expert with skills on statistical packages such as R will be of great importance for data analysis and interpretation.
Materials.
There are different materials that may be applied during data collection and analysis. Quantitative method requires materials such as questionnaire templates or survey questions template that need to be administered. These are important in data collection. In analysis, statistical packages such as R and SPPS are required (Crawley, 2012). Then access to a computer is also very significant in the analysis of data as well as in presentation of finding.
Procedures.
The steps are very brief. It involves collection of data, analysis of data collected, interpretation of data and presentation of finding. Lastly, the procedure ends when the findings have been implemented so as to fit the desired psychological model.
Results.
Inferential statistics involves sampling and probability. Therefore, during data collection, the samples to be considered need to be appropriate (Hajjem, 2011). If the sample considered in the research are not representing the population accurately, then the inferences made from such a research are not warranting and can be deemed null and void.
Descriptive statistics involves data analysis and presentation. For this case, the data has been analyzed by using R statistical package. Thus, through that analysis, a trend on psychological model can be determined (Ryan & Deci, 2017). Then the data can be presented inform of statistical graphs and curves.
Discussion.
The hypothesis tested in the study is in full support of the data applied in analysis of psychological model. Thus, by accepting the null hypothesis, that is, Behavior therapy psychological model is applicable in determining the data for designing a psychological experiment, then the data was appropriate to the research.
The best model that would fit the data in this particular study is supervised learning model. This is because, the model highly focus on variable selection, and it has interactive effects as well as possess nonlinearity of data. Therefore, we discard regression models.
If we relate the results from the previous study, this data has been well analyzed and presented. Previous study applied regression models that highly affected the data due to linearity and difficulties in selection of dependent and independent variables.
In order to advance in this type of research in the future, we recommend further study in other models in psychological which need to be analyzed via different statistical packages such as SAS. SPSS and STATA for comparison and determining which offer most accurate outcomes.
References.
Bandura, A. (2006). Psychological modelling: Conflicting Theories. Routledge.
Brandmaier, A.M., & Linderberger, U. (2013). Structural Equation Model Trees. Psychological Methods, 18, 71-86.
Crawley, M.J. (2012). The R Book. Wiley.
Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. Basic Books.
Hajjem, A. (2011). Mixed Effects Regression Trees for Clustered Data. Statistics & Probability Letters, 81, 451-459.
Ryan, R.M., & Deci, EL. (2017). Self-Determination Theory: Basic Psychological Need in Motivation, development and Wellness. The Guilford press.
Wilding, C. (2015). Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Teach Yourself. Teach Yourself.
William, M.D. (2007). Choice Theory: A New Psychology of Personal Freedom. Harper Perennial.
