1.
- After reading chapter 2, what factors do you think have contributed most to who you are today? For example, are you more a product of early interpersonal bonds or losses (attachment theory) or learning or modeling (behavioral)? Or are you just a product of the billions of neurons in your body and how they function and interact with each other? Any other contributors to who you are?
- As you have aged, how have your peers influenced your behavior? Was there ever a change in their degree of influence? Do you think there is a time when peers influence a child’s development more than other factors, like parents and siblings? Why or why not?
2.
You’ve viewed the lecture materials on 3 different types of study designs and you have completed one personal assignment to work through your understanding of the distinction among the three types. Now we will have a group discussion to finalize your understanding. Read the scenario below.
Mark wants to evaluate a new diabetes monitoring system that uses a phone app that automatically nudges the user to report glucose levels every morning and evening. He recruits participants and then draws a number from a hat to assign them to receive either the new app or the old self-reported paper diary system (to be completed every morning and evening). He compares the two groups on how frequently they record their glucose levels over 6 weeks.
Observation, Experiment, or Quasi-experiment?
In your response to this scenario, address the following issues (in a list format):
- Is there any randomization indicated? If so, what text in the passage above indicates this?
- Is there any manipulation of the situation indicated? If so, what text in the passage above indicates this?
- Is there any control/comparison group or situation? If so, as indicated by what text?
- Based on your answers to 1-3, what type of study design do you think it is? Observation, Experiment, or Quasi-experiment?
