Callie Is Interested in Whether Men Are More Likely to Make

question 35

Essay

Callie is interested in whether men are more likely to make eye contact with a male conversation partner than a female partner. She is also interested in whether the topic of conversation (masculine topic vs feminine topic) affects the amount of eye contact men make with their conversation partner. She randomly assigns 200 male participants to interact with either a male or female conversation partner (played by a research assistant) and to either discuss a masculine (sports) or feminine (childcare) topic for 5 mins. Research assistants then time eye contact duration for each participant over the 5 min window. Identify each of the following: The general method used by the researcher, the independent and dependent variables, the number of conditions or study groups, and whether or not Callie can make causal inferences from her results. Why or why not can Callie infer causality from this design? Are there any possible interaction effects and how do you know?

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Definitions:

Psychologist

A professional specializing in studying the mind and behavior, often helping individuals deal with mental health issues through various forms of therapy.

Stimulus Discrimination

The learned ability to differentiate between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Classically Conditioned

The process by which an individual learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a biologically potent stimulus, producing a response to the neutral stimulus.

Square

A four-sided polygon with all sides of equal length and all angles measuring 90 degrees.