Group Project 1
Psychology 1100
For your first group project, your group will work together to design an observational study,
collect some data, and draw conclusions based on the data.
Here are the parts of the project:
• Design an observational study. First, you need a research question and hypothesis.
Your group should then specify the variable(s) that you are going to measure and work
together to clearly define how you will measure your variable(s) (said another way, you
need good operational definitions). You also need to make decisions about how the
study will be conducted (where, when, by whom?), and how you will ensure that it is
ethical. All of these details should be planned in advance. Each group should write out
their study plan, complete with all details mentioned in this paragraph, and submit it to
me with the other components of the project.
• Conduct your study. After you plan, each group member should take a turn collecting
data. You can do this on your own or together, but all of the data will need to be
submitted as a part of the project. My suggestion would be to come up with a format
that everyone will use so that it is easy to compile and submit your data sheets. See the
document at the end of the assignment for a suggestion / example. I would strongly
suggest that a group member volunteers to put the individual group members’ data into
a single table for easy reference.
• Draw conclusions. Once your group has collected data, the group will need to look at all
of the data and draw some conclusions. Depending on the data that you collect, you
might consider summing or averaging the data. (“On average, each observer noted X
incidences of the behavior.”) Your group should use the data to decide if the hypothesis
you formed at the beginning is supported or not supported by your findings. Each group
should submit a conclusions summary that includes the following information:
• A report of your data. (How many instances did you see?)
• Based on your data, was your hypothesis supported?
• What did you learn from conducting the study? Are there broader conclusions
that could be drawn? How did your study differ from casual observation,
personal experience, or your intuition? Would you have predicted the results?
• If you had to conduct the study again, what would you change or improve? How
would that improve the study and your ability to draw conclusions from the
study?
• Evaluate your group members. Each group member should submit an evaluation sheet
directly to me. Please report what you did and what the other group members did. I
will also ask you to estimate the contribution that each group member made and allow
an area for open response.
Grading
Although this is a group project, I give each student an individual grade. If you do not
participate in the project, please know that you will receive a lower grade than your fellow
group members. The other thing that you need to know is that working as a group is not
optional. Failure to work as a group will also result in a lower grade. If there is a problem within
the group, I expect you to let me know immediately. I will help facilitate a solution.
The grade is assigned as follows:
Component 1: Study design (25 points)
Clear research question and hypothesis
Clear explanation of variable(s) and operational definition(s)
Detailed explanation of the study procedure (how it will be conducted)
Analysis of the ethics of the study